Thank you all SO much for all the great suggestions I got regarding
moving wedding gifts and other items from New York to Florida after my
daughter's wedding. Here are the many responses I recieved. I will be
checking them all out carefully to find the most practical solution.
LM_NET is primarily a resource for sharing information about our jobs -
but it is much more than that. It is a network of VERY SMART friends
who are always generous and willing to share their expertise and
experiences on all topics. Thank you friends!
-------
Some UPS Stores ship freight - and if you call and get quotes from FedEx
they usually beat it. (My husband owns a UPS Store in Fredericksburg, VA
and they are doing freight) It's reasonable - give them a call. Good
luck!
----
I would just concentrate on getting the gifts to her. If she has done
without her things for 10 years, she probably doesn't miss or need them!
It might even cost more to ship them than they are actually worth.
What I have done is keep mementos for my children in those big plastic
bins you purchase at Walmart. Each child has two large ones. I keep
them in the attic. They enjoy looking at them every few years, but
really, they are off and running with their own new lives and although
they want me to keep their childhood and teenage things, they don't want
to personally store them! My kids are aged 18, 21 and 23 1/2. You
could also sell the furniture at a garage sale and then give the money
to her to buy something
----
Living on the Western coast of Alaska, I ship a lot of goods out to
myself. I use the US Postal service. I would pack so that insurance
items were all together. I never insure my packages other than my
computer and sewing machine.
----
I'd suggest you price all the options. Typically UPS is the cheapest
way
to go but when you start sending furniture like beds it's very
expensive.
It cost hundreds of dollars to ship my mother's bed from Md. to my son's
in
Kansas. If he'd decided earlier it would have gone on the truck my
husband
drove back. It costs a lot to ship furniture. I know you'd rather not
drive but I think in the long run you'll find it's lots cheaper. Rent a
truck from U-Haul. When my mom passed away we rented a 15 foot truck
and
filled it. We never checked to see what it would cost for a furniture
mover
to take it. They do combine different people's possessions but then I
think
you run the risk of your stuff getting mixed up with someone elses.
By the way, congratulations on surviving the wedding :-). It's such a
wonderful event but the preparations can get stressful. My daughter got
married last summer and it was truly a beautiful day, everything was
just
beautiful and I still smile inside thinking of that day-and so does she
and
it sound like you will have those same wonderful memories. My brother
thought I had more fun than I did at my own and he was right (mainly
because
I didn't have to deal with "my" mother at my daughter's-it's a very long
story). I hope she gets her album faster than my daughter did. The
photogs
(husband and wife team) did a fantastic job with the pictures but took
forever getting the album together-she just got it a couple of weeks
ago.
Good luck with the shipping.
---
I am not ure of the costs, but the lady around the corner used PODS when
she
moved. The company drops and picks up a container. You pack and unpack
it
yourself.
----
Welcome to the land where we do lots of shipping to and from
guam/mainland. You might try looking into a shipping crate. You might
be able to get what you want to ship in them for about the same rate as
if you were sending the USPS 4th class mail.
UPS, DHL, FedEX are going to be expensive choices.
Here we would contact a moving company. So I would assume you would do
the same thing. I would ask them about insurance, guaranteed price (so
there are NO surprises at the other end). Check them out with the BBB.
I had a friend send all of their stuff in a shipping crate to Florida.
It arrived last week, it took 6 weeks. Everything was fine and it was
delievered to her door and she unloaded it and they came back and got
the crate.
....
It sounds like you are sending both boxes and furniture? I have no idea
of the cost, but you might want to look into PODS...it is containerized
shipping. They drop off the container, you fill it and lock it, they
pick it up and take it where you want, drop it off, your daughter can
empty it at her leisure (probably for a fee) and when empty they pick it
up again. The only other thing I think you need to worry about is when
you lock it she can get into it at the other end. It would sure save a
lot of hassle of taking things to be shipped and also for pickup at the
other end...
....
The article link below offers some interesting ideas for the
moving situation you described on LM Net.
http://www.buffalonews.com/editorial/20060711/1071468.asp
....
Before the recent rate increases, UPS did a pretty economical job when
shipping. I don't know now. It would not be a good idea to ship
furniture
via these companies.
You could go online and put in some hypothetical sizes/weights and see
what it will cost. Depending upon how much you will have, the rent a
UHaul
may begin to look good.. :)
Years ago I shipped something on Greyhound bus and it was the
best/fastest price.
....If time/needing the space is not an issue, you could make them take
it
when they come home to visit at holiday time. After all, it is her
belongings.
On thing I learned when I moved from Texas to South
Carolina--individually pack silverware or anything that will rub on
another
item. The silver serving spoon rubbed on the silverplated tray and
damaged
the tray and the back of the spoon. Same with stainless steel eating
utensils. I thought, stainless steel, I don't need to individually wrap
spoons/forks etc. They scratched one another.
....
Congratulations on your daughter's wedding - mine is going off to
college this fall, so we're looking forward to being empty nesters,
also.
As for shipping, contact some of your local shippers and get some
estimates. I did this sort of job for 2 years and found that there were
a number of moving companies, as well as regular shipping companies who
loved to get jobs like these, as it helped to fill up a truck's load.
Contacting the BBB (to see if a particular company that you have found
is reputable) will help, if you cannot find anyone who can recommend a
shipping company. I live in Atlanta, so the ones that we used [Dominion
is the only one that comes to mind] may not be in your area.
Be sure to get insurance on whatever you ship and make sure it is
packaged very well, especially if it is breakable. Places like Sam's
club and Costco will sell shipping supplies, so make sure you use lots
of Styrofoam peanuts and/or bubble wrap. It would not hurt to wrap the
wooden furniture legs in the bubble wrap as well. If something is
extraordinarily valuable, or is irreplaceable, you might want to
consider shipping it seperatedly with UPS or FedX.
....
we're in the same boat with a child who has a new apartment in Florida
as
she finishes her final year in college.
try minimoves www.minimoves.com
....
I have no idea how expensive this might be. Recently local TV has run
ads from a moving/storage? company that will drop a small? metal
container that you load up with your stuff then they come pick it up
again. Ad was for storage but movers might be able to do the same
thing? [Container like you see on the back of 18-wheelers unloading
ships - only smaller).
About 20 years ago (my doesn't time fly when you're having fun) we
moved our foster daughter from Conroe (close to Houston) to SC for
her first grad school. She didn't have a whole lot, but there was a
desk and a bunch of "stuff". A local moving company palletized it for
her (put it on a wooden pallet and shrink-wrap the whole thing) and
then we took it to Yellow Freight Lines who trucked it to SC. That
didn't cost very much at all - of course it helped that she had just
graduated from Texas A&M and the moving company was owned by Aggies
so they didn't charge her for the palletizing!
....
Jacquie
"The Librarian, whose job is to heal ignorance, to keep life safe for
poetry and to put knowledge smack dab in the middle of the American
way."
From The Philadelphia Inquirer, 9-20-03
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Jacquie Henry, MLS
Ruben A. Cirillo High School (GHS)
Gananda Central School District
3195 Wiedrick Road
P.O. Box 609
Macedon, NY 14502
315-986-3521 x 3144
jhenry@gananda.org
Library Page: http://www.gananda.org/library/mshslibrary/indexgcl.htm
Blog: http://nlcommunities.com/communities/wanderings/default.aspx
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