NYC movers

shawn, the best info i've found and the cheapest on moving my things down there is the post office... the post office will ship things up to 70 lbs, so if your boxes are lighter then that your all good and the art should be fine too... the bed, thats something i know nothing about, im bringing my air mattress! LOL

From the small amount of items you plan to ship, I would use the USPS Priority Mail. Sell the bed and buy one down here unless the bed is very special or an antique (in which case you might want to reconsider bringing it anyway to avoid warp from huimidity or, if it's wood, the chance of termites getting to it.) We got rid of all of our furniture and found options to replace everything that ranged from comparably priced (to the DC area) to high end.

A moving company is probably not a good option for the amount of stuff you plan to bring unless you use a freight consolidator, who will cost you less by sending your belongings in a shared cargo container. Otherwise, you will be asked to pay for a full 20' container on your own, and that isn't cheap. Problem is that the reduced cost often adds to the delivery time while they find enough others moving to the same place to fill that container for shipping, anmd may make your stuff less secure as other movers will also have access to the container.

I used a company called Classic International, which is NYC based, and urge you to avoid them at all costs. Their price was way out of proportion to their customer service, payment options were changed to cash only at the last minute (and we were threatened to not have our stuff loaded unless they received the cost over the estimated price we already paid on moving day in cash the day after they packed us up), their packing skills were abysmal (we are now filing an insurance claim for broken art and other items that they just threw into boxes with only a few pieces of brown paper as a cushion), and desp[ite knowing exactly what they were being asked to pack up and move, and when they needed to be done so we weren't fined, they only alloted a third of the time they needed - anthey onlky finished that fast because my hubby packed up 45% of all of our stuff, either before or on moving day. Grrrrr....

I can assure you the post office looks like a really good idea after all that! Good luck with whatever you end up using -- may you not have any of our bad learning experiences.

HC

Shawn:

Use the post office. Standard parcel post will get it there in three to four weeks. Priority in a week or so.

For an additional $12 fee on top of the postage the post office will come to your home and pick up an unlimited number of boxes.

We have shipped 30 boxes and so far the only loss was one piece of Waterford Crystal.

Just pack everything well. Tape all seams (top, bottom, edge ) with the best packing tape. Wrap anything fragile in bubble wrap and be sure all the boxes are solid when sealed so they won't crush.

Try to keep any box with fragile items in it under 50 lbs. Don't want the package handlers dropping it because it is to heavy to handle.

Jim

Thanks for the feedback. I think I will ship my boxes through the USPS. My real concern is my painting which will be crated (4ftx3ft). It's not heavy, it's just big. Does anyone know if I dare ship it through USPS priority? It's not a priceless piece of art, but it wasn't cheap either. I was thinking about getting renter's insurance. Does anyone know if they usually cover moves or does it depend on the policy? Does the USPS give that option?

Thanks again to all.

Shawn,

You can buy insurance for packages shipped priority mail through the USPS. It is a long process to make a claim on that insurance, though -- two packages valued at $600 that I shipped priority international turned up lost. It took almost a year for the post office to verify that one was really lost and let me know I could start to file a reimbursement request. The other mysteriously returned to me six months after I shipped it.

The only problem with that painting going to the VI by priority mail may be its size. In addition to limiting packages sent priority to 70 pounds, the postal service mandates that they cannot exceed certain dimensions. I used to know what those dsimension were (it was pretty large) and would look them up for you if I had time today -- but I'm hopfeful you can find the answer on the USPS web site ( http://www.usps.com )

HC

Thank you for your help!