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A $5,000 moving lesson: full-service movers don't always pay off
A cross-country move from Denver to NYC cost $5,000 with full-service movers. The author later moved for $500 by selling everything first. The lesson: moving light often beats moving everything.
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When the author landed a job in New York City with a signing bonus, hiring full-service movers seemed like the obvious choice. The cost: $5,000 for a cross-country move from Denver. The result was a crash course in how expensive, both financially and practically, a full-service move can be.
The author, writing on Business Insider, described how the move allowed procrastination on decluttering. The new NYC apartment was smaller than the Denver home. Items shipped across the country ended up donated a month later, in a city where logistics were more complicated. The author concluded that replacing most of the furniture in New York would have cost less than the $5,000 moving bill.
The story illustrates a common consumer trap. Full-service moving companies charge a premium for packing, loading, transport, and unloading. For a move of that distance, typical costs range from $4,000 to $8,000 for a one-bedroom household, according to industry estimates. The author later moved from NYC to Kentucky for a tenth of the cost by renting a minivan and selling everything that did not fit.