This is our third time using PODS to move houses, so I thought it was due time that I write down all the essentials for moving yourself using a storage container!
This time, we are moving from Florida to Virginia. I’ve also included some tips on how I pack, what moving materials are actually worth it, and a checklist for moving yourself.
For this move, we lived in our house while it was on the market. To get it ready for pictures, I purged a lot of our belongings before we listed. You can read my guide for staging your house here. Going through that process also gives you a better estimate of exactly how much STUFF you have.
How We Moved Our Cars
Our move from Miami to Virginia would be about 18 hours. Mike could do the drive easily, but the kids and I aren’t as fond of long car rides. Couple that with now having a puppy; we wanted to make this move easier by just flying up. We needed some way to move our cars, and we’re lucky to have found ACERTUS on Pod’s website, as their trusted provider for moving cars. Booking with ACERTUS was easy. They were very professional and kept in constant touch with us regarding our moving dates. I received a call from them the night before our shipping date, and the driver arrived on time. He took photos of our cars and drove them onto a moving truck. We’ll see them again in about a week in Virginia. It honestly was the easiest part of our move so far! (ACERTUS was generous to sponsor our car moving, but this is my honest review so far of the process).
How to Book Your Pod for Moving Yourself
You’ll need a good understanding of how much stuff you want to take with you when you book your PODS. When we listed, we pretty much knew what furniture would eventually be donated and which furniture we’d be bringing with us. We ended up booking two large pods for our 3000 sq. ft. home.
We called PODS about three weeks before our move, once we had our closing date finalized. They were able to drop off our PODS a week before our moving date.
The Process of Packing Your Home
As soon as we accepted our offer, I began packing our non-essential items, like linen closets, decor, some kitchen, and our clothes.
The Tubs: I use these for breakable and heavy items, like kitchen glassware, plates, pots and pans, and fragile home decor. I have a lot of these from previous moves that we store in our garage. If you don’t plan on moving again, then I’d just recommend these for your glassware and fragile items and use cardboard boxes and bubble wrap for your other items.
Bubble wrap – I use this for wrapping glassware and fragile home decor.
Packing Paper – I use these for wrapping plates or other heavy items. I also crumbled this into a ball to create a buffer around any fragile items in boxes.
Wardrobe Boxes – This was my first DIY move using these, and they really save so much time. I just took all of my clothes from my closet and hung them in these boxes on the rod.
Plastic Tote Bags – I used these for my kids toys. They hold a lot and were just the right size for Batman caves and Gabby’s Dollhouse. The straps make them easy to carry.
Vacuum Seal Bags – I use these for linens, towels, beddings, and blankets. Load them up and then use your vacuum to suck all of the air out of the bag. I like the jumbo size ones for bedding. I even use these for clothes (especially sweaters) too.
Mattress Bags – These are super strong and we love the straps. Moving a mattress is no easy task, but these make it a lot easier.
Cargo Net – We used this to keep a floppy memory foam mattress from tipping over in the Pod
Moving Blankets – We wrap our nice furniture in these blankets, and then wrap the blankets in this cellophane wrap.
How to Pack A Pod for Moving
I just uploaded a YouTube video to describe how we pack our pod, but the general idea is to think of your items in three categories: heavy, things in boxes, and light/fragile/soft items. We place all of our heavy items at the bottom – like our furniture. On top of the furniture, we place our boxes and tubs. And the last 2 feet at the top is for anything fragile or things that are squishy, like blankets or pillows. Pods recommends using all of your vertical space so the contents don’t shift around.
We hope this helps in your packing journey. Wishing you a safe and hopefully stress-free move!
Jill
