Rogomo Blog

Leaving New York

Posted by: SteveUncategorized

As I mentioned earlier, we’ve been a little quiet around here lately due to our work on the Rogomo website. An additional reason for our silence - or at least mine - is that I was preparing for (and going through) my move from New York City to the Washington D.C. area. That’s where Neil and John live, and we decided that it made sense for the three of us to be together to get the business off the ground.

I gotta say, the process of moving out of New York has been a real learning experience, and I figured I should share some of my knowledge to make sure things go easier for others in the future.

When you’re moving, the first question that’s going to come up is “Which mover should I use?” Unfortunately, this is a loaded question with no right answer. Every mover is going to give you a different quote, some will give you so-called “binding not to exceed” (BNTE) quotes, while others will give you something called a “guaranteed not to exceed” (GNTE) or a “flat rate”. There are, indeed, differences between each of these. Oh, and some of the less reputable companies will try to charge you by the hour. If you’re moving inside New York, that’s fine, but if you’re moving out of the state, this isillegal.

Additionally, if you’re in NYC, you should become familiar with the term “shuttle”. If you’re using a major moving company with a relationship with a big van line, the chances are good that you’ll need a “shuttle”. A “shuttle” is a smaller truck that can get in and out of Manhattan, pick up your stuff, and take it to a warehouse where your stuff will be transferred to a larger truck for your move. If you’re unlucky, and you’re moving to San Francisco or somewhere else crowded like New York, you may need a shuttle on the back end too. From what I’ve seen, shuttle costs can range from $500 to $1,000 or more.

When picking a mover - or when simply trying to learn the lingo of moving - the place you should start is the user forum over at MovingScam.com. This site was invaluable for my move. The forums are moderated by a number of people involved (or formerly involved) in the moving industry, and people who have years upon years of expertise. While the moderators won’t tell you which mover you should use, they do maintain a valuable BLACKLIST of companies with bad histories, and they maintain very clean message boards and review boards specific to many moving companies and also to many popular moving routes. For example, I found a couple of NYC-DC forums with insights and reviews by people who had recently made the exact same move.

As a result I found Dahill Moving and Storage, who gave me a competitive BNTE and stuck to it. They were professional, no shuttle was required because they used a smaller truck, and most importantly they delivered my stuff intact the day they promised - the next day after they picked me up. All in all it a great experience, and I definitely recommend keeping Dahill in mind if you’re moving out of NYC.

Once you choose your mover, the next question that comes up is “where do I get boxes”? Whereas people who live in the suburbs can typically go to their local grocery store, hardware store, etc. and pick up used boxes, it’s not that easy in New York. There’s a lot more people looking for boxes, and a lot less clean stores with useable boxes. So that basically means you have to find a place a buy boxes. That leaves you with 3 main options.

First, you can buy boxes from your moving company. I saw prices from several movers, and they varied pretty drastically. While their prices on certain sizes might be competitive, their prices on other sizes might be 2 to 3 times higher than what you can find elsewhere. The disparity in pricing scared me a bit, so I looked for other options.

Second, you can order boxes online from companies like Boxes Overnight or Used Cardboard Boxes. These companies will ship you (normally free of charge) any combination of boxes you want, as well as pre-packaged moving kits designed for studios, one-bedrooms and larger homes. Their prices are typically pretty good - I paid about $75 for the 1BR kit, which came with about 14 boxes of various sizes, bubble wrap, tape and a black marker. Used Cardboard Boxes is a little more expensive, but they guarantee that your boxes are recycled, and therefore “Earth friendly”.

Third, you can buy boxes from your local shipping store, Staples, Home Depot or the like. Based on my experience, this option is, by and large, the worst of your options. The Staples in the Chelsea area of New York charges approximately $5 for a small box, $8 for a medium box, and higher for larger boxes. It’s no comparison to the other options.

That said, I discovered that Home Depot has excellent pricing on boxes, if not a huge selection of sizes. The Home Depot on 23rd Street in Manhattan stocks 3 sizes of boxes (small, medium, large) which, respectively, cost about $2.25, $2.50 and $3 or so, as well as garment boxes for about $12. From what I’ve seen I don’t think their garment box is a great deal, but their other boxes are. Lucky for me, my old NYC apartment was 1/2 block from Home Depot, so it was extremely convenient for me to pick up additional boxes as the need arose. (FYI, my 1BR apartment required about 35 boxes total, not including the packaging that Dahill provided for my TV, mattress and furniture.)

Overall, I feel very fortunate that my move went off as smoothly as it did. Moving anywhere is a scary proposition, especially when you’re moving in or out of New York. Thankfully, I did my homework at MovingScam.com and shopped around for prices from both movers and box retailers, and it ended up working out in the end.