Yes, I did a couple of years ago. For a one bedroom with a home office (we have a fair amount of furniture & stuff, a motorcycle went with the household items) w/out the cost of a car...about 3k. And we did our own packing. The drag is most places can't give you a definite delivery time back in NY unless you have enough to fill a whole truck. Otherwise it goes to the loading area and awaits other shipments to fill the truck.
Our delivery was the absolute outside date provided by our contract ( I believe it was a 21 day window too).
Be careful, get a lot of estimates, makes sure you read the fine print and get some additional insurance!!

I have heard more horror stories and so few good ones about moving that far a distance. Absoluetely pack your prized family pictures and most expensive items and take them with you personally. Purchase insurance! And do the math! The last person I talked to just had a big yard sale and started over in his new city with craigslist finds and got a new bed and couch delivered at the new place. This seemed to be the best story. He was much happier with this strategy than with his previous long distance moves.

i've done the LA to NY(and back to LA) move several times. I've gotten quotes ranging from $1800 to $4300 for a lean one bedroom apt. Let me say this...don't go cheap, go reasonable with a great BBB rating. The only time my move went smoothly is when i was being relocated - they packed for me(a GODSEND) and kept my boxes in storage til i found a place on this coast but that didn't come cheap - it was approx 8k.

Go to the website movingscams.com, which has an incredibly comprehensive list of moving company recommendations and warnings.

My move of a 2-bedroom from LA to Chicago last winter (with way too many boxes of books) was around $6,000. It was double what I paid to move from Chicago to LA (and I didn't have double the stuff). I packed. The weight of your move affects the price much more than distance.

Even if you have a smaller place without a ton of furnishings and boxes and you are doing the packing, you are well into thousand$ territory. And that's not the real concern. The real concern is finding reputable movers. Movers who won't ruin / ransom / hijack your belongings. You might want to do what we did when we faced a similar long-distance move. We did the garage sale / donate / giveaway / recycle boogie and rented a u-haul for a few hundred$.

Everything showed up when we did, and in one piece, and surprisingly little of what was left behind is missed (but let's not discuss my enormous and insanely heavy Crate and Barrel couch in the perfect, perfect shade of ... no ... we won't discuss it).

And the trip we actually remember fondly - picnics and all.

Good luck!

I helped my sister move from LA to Wisconsin...not the same mind you, but I do have some advice for you:

1) Check those tires on the moving truck - it turns out that one of the tires was smaller than the rest on our truck and only 40 miles from our destination (after driving a full 24 hours and exhausted) our truck's tire blew out. We had my sister's car on the hitch, too. Thank god we didn't flip over. We had someone come out, change the tire, and got to our destination.

2) Don't drive on the interstate in Nebraska (at least I'm pretty sure it was) if you are trailing something behind your truck - the road has such deep grooves that you will easily loose control.

As for cost, I know it was expensive, but it's just one of those things you have to do. Sorry I couldn't help more on that end.

Oh, we rented a Uhaul...I think that is pretty much the way to go. It's the cost of gas in all the different states that you really need to think about.

My partner and I moved most of her stuff from Ithaca, NY to Portland, OR a year and a half ago and it cost about $3500 - way mroe than the initial quote, because apparently we had no clue as to how much the stuff actually weighed. Also, it took 2 whole months for the stuff to get to us - so whatever you do, do not ask for storage for your stuff, even if you are offered it as part of the price.

This was the only professional move we'd ever done and it pretty much sucked in every way. I've moved cross-country 4-5 other times before and did it myself with only my car and/or my car and a trailer, and almost every time was better. The best times BY FAR were those where I put as much in my car as possible (a camry sedan) and then shipped books/ papers using media rate. I sold the furniture where I was and bought new furniture when I got to my destination.

I moved from Florida to Manhattan a few months ago. We rented a Uhaul and I took all of my stuff up by myself. It cost about six hundred dollars for the Uhaul, and then add gas and hotels. I ended up hiring movers to help me move things up my five flights of stairs. It was two hundred for two hours, for two guys. It was worth every penny. Five flights of stairs is way too much for one person to do by themself. Good luck with your move!

I do not know if this is helpful as it is not a cost estimate, but I have moved across the country (both directions/multiple times) and this is my method. It is also the one I have found to be most cost effective. I rent my apartment in my new location. I have ABF freight deliver packing "cubes" (like PODS) to my residence that I am leaving. Depending upon the status of my life, I can pack my stuff in either 1 or 2 containers and I prefer to pack my containers myself. I can fill containers, by myself, in 1 to 3 hours or I have hired movers on CraigsList for a nominal fee to whip this work out faster than I ever could. ABF will pick up these cubes immediately and drive them to your destination. I arrange to have my cubes delivered to my new apartment the day before I arrive in town. I then get the super at my new apartment to unlock my door for the moving guys (again hired from CraigsList) to unload my cube contents into my new apartment (takes less than an hour). And ABF hauls the cubes away. I fly out the next day with my dog and start unpacking.

We moved from California to Chicago a few years ago, and we looked into full service, u-pack, and u-haul methods, and decided that u-pack services (where you pack and unpack your belongings into the truck, and they drive it in a big truck) were actually no more expensive than u-haul when you considered the price of gas, and FAR easier. We went with Broadway Express, which I would highly recommend. With u-pack services, you usually pay per linear foot of the truck. We used 10 linear feet, the minimum at Broadway Express, and we paid $2000. That was really not much stuff, however. Mostly just boxes, and almost no furniture.

We moved from NY to LA a few years ago. Things to know: A good mover should come to your place, look at your stuff and give you a binding estimate. (Some now call the estimate something other than "binding," but you need something that you can hold them to.) The price of the move will be based on the weight of your stuff. We were moving about 1500 sq feet of stuff with a large quantity of books and our move was on the order of $8k. We could have spent less, but we used reputable movers which meant our stuff arrived on time and intact, with no sleazy behavior.

You absolutely must spring for the replacement cost insurance - otherwise you'll only be covered for something like 6 cents per pound, which will do you no good if something gets lost or damaged, and even good movers will sometimes have something go wrong. For things where even getting the replacement cost back won't actually allow replacement, think long and hard about whether you're willing to risk losing those items. My great grandmother's silver, some art and some other things (plus the computer backups) came in the car with us, because the value (sentimental or monetary) of that stuff was just too high to take a chance with. I know quite a few people who've done cross-country moves, and things can go horribly, horribly wrong. So if you couldn't bear to lose something, carry it yourself.

Also, on the replacement cost insurance: We packed nearly everything ourselves, to save money, but the stuff we wanted covered had to be packed by them (they won't certify that something was packed correctly if you pack it, though sometimes they'll let it slide if you don't seal the box. You'll want to discuss this with your mover.)

In case you're curious, we used Mayflower. One nice feature was that we were able to track the truck while our stuff was in transit. It really is a pretty big window that they give you, and you won't know until your stuff is nearly there what exact day it will arrive.

Also - I agree with the movingscams.com recommendation. It's a real eye-opener.

In general, you will be appalled by the cost. If your stuff isn't special, the recommendation to sell most or all of it and start fresh can really work - so often a new place would work better with a smaller table or a sectional with the chaise on the left instead of the right, or whatever. Especially moving to NY, you may well have less space in your new place. So make sure you do a good purge rather than paying to move stuff that you won't have a good home for anyway!

Good luck. The move will be stressful but NY will be great!

I made the NY to LA move with one ABF pack-it-yourself cube, and it was not pleasant. Because I only had one cube, I guess, they would not truck it all the way to either apartment--I had to move my stuff to their loading docks and pack/unpack there. It still cost about $2000. My engineer father helped me pack everything VERY securely, but it didn't matter. They clearly dropped the entire cube at least once--the entire wooden pallette on the bottom of it was shattered. My bookshelves were likewise shattered, and my vintage speakers were dented, as was my bicycle, etc.... I would not recommend it. It's been 5 years, and I'm still angry about it. Move it yourself or pay more money for real movers.

I moved from Austin to San Diego by doing it myself and was able to keep costs down. With gas and an 18ft truck plus car tow it ran around $800. When I decided to move back to Austin from San Diego my costs doubled however. When I asked why there was such a cost difference for equal milage I was told that the cost of living was higher in San Diego therefore renting anything from there was going to run a whole lot more. You've got twice the miles to go than I did so I'm betting your costs will be doubled. If you go with a moving company you'll also be paying their fees fr service so I wouldn't be surprised to spend over $2000.

I would think it depends on how big of a move your doing. I moved from a studio apartment in LA to a one bedroom in NYC. I basically started all over in NYC with new furniture because it was not worth the thousands of dollars to move everything across country. Anything I could not part with but didn't neccessarily need with me in NY I kept in storage until I gathered enough money to ship it out. I had a big garage sale and filled suitcases to travel on the plane with me. Anything too heavy I placed on a greyhound. Greyhound is a very cheap way to ship. It costs approx. $80 per 100 lbs and takes about 3 days - its secure way to ship and I never had a problem with any delays or lost items. In the end, my move cost me a measly $500 give or take and a lot of that was paid through my yard sales. My bigger expenses came in furnishing my new apt. here in NYC.

We're moving from Providence, RI to the LA area next month and plan on it costing about $2500. We're renting a truck and moving ourselves.

I have done this three times... SF to Washington DC and Washington DC to LA. The first time I took nothing - a few LARGE suitcases, I sold everything on craigslist and started completely over in DC. The second time - 5 years later, I had accumulated a lot more stuff (including a husband!). We got rid of a ton of things (like all that junk you mean to sell or post on craigslist for years, but never seem to have the time) including our bed, a bunch of chairs and tons of clothes. But we did have a lot of other furniture and the move cost us about 3k (a one bedroom plus loft) - we flew to LA and got here several days before the movers were able to deliver.

Words of Advice: make sure you have all of your "essentials" and valuables with you on your person when you move... several days worth of clothes, computer, underwear, jewelry, etc.

Also: be prepared to pay much more than your quoted in the beginning. When all is said and done, they WILL find ways to jack up the cost... the door to your apartment is more than 100 feet from the street, they needed more than x number of men to do the job, they had to store your stuff for x number of days, blah blah blah. It is the nature of the moving business to prey on the vulnerable - I mean you're MOVING, they HAVE all your stuff - and you're tired, cranky and just want to get settled already.

I moved from downtown LA to High Point, NC in Feb 2006 using ABS Movers. They charge you by the truck space you use...you fill it up to the number of feet used and then a barrier wall is put in and you share the truck with someone else you never meet (unless you can fill up the entire truck). They were dependable, on time, and fully insured and it only ran me about $1600. I moved my entire art studio plus furnishings for a 1000 s.f. loft and a bunch of my bf's stuff too! I highly recommend this mover and have had problems with other ones.

You could always go to UShip.com and have independent movers bid for your jobs. That's how I'll be handling my next move.

I just moved from SF to NY with about a one-bedroom's worth, but lots of dishes and books. It came to 5900 lbs and cost $5200. I used a mover recommended on movingscam.com (a great resource) and thought they did a great job. They had also moved me from NY to SF two years ago, and I was happy enough to use them again. In general, I figure it will cost about a dollar a pound. So if it will cost me less to move something than it would to replace it, it comes along. I did ditch a lot of cheap furniture and other items for that reason, just keeping antiques I love (and could not sell well in this market). In my experience, you get what you pay for. If you move yourself you can save, but it's a LOT more work for you (I'm too old for that anymore!). If you go with a mover, don't go for the low bid and do buy replacement insurance, as others here also recommended.

Just moved from NYC to Wisconsin, and I used Flatrate
moving. They quote you one flat rate, and you do not pay a penny over the quote. They were on time, efficient and delivered on the first day promised. It cost me around 2,500.00 to move a one bedroom apartment.

http://www.flatrate.com/

Miami,FL to small town outside of Fort Worth,TX was 3k.....We used PODS and since we were living with relatives for 3 months they stored everything in one of their warehouses and then delivered it after we bought a house. Monthly storage was $200..a little high but worth checking into...........

Remember, the trucker will NOT unload your stuff until he has a certified check in his hot little hand. Picture it: us, outside the new house, 3:45pm, when the local bank (20 miles away) closes at 4. We made it, but by a hair's breadth.

If you move it yourself, book the truck as far ahead as possible. The cost dramatically rises as you get closer to the date.

I've recently moved from Richmond VA to Santa Barbara CA using a container system through U-PACK "ABF"...they were great. it was around $1500 which seems like a lot, but we were moving 3 track bikes, vintage bajaj scooter, 2 longboard surfboards plus all our other crap. The cost of moving all that stuff was worth the money rather than risk it through mailing services (not to mention packing prices!) There's windows where you don't have to pay for storage fees...as well as they allow 3 days for packing which doesn't include weekends, so we would have it delivered on a thursday and have them pick it up on monday.
We then drove cross country and estimated how long it would take and called the UPACK location in CA when we were about 5 days away and had them deliver it then. They were amazing and helpful and didn't give us any hassle. The only problem is that when you pack it, you really have to make sure that everything is secure otherwise stuff shifts and things could break. luckily we had so much stuff that there wasn't any room for shifting!
There is also this website (sorry i forgot what it is) that I was looking at, it's a site where you write where you're moving to, the dates, and what you are moving...then people/businesses will bid on your move. Basically when truckers have a not so full container and they happen to be going where you are going, they don't mind the extra money and fit your stuff in their container. It was cheaper, but we couldn't find somebody who could move the dates we needed.
so........I would go with UPACK, if your stuff is worth the move then you're just going to have to suck it up and pay the price. good luck! we had a blast moving cross country

If you move yourself, avoid U-Haul at all cost! From experience, their trucks are old and neglectated compared to the competition (a quick google search will turn up many reviews and some news stories about the company).

Both Budget and Penske have been great for us.

When we moved long distance our quotes turned out to average 50 cents per pound (this was many years ago). This made it easy to look at every possession and decide if we were willing to pay that to keep it. We got rid of lots of big heavy furniture such as our couch, bed, and also our refrigerator. We also got rid of all of our canned goods, and thinned out our clothes. We had lots of books, and we boxed them up and UPS'ed them to our new home.
We had a giant garage sale and were happy to have the money.

Moved a very small one bedroom from Santa Cruz, CA to Amherst, MA and paid $3500 for the privilege a year and a half ago. Like other people have said, don't skimp on moving - you'll pay for it later by having your shit lost or broken.

Getting costs from other folks here isn't going to make your costs/quotes any lower:

Costs for packing materials and fuel have gone up in the past couple of years - and even the time of year can affect the cost of a move.
You also don't have the exact same numbers of items or overall weight in items to ship, and you can't be sure that you're comparing like services such as packing, storage, etc.

My advice is to find at least 3 reputable, licensed, bonded and insured movers affiliated with nationwide companies and get 3 quotes for the exact same services that make sense for your needs - and choose the one in the middle. If you need to lower your costs, then consider getting rid of items rather than moving them - or doing more of the work yourself such as packing, but with the knowledge that the moving company isn't responsible for breakage of any items that you pack yourself.

I just had a bunch of my stuff moved from L.A. to Colorado. Renting a Uhaul trailer was going to be about $900. A Uhaul truck was going to be a lot more. So I got a moving company to do it. They took down all the info over the phone and quoted me $1300. I told them I could only spend $1000 and asked what I should leave behind. I got a call back and someone asked again about what I wanted to bring and said they could do it for $1000. I even added some more stuff at the last minute and they didn't charge me anything more. That was less than I could have done it with a Uhaul and all that extra gas from hauling a trailer. They picked up my stuff on December 23rd and I got it on January 3rd. I didn't think that was too bad considering we had two holidays in that time period. I guess I have no point other than it seems like cost is negotiable.

Hi - I have done the move from SF to NY and used a cheap mover that I found online. I had my stuff in storage with them and when I went to retrieve it all the numbers were disconnected. I found out later that they were indited by the FBI and unfortunately the FBI did not know where they had stored my stuff as they were using random warehouses. Needless to say it was a nightmare and I lost everything.
I then moved to LA from NY and used OZ moving and storage. They have a special service that does trips between LA and NY regularly. I believe it was about 3500 for a 1 bedroom apt. and they packed everything. They were great. Only complaint would be that it took an extra day for my belongings to get delivered due to bad weather during their trip.
Hope that helps! Good Luck in NY!!

I moved from DC to San Francisco using FedEx. I was moving out of my parents house and wasn't taking any furniture, it ended up costing about $600 before insurance. This was for about 12 medium sized boxes that I packed myself and bought to a FedEx shipping station

As you research movers, check them on the BBB and only hire ones with a perfect record for 3-plus years. This has worked well for me.

Will your job cover any of the move? If this is work related, you'll get a tax deduction which will help in a year from now. Some employers will also pay all of it or the lion's share. If they haven't said anything, try to negotiate for it!

Most of my friends seem to have gotten under 5K, but a lot of them liked the UHaul. (The adventure, I guess?) AAA has some good moving resources, but check those references! I found my worst ever and best ever packers through those referrals!

Moving is expensive. If your big, heavy pieces of furniture are from a big-box store (Ikea, etc.), it might be cheaper to sell them on Craigslist and repurchase them when you move. In my last move, I only took my personal things and the handmade/one-of-a-kind furniture. My couch/bookshelves, etc. just weren't worth the expense of moving them. The same goes for dishes; things like heirloom china or Eva Zeisel are worth the expense, but white box-box-store plates probably aren't.

whatever company you decide to go with...read the fine print! I ended up in my apartment with little more than an air mattress and a frying pan for 3 WEEKS when I moved from MI to NY last summer because drivers from the company I chose (it starts with Al and ends with lied) can apparently decide to not pick up shipments. And, I wasn't reimbursed anything for hardship, etc. because my shipment didn't weigh enough (I have a 1 bedroom apt). It might be easier to just rent a truck and do it yourself! Good luck!

I chose to sell all my furniture and just move my books, CDs, and some kitchenware. USPS is amazing, especially for media mail- I think I mailed 27 boxes from NY to the midwest for $300something, and everything was delivered directly to my door in a little over a week.

I wouldn't spend more than $2,000. I've moved from LA to NYC twice and I've never paid more than 2k.

We (2 people) moved from Boston to Oakland a few years ago (1 bedroom apartment), and it cost us around $4500 total. We used ABF U-Pack, which meant we had to rent two U-hauls (at both departure and destination) AND load and unload everything ourselves, twice. This figure also includes my fiance driving the car across the country, which took 4 days and 4 nights of hotels (all priceless, fragile stuff traveled personally with him in the car). I flew out about a week ahead of him for school reasons and to secure an apartment. The whole process was a huge pain in the butt.

If we do it again, we would (1) save up enough money to hire movers and a moving company (probably around $8-10K), and (2) sell as much stuff as possible before we leave (including all cheap furniture). I know a couple who sold EVERYTHING before they moved across the country, and just drove across with what they fit in their car, but they had secure jobs at the other end and could afford to purchase furniture when they arrived. It sucks no matter how you do it, you either pay in money or time and headaches.

I don't have a cross-country moving quote, but I would definitely consider a 3rd option: the cost of moving (which will be high) versus cost of selling furniture and re-buying to fit your new space. Chances are your new NYC apt will be smaller than your LA one, and custom fitting furniture goes a long way in making a NYC apt work better. Obviously you will need to move clothes and items of personal value - but if you weed out furniture, you might be able to send these by ground or freight. If you have already acquired furniture you would hate to lose, it might not be worth it emotionally, but just an idea.

I am moving from Lansing, MI to Dallas, TX this weekend. Every moving option from shipping to renting a vehicle or trailer was astronomical. I sold, donated, or gave away everything and am only taking what i can fit on my car. Who needs all that stuff anyway?

I'm not sure why itsakitty had to rent a uhaul to use ABF upack. We moved from SF to NYC (in brooklyn) and were able to pack and unload the moving pod in front of our apt. Be aware that you have 3 hours to load/unload (unless you have a driveway), so have it well planned before the moving pod shows up. It cost us about $1500, and we stored the goods for a few months while we were traveling during the move period.
But I second selling as much stuff as you can before hand. We got a ton of new, small scale stuff, when we got here. An "apartment" sofa that's only about 50" was a must!

Fengshuibyfishgirl - High Point? I grew up there - what brought you there from LA?

We did the NY to LA move a few years ago and had a wonderful experience with Move East movers:

http://www.moveeast.com/

They came to the apt., gave an accurate quote, kept our things in storage for us for several months, and then delivered on schedule once we landed in LA. Everything was there, nothing was broken, there were no hidden costs. I highly recommend them!

We moved from San Diego to Charlotte in 2008 and it cost us about $3000 thru Penske truck rental.

I've done multiple long-distance moves, the most recent being from NYC to Miami Beach. I have all the horror stories:

A piano mover that left my piano of the FRONT PORCH and took off, another that was supposed to unload for me, and then decided not to, and left me stranded with a full rental truck on the 4th of July, with furniture that required a pro. I've had movers try to charge double, and then steal a computer when I refused to pay more than we agreed on.... I could go on and on.

We did the NY-FL move ourselves, selling tons of stuff on ebay before we left, and rented a Penske truck. The whole thing including gas, the truck, hotels on the way, food, etc. was about $1500. Also, Penske has much better, newer vehicles than U-haul.

The ONLY positive experience I've had with movers was with a company (relocation service) during a corporate move, but chatting with the movers, I found out that to have paid for the move out of pocket would have cost thousands and thousands... and then some more thousands. That move was only about 500 miles.

Why not do it yourself and save that $$ for all the deposits you'll be paying when you move into your new NYC place.:-)

Pods just quoted me 3K for a 16x8x8 foot container from Portland, Oregon to New Orleans, LA which is about the same distance from LA to NYC and contains a 2BR house worth of stuff. Although, they do like to call me and email me several times a week (annoying) offering discounts and deals and whatnot. You might want to try them. I've been pretty happy with them (outside of their excessive marketing).

Before you assume one long distance move is comparable to another, it should be noted that moving into or around the NYC boroughs is a totally different - and more difficult - thing altogether than moving into just about any other city in America. Parking is extremely difficult, esp. for a truck, and everything is more expensive all around. In fact, I don't think you can use Pods in Manhattan at all, unless they've changed this in the last year.

If you don't haven any real valuable furniture or items, i would just sell or give away your furniture and just take a few boxes of things, which c`an be mailed...you can buy new things on craigslist or ikea. If you have nicer things, then it makes sense to pay the thousands of dollars, otherwise not. I just did it, and i think it was worth it since i have a few nice peices that are worth the money...but still not sure if i should have moved as much stuff as i did.

I also used ABF and couldn't have been happier. I went with the ReloCube because I needed to pack it over a few days and then needed them to store it at my new location. They were super professional, charged less than the original bid, and helped me figure out how many cubes I actually needed (turned out to be 2). I'm a super careful packer, and my fiance turned out to be a remarkably good packer as well - he packed the cubes. I think the trick is to pack things as tightly as possible, then secure the front with bungee cords.

You'd have to speak to them though - they'll let you know if they can drop the cubes off in NY - some streets might be tough. You'll be directed to the local branch, and they'll be able to determine your best option.

Good luck. Moving is such a life-changing experience!

Figure ~$4k for a 1-BR apartment with professional movers, more if you have heavier stuff. Plus, because you don't fill a truck, your stuff may be loaded and unloaded multiple times in the course of getting other loads out.

Having moved cross-country far too many times, I'm now a huge fan of the "sell everything but the keepsakes" move advocated by scmods2. After three months on the opposite coast, you'll find yourself wanting to decorate differently anyway, so you might as well save yourself the cost of moving any furniture that's not a treasure.

ooops! I said "ABS" in my original post. I meant to say "ABF" and their website is www.upack.com which someone else already pointed out. It was the easiest move I ever did and nothing of ours got broken (including fragile painted canvases).

Question to HELLOEV:

Do you happen to remember the names of the two Korean movers you used?

I am considering a move from NY to San Diego. I have a Korean friend that MIGHT be able to help, if you happen to have those names I was going to ask her to start helping me look into that as a possibility...thanks!!

i think that smaller moving companies can offer really good services at very good prices, it is an option worth considering.

Small moving companies are an option I agree. Long distance moving can be costly and sometimes it is better to sell your furniture and buy new at the new location.

www.moversdcarea.com

IDK. I feel more assured with reputable moving companies, rather than family owned movers, unless I know these people personally. Googled and found this: http://www.nyshipping.com/ .. anyone from NY have any idea or review re: this company? It never crossed my mind to sell stuff instead of bring them with me, but that is actually a brill idea, as the new place is completely different from the previous one. It is also good to consider the exact size of each room in your new apartment/house, so you'll know which furniture to bring and to dispose.