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BIO ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Vivian Cragg is a veteran at moving. She has been left behind by her husband 18 times to move their house while her husband starts his new job. She has used both professional moving companies and done it herself with the help of day laborers. This article is part of the information she learned during the last 30 years of following her husband and taking care of their move.

Moving Truck Rental

Once you have weighed your options and decide to go with moving your own items, take a look at Budget, Penske, and U-Line moving trucks, they are just a few of the self moving trucks that you can rent. These types of vehicles are helpful if you are moving within the same city or close by cities. You drive it one direction and drop off at a location nearest your new home.

What Moving Truck Size

To get an accurate measure of how much truck space you’ll need. It typically takes 200 cubit feet of loading space per room. If you go to upack.com it will give you a nice estimator chart of how big a moving truck rental you’ll need. Here is an estimate of what they require. A 10 foot truck will equal 368 cubic rental truck space. A 20 foot truck will be 669 cubic feet and so on. Even though their estimators are quite accurate, you may use more or less cubic feet. Again getting estimates from several companies is the way to ensure you get the best deal possible.

Here is a sample of U-Haul’s truck sizes: 26' will move 4+ bedrooms; 24' will move 3-4 bedrooms; 17' will move 2-3 bedrooms; 4' will move 1-2 bedrooms; 10' will move an apartment.

Moving trucks will vary according to size and if you go one way or plan on returning your rented vehicle. You’ll need to see how many miles per gallon the rental will get. You may go to AAA and find out from the fuel calculator what the cost will be. Make sure you get insurance. You may even be covered through your regular auto insurance, so be sure to give them a call. Some of these budget truck rental companies throw in a dolly, furniture covers and even some give you a limited amount of boxes. But check, you don’t want to get charged for anything you didn’t ask for.

Timing Your Move

You may need to reserve a truck way in advance of your move. The peak season normally begins towards the end of May and runs until September. Call well in advance if you move during these months..

Loading Your Moving Truck

Place the largest and heaviest items first. Stove, washing machines, refrigerator, dishwasher, freezers, anything that will take several people to load. Be sure to place objects on both sides of the truck, try to keep it as balanced as possible. Bolt these items against the sides of the wall of the truck. Cover items with furniture pads. With your wood furniture be sure to place bubble wrap around them and then the furniture pads, it will help prevent ruining the surface.

Now load your longer items, mattresses, long mirrors (which you will want to put bubble wrap and maybe put inside a mirror box), headboards, sofas and table tops (if they are removable). Put them along the side of the truck. Be sure when you put your bed frames in the truck to dissemble them and place all loose pieces in a sealed bag and tape to the frame. Pool sticks, skis and poles can be rolled up in your rugs and then taped down. Remember to tape on the outside of the rug so it does not get ruined. Then comes the largest and biggest boxes. You may place them on top of your covered appliances as well.  The lighter boxes can be placed on top of the heavier boxes. Place the fragile items last making sure they are secure and will not move during your move.

Helpful Web Sites

moving.about.com