Done it a few times at multiple scales. The challenges are mostly how to deal with crap you think you need and then don’t.
First, shed as much as you possibly can. Then shed more. If you genuinely can’t move all your stuff yourself, then suddenly you have added layers of logistics and expenses.
Second, I agree with finding a sublet or AirBnB for a landing place. The worst mistake I ever made was renting a place sight unseen. The only places that desperate for tenants are one’s that will make it hard to leave. 3 months in a shithole while you learn the right neighborhood and find a good place is with it long term.
Good luck!
- Get a job first. You might be able to get the company to pay for your relocation.
- If you plan on loading your car up and driving across the country you should get your vehicle inspected first. Know the maximum amount of weight your car can handle and don’t overpack. You don’t want your wheel studs to snap in the middle of nowhere because you packed your vehicle above the weight threshold it could safely handle. It makes for a great story, but will get expensive really quick.
- If you have friends or family nearby it is a plus. Making friends in a new place isn’t easy for everyone, and you will definitely get lonely on your own. That said, get outdoors and do the things you love. That’s the best way to meet new people.
- Rent is expensive. Set real expectations when leasing or buying a home in your new location.
- Explore along the way. Document your trip. It’s a massive change in your life. Make sure to give yourself plenty of time to explore and discover.
Most places have some subculture of locals who hate migrants. Shunning the outsider is just a part of human nature. Don’t let it bother you. They don’t speak for the majority
I give away, donate or throw away everything. In the end its cheaper to buy it on the other side then pay movers. I load up whats important, maybe rent a small trailer and bounce.
I’ve moved far away (500m+) at least 2 dozen times and this holds true.
If you have inexpensive shit. Nice shit most certainly isn’t cheaper to replace.
This is highly situational.
Ky to GA to Il to Co to Il in 20 years.
This is the answer, depends on what part of life you are in as well. Generally its been uhaul < rebuy < movers.
Do not kill your back trying to save a couple of bucks on a move.
Second the movers. I moved about 50% of my home and left the big stuff for the movers. Still spent a week recovering
Never, ever, EVER pay for storage. Sell it, give it away, leave it, or use it. But don’t ever put yourself in a position where you leave stuff somewhere you are not.
why? storage is fine for a year or two, not for like 10.
i had some shit in storage for a few years, it was worth it.
Yeah, I say that’s a value judgement every time. If you can brutally trim down to crucial stuff and rent (yes rent) space from a buddy, I think that’s the best.
In our case we never expected to move back near our original location, and thus left nothing behind. But my mom is paying $400/mo for a 12x10 locker for all her worldly possessions when we moved her into care. It’s a pricy way to hoard stuff while she’s transitioning down that slope.
oh we just got rid of all my mom’s stuff. she thought it was worth like $50,000.
it was worth like $500. we sold a few things and just junked the rest.
the hard part was sorting out her finances because they were such a clusterfuck. instead of stuffing money in the mattress, she stuffed it across like 35 different bank accounts. which we had to go through power of attorney for every one… that was nuts. and some other weird things that the company wouldn’t pay out what they owed her until we lawyer’d up. shit was wild. no idea how that ever happened, but she was not a smart person. even when I was a child I knew she was bad with money
2 years of storage would run ~$7000 around here.
Advice: keep going to another continent.
More seriously, make sure you’re aware of time periods to change your car’s registration and license, differences in driving laws, any insurance differences, taxes, and voter registration.
Moved from Wisconsin to Spokane three months ago. Instead of moving g all my belongings, I sold everything over the internet, in the end I just had a suitcase and a small backpack. I’m a musician, and it turned out to be straightforward to get a new drum kit once I got there. I’ve been playing gigs with a couple of bands, created the contacts beforehand, so I have some cash coming in, it was a good decision because of the spiders, I hate spiders.
How’s Spokane been? Anything better going on there nowadays besides some hipsters?
As I learned, after a devastating fire in 1889, Spokane rebuilt with beautiful brick buildings, giving the city a distinctive architectural character. The nature is overwhelming, night life not so much. It’s affordable. The people I met, they like to dress in jeans with a shirt, are fine, although I’m struggling a bit with the lingo. In summary, Spokane combines the charm of a smaller city with the amenities and natural beauty of a much larger one, all at a more accessible cost. Would you like to know more about a specific aspect of Spokane or get directions? Stupid AI.
Calling out AI slop in your own post is a new tactic. Bravo?
Arrange work (and, ideally, housing) in advance.
I was living in a place I grew up, and didn’t really like. My wife had moved there, and she didn’t like it either. But I kept getting better and better jobs, so we couldn’t leave.
Then I became self-employed, and could work anywhere. We also got a small inheritance that gave us a temporary cushion. We took a small vacation to Florida, and decided that we could live on vacation for the rest of our lives, so we moved.
Since then, Florida has become MAGA HQ, and the state government is psychopathic, so now we’re thinking about leaving, but it was okay for about 20 years.
Florida is the only place I’ve ever been someone tried to start a fight with me at a bar, more than once. Like, comically insecure middle aged dudes who thought I was trying to ‘steal their seat’ when I was standing ordering a drink. This also happened at a hotel bar that was like near-empty, which made it even more weird.
What a shithole. I’m so glad I never have to go there again. I used to go once a year for work until recently.
I went a couple of time in the early 2000s, and seemed way more chill back then. but so was the entire country.
If it was at a hotel isn’t it likely the other person was also a traveler???
If you’re moving for a job, stick your stuff in storage,. Find a room to rent or get an Airbnb or long-term stay hotel. Experience the place and job for a bit before fully committing to it so at least that way you have an easy exit if you want to move back.
It probably helped a lot that I was 19 and had nothing going for me in southern Indiana.
Asked a friend of mine if he was interested in moving too, and he was. I found somebody with an apartment listing on the then-new Craigslist and mailed them a check, then my buddy and I crammed everything we could into my Ford Escort. We stopped to get a little sleep just after Albuquerque.
Advice: don’t make that drive in two days, it should be three. It is so fucking long to drive.
Challenges: apparently Texas’ highway speed limits go down at night, and (at least at the time) the signs don’t indicate this. I got pulled over for going 75 in a 65 at ~2AM, right next a sign that said the limit was 75. Fuck Texas!
Actual advice: spend some time seriously considering what needs to come with. Most things are just things, they can be replaced. Don’t let your things weigh you down.
Yeah the long drives wear on you. I did 700 miles in a day and wished I stopped a couple.hundred Earlier that day.
I moved from Michigan to Arkansas, then 18 years later, moved from Arkansas to Maine.
One big piece of advice I can give is to use Rubbermaid storage totes instead of boxes if you can afford it. There are numerous advantages:
- Handles
- More water resistant than boxes, keeps the humidity out and your stuff safe, even from rodents (helpful. If you have to store your stuff in storage units)
- When done with them, you might be able to return them if they’re still in perfect condition. Otherwise, they stack very well into a small space.
- Much more reusable for future storage.
I bought around eight of these totes when I moved from Michigan to Arkansas and I still have them to this day and they still are fully functional and work great.
moved from Florida to California. was about to be homeless so I said fuck it. ended up okay, I’ve had a stable job and an apartment most of the time. it was hard to get to that point though, took a couple months. the loneliness is unbearable though. the people here are superficial as hell and I miss my family. next year it’ll be half a decade and I think I’m gonna make my way back home the same way. I hate Florida but isolation is really driving me mental
Which city or area are you in?
Sacramento area
Try joining the Sacramento discord? I used to live there, Centro Cocina Mexicana in downtown is so good btw.
https://www.reddit.com/r/Sacramento/comments/1r3b9qq/sacramento_discord_server/
Ugh yeah, I’m in the same isolation boat but I’m in Milwaukee. Something like 74 percent of people in Wisconsin are born and live in Wisconsin and have never lived anywhere else so they all pretty much stick to the people they know already. Been here almost a decade, covid hurt me on the social front and lots of remote work. But honestly it’s pretty nice
I did this a few years ago, and while things did eventually work out, I made some mistakes that could have been really bad. Without going into too many details, just make sure that the place you are moving to is 100% done and the deal is sealed. Whether it is a home purchase, rental agreement, whatever. In my case, I packed up nearly everything we owned into a moving truck and drove it across the country about a week before the closing on the house. The closing needed to be in person and for family reasons, it wasn’t possible for both my and I to both fly there and do the closing, so we just moved before hand. Well, the bank decided to pull some shady shit at the last minute after telling us everything was completely confirmed and we almost didn’t get the house. We ended up staying in someone’s basement for over a week while I did everything I could to salvage the deal.
Anyway, don’t be me, get everything settled before you move.
All my moves had someone on the ground either before, after, or both. It’s invaluable. Growing up bouncing around as a kid, my family can do a long-distance relo like it’s an army mission – checklists and fallback plans.
Glad you had a plan b – I overnighted in a chilly ottawa basement of some ghetto airBnB when my housing glitched on arrival with cross-country move #3 ( fucking realtor landlords ), but that was remedied before the main group closed the housing at origin and arrived to prep for the indolent movers’ arrival (ultimately out of the blue after being in the wind for 8 weeks with everything we owned).
I was glad we’d almost planned enough, and I could focus on the employment and keep that going.
Cross-country move #2 used NJ movers and they extorted us$10k extra to release our stuff, so one chilly overnight was ultimately survivable in comparison.
Oof, that sounds rough on both cases. In my move, I priced out movers and they were all well over $10k, so I did it myself (which was fairly scary tbh). The banks started their bullshit when I was literally driving the giant moving truck, so it was extremely stressful. I did start making more permanent backup plans when I arrived, but luckily I was able to make it happen.
These days with scams like they are everything needs to be done in person before packing up.
Packed everything I owned into my car and just went for it. Traveled 1500 miles to my destination, found a motel, and set up an indefinite weekly stay. Applied to some shitty fast food job that was hiring nearby, got the job, which helped a lot looking for apartments. It was a college town, so finding a place was pretty easy. And everything was smooth sailing from there.
I found that starting in a college town is a really nice way to get integrated into the surrounding area, though it helps that I could pass as college-aged at the time myself. Most of the people you meet are pretty much new to the town as well. Years later I ended up moving to another town in the area with a bit more confidence.
