Here is the deal for all you younger than 50′s out there. The economy stinks right now and renters that stay and take good care of a place are rare. Use this to your advantage!
If you move get a new lease with a right to renew up to three years at the same low rent. An attorney can draw one up for you dirt cheap and this will save many headaches also have them put in a clause about the maintance how many times do you have to let a landlord know about something and a normal time frame for fixing the problem is around 5 days. Don’t put up with anything less, get the best rate that is near where you are moving to and lock it in with the right to renew clause. Best of luck and get estimates on moving in writing that way they can not bait and switch with a low estimate and after they have you all loaded up later give you a massive bill. Have them come to the home and give a written estimate in writing with a no more than clause.

We were really spoiled when we came to Pittsburgh. Shane’s company paid for movers to come and pack our stuff, load it and drop it off in our apartment. Woow, was that nice! They did a fabulous job so naturally I thought of them first when I called for a quote. I will shop around, but I do want to make sure I get someone who won’t scratch up my bed or something.

I don’t have family nearby and they shouldn’t lift super heavy things anyway. If anything, they’d be playing with Johnny while Shane and I did the heavy lifting.

Yah, I do like to save money, and I do like to do things myself when I can, but hiring movers (especially when you live on the top floor!!) is worth every cent.

Oh, and I saved a bunch of boxes from our last move, so that will help with packing and stuff.

Did you price check more than one mover? We paid $200 to have movers unload our truck when we arrived in NC. Oh my goodness, it was the best $200 I ever spent. You will be AMAZED at how much movers will reduce your moving stress. I usually hate paying someone to do something I can do myself, but trust me: movers are definitely worth it.

Also, we added a washer and dryer to our apartment. I was expecting our electric bill to go up. It didn’t. At all. Maybe a dollar or two tops, but there was no discernible difference.

Good luck!

We looked to buy a house when our rent was increasing. With that said, you know how I feel about owning right now. I don’t like that I can’t just pick up and move. If I were you, I’d definitely look for something cheaper in a nice area. Maybe check craigslist and the newspaper (do people do that any more?) I loved looking online at apartments.

For our moving costs when we moved here- across the entire state of WA, we rented a U-Haul. For the gas for our car, the U-Haul, the rental, and added insurance, we spent about $450. We didn’t have anything particularly heavy to move at the time. We just called up friends and family to help us load up! We got free packing boxes from the trail mix factory Nathan worked at at the time. (Good sturdy boxes too! I folded them up and am keeping them in storage for our next move!)

For our next move, we will have more stuff with the baby furniture and a washer and dryer. We were able to get a manager’s special with our current apartment and got the washer and dryer for free! We are planning on getting a larger U-Haul. Our move will be an in town move, which with gas, will end up costing around $100.

Its too bad you have to hire a service. The U-Haul cost is really great! Good luck with your move!

Yeah I get antsy. We lived 18 months in our first place (married the last 4 of those months). We moved into a bigger townhouse. Then I lost my job so we moved into a cheaper apartment 11 months after that. Then a variety of reasons and we moved into our current apartment 12 months after that. Now it’s been 7 months and I’m looking at living spaces again. Sigh.

When we had the townhouse, our utilities were higher. It was SO HOT upstairs and freezing downstairs. Part of that was the quality of the townhouse – it wasn’t insulated very well. We felt like a lot of electricity was being wasted heating and cooling the place. We actually preferred the second apartment we were in, and would have stayed another year had we not had so many problems with that apartment.

So, we’ve moved 3 times, not counting my initial move because I had so little furniture at first that it trickled in over months. This past move was the first time we rented a truck – the other times we’ve borrowed mini vans and a pickup truck. Once we moved with just us and another couple! That move absolutely wiped me out, but I liked not having to deal with the craziness of having tons of people over helping. We’ll probably hire movers at our next move, since I’ll either be Great With Child or have a newborn.

Our biggest moving expense has been paying all the stupid move-in fees, especially the ridiculous pet fee – it can be up to $600 for some apartments!

I’m on the top floor of an apartment and we just have one exposed wall. Our electric bills are pretty low because of that.