Experience with PODS for Moving Storage

I used PODS to move from California to Oregon. It was very convenient to have the PODS placed in my driveway to have loaded and unloaded. My realtor recommended a specific kind of lock that he said he recommended all of his clients use. It is very sturdy and not easy to cut off.

www.homedepot.com/p/Master-Lock-Heavy-Duty-Outdoor-Shrouded-Padlock-with-Key-3-1-8-in-Wide-M50XKADCCSEN/202260769?source=shoppingads&locale=en-US&pla&mtc=SHOPPING-CM-CML-GGL-D25H-025_005_SEC_SAFETY-NA-NA-NA-PMAX-5762521-NA-NA-NA-NBR-NA-NA-NA-SafetySecurity&cm_mmc=SHOPPING-CM-CML-GGL-D25H-025_005_SEC_SAFETY-NA-NA-NA-PMAX-5762521-NA-NA-NA-NBR-NA-NA-NA-SafetySecurity-71700000113120999--&gad_source=1&gclid=CjwKCAjw_e2wBhAEEiwAyFFFo55lk243Ngg2cyepI8ZA3wIzYqDQIR46ISsmB8wdtSRik9hbFloMwhoCuuIQAvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds

I got mine at Home Depot. One of the locks had something jammed into the key area and I had to have a locksmith come to remove it. He couldn’t get whatever it was in the key area out either so he had to cut the lock off. We wondered if some kid was playing around and squirt something in there. He had to use a small power rotary blade because of how the locks are made. It took him about 15 minutes of cutting, which surprised me. Either that lock was very hard or his blade was not strong enough for the job. It did give me confidence in the locks though.

I made the mistake of not fully downsizing before my move, mainly because I hadn’t intended to move just yet but took advantage of having to have my stuff put on pods because I had a bad water leak and my entire downstairs, including lots of wallboard and the entire floor needed to be replaced. I figured as long as my stuff was on a pod, I should just move. My realtor was super helpful in orchestrating a lot for me because I was so sick. And since I was selling, I didn’t care what flooring and paint was used so I let him choose what he felt would sell the best. My house sold with multiple offers within a few days so he chose well. And I really liked that the bulk of my stuff was out of the house when people were looking at it. My neighbors went and told me how people were opening every drawer and cupboard and touching the few things that were mine and left in the closet and garage.

I will undoubtedly use the pod system for any future move, but I will be getting rid of the majority of my stuff first. At my age, I can still do a lot more downsizing.

And also because I had been quite sick and just not up to making decisions and physically sorting things. Big mistake because I am paying for that now as I unpack each box, I am only keeping some things and repacking the boxes for sale or donation. Fortunately this house has a large garage for me to work in.

So take my advise and don’t pay to have things you don’t want moved and stored. I regret that.

We used a pod service last summer when we moved. We had 25 days between moving out of our rental and into our new house, so needed something.

We used Big Blue Box, not Pods for the company. There is a charge for the box delivery, a pickup/delivery fee to the new location, and a fee to pick it up again once it’s empty. There’s also a monthly rental fee. Our box was freshly painted and the floor was extremely clean. We had the ability to use 2 locks on the door and used the standard high security locks.

With online discounts that I found, BBB was slightly cheaper, but what made me choose them was their customer service. They didn’t charge us for 2 weeks of storage. And when they delivered our box, they didn’t charge us a delivery fee because they picked up the previous homeowners box (they used the same company) at the same time. I’m sure this is dependent on the local office, so be sure to have a quote with all the costs broken out.

It was $30 to have the empty box delivered to the old house, $120 to have the full box brought to the storage facility, and $80 for the final (empty) pick up. Then it was $175 for the box rental for the month.

They were great about being flexible with drop off/pick up dates. We filled it much quicker than expected and they came the next day to pick up the full container to bring to their storage facility. Same when we emptied it. It was nice to have that flexibility. 

You want to pack the box as fully and firmly as possible to keep things from shifting. They use a truck similar to a flat bed tow truck to winch up the container. There’s a high degree of tilt when they pick up/drop the container. They did have blocks to level the container in our driveway.

It took about a day and a half for DH and my brother to load the container and about a day for DH to empty it. We had all of our outdoor furniture, garage items, and a ton of boxes in there. Because it was summer, we only used it for things that could withstand the heat, so I held out my studio items. We used a climate controlled garage on our property for our other items.

We weren’t charged by the pound, but the truck did have a scale and the driver was impressed with the weight of the box when it was fully loaded!

We used them in 2019 and I loved it. It was great to be able to load things ourselves just how we wanted them (we did hire some movers specifically for my piano). I felt they were very secure (we used a giant round lock, I don't remember the exact type, but it was recommended to us) and have them delivered when we were settled (had to live with my parents then my husband's parents for about a month each). Highly recommend!

We bought a 6’x12’ enclosed trailer when we moved which wasn’t exactly the same but the same concept. My only advice would be to use moving boxes that are sized to stack together neatly and then pack that sucker FULL. We ended up using some oddball random sized boxes along with a bunch of our furniture and other stuff and it shifted all around in transit.

We use PODS about 17+ years ago, when DW and I moved in together. It was easy and no fuss at that time.

When we moved from CA to WA, PODS didn't go to our WA address, so we used UHaul's version (UBox) and it was mostly easy/stress-free. We had 3 different "boxes" come/go at different times as we moved through staging the house for sale and then moving out once sold. We purchased our own locks (with keys) and also put Apple Airtags into each so we could keep track of them as well. No real issues with the exception of getting the last pod picked up (we weren't on the schedule that we should have been on). In the end it worked out fine. Nothing broken. We packed them FULL. Each pod came with 12(?) large furniture blankets to help pad things and fill in spaces as needed. Because we live kind of out of the way, we could only schedule delivery/pickups of the boxes on certain days of the week, so it took about 3 weeks before we could get them delivered to our WA location.

All that said, we would use UBox again if doing a big DIY move again.

I used one when I moved from Austin to Santa Barbara. I downsized IMMENSELY. As a matter of fact, as you can see, my pod was too big. (There’s a lot more furniture and boxes that you can’t see in the back. But I didn’t move a sofa or bed). I hired movers to load and unload it. It was easy and I didn’t have any problems. Everything arrived safely. If I were doing a bigger move, I would probably do traditional movers. 

Our pod was a metal shipping container, not wooden. Katybee, I’m amazed that your items arrived in one piece and not broken and dirty! If you have empty space, fill it with assembled empty boxes. Anything is better than having items rattling. After 18 moves with the Air Force, all of my furniture has scrapes and rubs from being carted around the world, and that’s with it wrapped!

Our container had ribs every 4 feet as part of the container structure. We used ratchet straps in Xs across to hold the load in place at that point. We saved our boxes from our move from Belgium, but then sold them on Marketplace, along with packing paper. Don’t use newspaper—the ink will rub off on everything. I bought big rolls of cling film specifically for moving from Amazon, along with packing tape. We only used 3 rolls of the cling film and wrapped all of our furniture in moving blankets before using the film. It keeps the blankets in place, keeps drawers closed, and pieces together. We used about 20 rolls of the tape, taping the center seam and the two side seams on the top and bottom of the boxes. That provides more structural support and keeps dust out of the boxes.

Another thing that was worth its weight was the hand truck I linked below. It was great use use like a dolly or a cart and was really, really helpful. DH was using it last weekend to move some flower pots around and said it may be the best thing that he’s ever purchased. We also had a furniture dolly like I linked below (but not this specific one) that was helpful, but we mostly used the hand truck.

If you are moving a washer, dryer, refrigerator, etc, the moving straps that I linked are surprisingly helpful. We didn’t use them much, but they were helpful when we needed them.

Cling film:
www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0BW5DF8X4/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Tape
www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08D4K9DLM/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&th=1

Hand Truck
www.costco.com/cosco-4-in-1-convertible-hand-truck.product.4000119325.html

Straps
www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01JOF51AU/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Furniture dolly
www.amazon.com/WEN-721830-1000-Pound-Capacity-30-Inch/dp/B07DB3XB21/ref=sr_1_4?crid=KJZM54TEQVA0&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.NByIQ_0iVAqQCy7kqFeNh877zI44pc1-S9cITZZHjGKLpA6Rb4MywthTpjL611OZIZHNMOHs7fDn-cF2Tpq400SA1wp1sGYvh51KgKG_NYO0y7hRUwS9XpSter4CURAWHk3Zi1lVlUKLnr32sxALF_y-2cd_troVLWGIUEzoWio3PNOjN2JX306fEBS8bRzfrVrI5-HwuNcDcSa2fFALXafh8d4maqRwV9sBFuvGZbw.M98hHk5QJc4gnMO0gCqRfEzaZZ9MU924U3ngb_Mp98E&dib_tag=se&keywords=Moving%2Bplatform&qid=1713297186&sprefix=moving%2Bplatform%2Caps%2C125&sr=8-4&th=1

cmpeter - how is the housing market up there? I am in Bay Area and we are also about to put house on the market - it’s not too crazy here - things seems to be selling fairly quickly for a bit over asking (maybe a few percentage points) - but not way above asking anymore.