Do It Yourself Moving With Truck Rental And Self Storage

By Author: smith9520b
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Moving companies take a lot of the hassle out of packing your house or apartment up and loading everything onto a truck, and then save you a lot of work by unloading everything for you at your new home. This is great if you can afford the extra $4,000 or $5,000 associated with these services, but for most people, hiring a moving company simply isn't an option.

For shorter moves, it may also be a good strategy to rent a large truck to save on fuel and cut down on the time it takes for multiple trips back and forth between your new and old home. If saving money on the rental truck is important, there are a number of smaller trucks you can choose from which get better gas mileage than the bigger trucks and are cheaper to rent. This is a good option if you simply don't need a large truck or don't have very many items to move.

Several rental options to choose from

* Pickup trucks
Great for small moves or multiple trips across town.

* Cargo vans
Also a great choice for small loads or someone who doesn't have very many items to relocate.

* 10-12 foot trucks
These smaller rental ...
... trucks get great fuel economy and are a good choice for studio or small apartment moves.

* 14-16 foot trucks
Good for a 1-2 bedroom home or apartment move.

* 17-20 foot trucks
Good for a 2-3 bedroom home or apartment move.

* 20-24 foot trucks
Good for a 3-4 bedroom home or apartment move.

* 26 foot or larger trucks
Good for a 4+ bedroom home move.

* Trailers
Other rental options include small, medium, and large trailers for easy local moving jobs or longer trips requiring smaller loads. Special trailers can also be rented for moving entire vehicles either by towing them or on flat bed style trailers, and open trailers with sides can handle recreational vehicles such as ATV's or lawn tractors, or awkward items like large appliances.

Storage for the do-it-yourselfer

Moving companies usually transport your goods on semi trailer trucks and can store your items while they are still on the truck in a parking lot or a warehouse. If you drive your own truck and are paying by the mile or by the hour, you won't have this luxury and may need to offload the items on the truck into storage at some point to cut down on costs if your new home or apartment isn't ready to receive your belongings yet.

You may also need self storage if you're trying to sell one home while purchasing another one, or if you're downsizing from a larger to a smaller home. There are several factors to take into account when contracting a self storage company, and many truck rental companies have agreements with self storage rental companies, making it easy to schedule and coordinate loading and unloading.

The benefits of self storage are endless:

* Security for all of your belongings, often with features such as gated entry, individual entry codes, flood lighting and video surveillance

* On site resident managers at some facilities

* Protection from the elements in a clean, well maintained, dry storage unit

* Pest and vermin control

* Availability of climate controlled units

* Affordable unit rent with easy terms and conditions

* Flexibility of storage unit sizes and functions

* 24 hour a day access, 7 days per week

* Peace of mind that comes from having someone else care for your items

The comfort of storing important items off site

You can utilize self storage units to keep valuable items or important documents off-site and away from possible harm. This way, if fire, catastrophe, or other disasters strike your home, you won't lose valuable keepsakes, antiques, luxury items, or irreplaceable records and documents.

Help if you need it

Additional services provided by some self storage companies include help moving your items in or out of your storage space, moving and packing supplies or even moving truck rental.

Items you typically could store in self storage include:

* Clothing

* Furniture

* Antiques

* Collectibles

* Vehicles such as cars, boats, RVs

* Photographs, films, or videos

* Appliances

* Bulky machinery

* Important documents

* Valuables

* Wine storage

Items you generally cannot store in self storage:

* Combustible, Flammable, Hazardous or Toxic Materials

* Medical/Pharmaceutical Supplies & Equipment

* Perishable Food and Animal Products

* Any animals or plants

* Stolen items.

* Plugged in refrigerators, freezers, generators, space heaters

Finding the right truck rental or storage company

To find a moving truck rental company, consult the yellow pages or Internet. Try and stick with nationally known companies to assure that they will have the truck that you need or can get one from another branch in time to meet your moving date. Don't be afraid to ask a lot of questions in order to discover all of the costs and get a written estimate of your moving expenses.

For help finding a suitable storage company near you, use an Internet self storage search engine like Storage Concierge at www.storageconcierge.com. They are a free service and you can search for one near you by city, state, or zip code. Call or email the company and also get a written estimate of your storage costs.

For more information on truck rental and other storage related services, please visit http://www.storageconcierge.com.