Nothing about moving is ever easy! But for some crazy reason, Brent and I have decided time and time again to move. From, Los Angeles, to NYC and back, to Los Feliz, Calabasas, Studio City, Woodland Hills and random moves into my parent’s house in between… we have really covered almost all of Los Angeles! Now its time for us some-what-professional movers to take on the big move, the move that is different from all the rest, and honestly maybe one of our smoothest – moving our 2 bedroom apartment in Woodland Hills CA to Austin TX!
So you might be thinking…why Austin Texas ??? Well, for as long as I have known Brent, he has wanted to move out of Los Angeles and/or California. He literally had a one way ticket to move to NYC when I met him. That is until I came along and really ruined his plans and dragged him back to L.A., but that is a WHOLE DIFFERENT, LONG LOVE STORY to be told another time!! We attempted to move out of state once before, right around the time we got married, to Portland OR! We were stoked, Brent got a job, we were READY! But, things quickly turned around when Brent’s current job came in with a counter offer and begged him to stay…and we stayed. He put in a few more years with the company and then learned they were opening a new location in Austin TX! We had visited Austin shortly on our honeymoon road trip and loved it! We talked a lot about the possibilities and potential of moving there and agreed it would be amazing! All signs were green, all the pros and cons, were mostly, almost all PROS! we explored all options of buying a house in CA, and ultimately thought, money just does not go very far there. The cost of living is a drag, the traffic is a drag, and while the biggest argument is the weather being unbeatable in CA , and i wont disagree, but we actually want real weather… the cold, rain, all of it – we really wanted a lower cost of living for a richer life, more family time, when you’re cutting out all the traffic hours to and from work, and more savings to spend on vacations! Everything was a reason enough for us to GO! The only cons on our list were friends and family, and figured…we’ll be saving enough to visit them often! So, Brent applied for the transfer and…
HE GOT THE JOB!
When you type into google “moving from CA to Texas” your screen will flood with moving companies!!! Believe me when I tell you- I called, emailed, quote requested every single one of them! I’m pretty sure Mayflower may have even been the first to pop up and I can say this so easily – they were the BEST !!!! And, to get this out of the way – this blog, nor was any post or insta story I did sponsored by them… but not because I didn’t try, I did! However when I did reach out for a potential partnership almost every company laughed at me and let me know that with the amount of people that are moving out of CA, they definitely did not need help promoting themselves…. L O L !!!! Anyhow, most quotes were in the same range for what we were shopping for, only some way higher, and if they were a lot cheaper, it was a red flag for us! After talking to experienced people with state-to-state moves and reading way too many reviews, Mayflower had the best reputation (I heard way too many horror stories of items being damaged, lost, trucks not showing up, getting charged extra fees last min etc. etc!). Mayflower also had the best to offer, and included it all in the package- they disassemble furniture and assemble at arrival – this was a huge deal to us because Brent would be alone in Austin with the moving company would arrive. They required a quick face-time chat with a rep where I showed them a virtual inventory of everything we would be including in the move for them to quote us. The final quote came the next and with two options, and insurance options as well. The entire process was easy and very time efficient from the start. After agreeing, all we had to do was make sure everything we were taking with us was boxed up by the time they arrived. They came, took apart and wrapped our furniture, handled the mattress and just made everything so seamless and all in about 2 hours! Brent and I thought we were moving pros…. HA! They gave us a detailed report of the number of boxes and big items and even a tracking on the truck as well! We still had a few things to wrap in LA once we were out of our Woodland Hills apt so the truck had 2 weeks of being held and arrived on the exact date and time we agreed on. Brent had gotten to austin 2 days earlier than Nealia and I, so that he could have the place a bit set up before bringing the baby in to her new home, we wanted to make the transition as easy as possible for her. When the movers arrived, it was just Brent and he did very little aka, stayed out of their way and let the real professional work and again, everything was super smooth!
A lot the top companies in comparison to Mayflower each had their own sneaky catch to steer us away… Upack, Uhaul, PODS etc… there was many red flags I came across- so it was a very timely process to cross check everyone and their quotes.
While a full service move is costly, for an out of state move it was so necessary and really took the major stress of it all off us. Brent was still working full time during the move and I was as well (full – time mom!) and like I said, no part of moving is ever easy… try packing up an entire apt with a baby! I am really, really thankful for the efficiency of Mayflower, and their wonderful ways of getting our stuff safely to austin!
YEE HAW!
jessmakesmagic 