Moving container delivery doesn't match apartment move-in dates
Moving container companies often restrict deliveries to specific weekdays and do not drop off on Sundays, which rarely lines up with exact apartment lease start dates. Because transit and delivery schedules can take nearly two weeks, people are forced to take time off work or live in empty apartments on air mattresses with only takeout and disposable kitchenware.
What people tried
Every workaround mentioned in the threads below. We haven’t tested any of them — and nobody here is claiming they worked.
Found another way around this?
Share your steps and trade-offs so fellow engineers don't have to reinvent the wheel. No account required.
- 1Staying in a hotel overnight and scheduling weekday deliveryDid this help you?
- 2Having the container dropped off a day early in a complex parking lotDid this help you?
- 3Leaving the container at the warehouse and renting a U-Haul to finish the moveDid this help you?
- 4Taking additional time off work to accommodate weekday delivery routesDid this help you?
- 5Going 'apartment camping' on an air mattress until the container arrivesDid this help you?
- 6Using container services with flexible delivery dates or built-in storage options.Did this help you?
- 7Packing a vehicle with 'essentials' like an air mattress, basic kitchenware, and clothing to camp out in the empty house.Did this help you?
- 8Driving a personal vehicle to the new location first, then flying back to finish packing.Did this help you?
- 9Having pet essentials shipped ahead of time to a family member's house at the destination.Did this help you?
In their words
Unedited, grouped by where they were said, most upvoted first within each place, each linked to the thread it came from.
“I am planning an upcoming cross country move and need to hire movers. I would like movers to load up my current apartment a couple days before I move out so I can do a deep clean and force my landlord to do a walkthrough with me there. I then would drive my own car with three pets and would probably need to stop halfway. I would like to do a walkthrough of the new apartment before moving stuff in. So all-in-all probably about 5 days between when I need stuff loaded and then unloaded. And I'm not comfortable driving a Uhaul with a car trailer attached. If I wasn't in apartments I'd consider Pods. I'm a little at a loss for logistics for this.”source ↗
“I'm moving out of state and planning to use Pods to ship my stuff. However, my apartment move-in day is on a Sunday (I wanted Saturday but my apartment office isn't open Saturdays) and I've just learned that Pods doesn't do deliveries on Sunday.”source ↗
“I had to wait a week and a half for them cuz they only delivered in Wednesday. Took the day off. They didnt show up. They wanted to come the following Wednesday.”source ↗
“currently in the process of moving from CO to WA with my partner. we have a house and did uhaul boxes again, all our stuff got packed up on the 30th/31st and will arrive the 11th (i believe). we are currently living in our house with an air mattress, folding chairs, air fryer, and any other essentials.”source ↗
“The waiting time feels rough when you just want your things to settle in, but some disposable/compostable kitchen ware and takeout will get you through!”source ↗
“I am doing something similar, I am planning to go with zippy shell. We will pack everything up, they are going to bring a 16ft trailer and load everything up that day and take off to my destination. They have up to 10 days to get there but if they get there before me, they have a climate controlled storage facility that they will hold my stuff at and then when I’m ready they are going to come and unload everything.”source ↗
Where this came up
People with this problem also raised
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