Thinking of moving to Southern Missouri from out of state?
My family and I did just that in 2021. We moved roughly 2000 miles from Chico, CA https://chico.ca.us/
to the Southern Missouri Ozarks, to a town and a state we had never been to before!
Mountain Grove, Missouri to be exact. https://mountaingrovemo.gov/
It was one of the best choices we ever made as a family, but there were plenty of stumbling blocks and learning moments along the way.
I’d like to share some things we learned in hopes someone might from our experience:
Downsize!
We got rid of lots of things before our move. We sold things. We gave away things. In true Wiltse family tradition, we burned some things. After all that we still managed to completely fill a 26 foot truck, and both of our vehicles.
Fast Forward almost 3 years later to present, and another move to a new home down the road about 20 minutes, and a LOT of that stuff is still in the same boxes it made its way here in from California! I couldn’t even tell you what’s in half of them, but they have moved twice now, and never been opened.
Point is, we often hold on to more things than we really need; save time, money, and energy by downsizing before your move. Here is a link to an article about just that I wish we would have read: https://www.forbes.com/home-improvement/moving-services/downsizing-before-a-move/
With the high cost of moving, my wife and I both agree if we were ever to do it again we would pack only sentimental items, sell everything else, and use that money and that saved not hiring movers to just buy new things once in the new home.
Hire a Legitimate Moving Company!
Don’t hire these guys, or any of their more legit-seeming counterparts.
If you learn anything from our experience, PLEASE pay attention to this one. Fake moving companies have become a SERIOUS problem since all the relocating post-pandemic.
I hired cheap movers I found online for our move across the country. BIG MISTAKE. They were just a little more expensive than renting my own U-Haul for the trip, and we were getting stressed about driving a truck that big, towing the other vehicle, etc. To make a long story very short, the company I hired loaded all our belongings except what fit in my ford ranger and my wife’s nissan. We signed some relatively professional looking paperwork, we hopped in our vehicles, and they were supposed to meet us at our house at the end of our 4 day drive. All good…
Except it quickly became apparent it wasn’t.
As soon as they pulled out of our driveway, all communication ended. We were at a rest stop somewhere in Wyoming when we realized we had been scammed. Halfway across the country, cars packed to the gills with suitcases, children, a dog and a cat, we didnt know if we’d ever see our belongings again. We filed police reports with the Chico Police Department. They informed us of how common this had become, and gave us little hope.
With the help of a wonderful Lawyer friend, a fortuitous photo of the unmarked moving trucks license plate, and a search warrant, we were able to match a name of who rented the truck to a matching name on Storage Units in San Jose, CA. Police found our things, and those of many others, marked for sale across 20 different personal storage units all registered under the same name. After a long time, and much stress, we finally got our belongings, delivered and unloaded under police supervision. The whole experience was incredibly stressful, and we were one of the lucky ones! Most people never see there stuff again.
If you do decide to hire Movers, do not make the same mistake I did! Here is an awesome article from moving.com on what too look for when hiring a mover: https://www.moving.com/tips/warning-signs-that-you-are-dealing-with-a-fake-mover/
Hope this helps you avoid some of the mistakes that we made! We would go through it all again if thats what it took, but hopefully you can avoid a similar story. All’s well, that ends well, and we couldn’t be happier with our new life Homesteading in the Southern Missouri Ozarks.
Happy Moving!