· by Michael Blair, Nashville's Mover
The sale closes on the fifteenth and the purchase closes on the twenty-eighth. The lease ends before the house is ready. The new build slips a month. Some version of a gap happens in a large share of Nashville moves, and the question is where the contents of a house go in between. There are three usual answers: the moving company holds it, you rent a storage unit, or a portable container sits somewhere. They differ in how many times the goods are handled, who is responsible for them, and how easy it is to get at something in the middle.
Storage in transit with the mover
Most full-service movers offer storage in transit: the crew loads the truck as for any move, but instead of delivering, the goods go into wooden storage vaults in the mover’s warehouse and stay there until the delivery date. The same company that packed and loaded delivers, so the inventory and the valuation coverage run continuously from the first house to the second.
The advantages are one contract, one point of responsibility and goods handled by the people who packed them. The disadvantages are cost, which is billed by the month or the day, and access; getting to a box in a warehouse vault means an appointment and often a fee. Storage in transit is the right choice for a gap of days to a few weeks where you do not need anything in the meantime.
A self-storage unit
Renting a unit and having the movers deliver there, then load from there later, is often the cheapest storage over a longer gap, and you have access whenever the facility is open. It is also two moves: the goods are loaded, unloaded into the unit, loaded again and unloaded again, and each handling is a chance for damage. The mover’s coverage ends at the unit door on the way in and starts again on the way out, so anything that happens in between is on the unit’s insurance or yours.
Choose climate control in Nashville for anything longer than a few weeks. An unconditioned unit here runs hot and humid all summer, and wood furniture, electronics, photographs and mattresses do not come out the way they went in. Check the unit size against the mover’s estimate of your volume; an undersized unit means a second unit at the last minute.
- Days to a few weeks, nothing needed in between: storage in transit
- Longer gap, need access, budget matters: climate-controlled self-storage
- A driveway or a lot to put it on: a portable container
- Any option: the valuation coverage and where it starts and stops
Portable containers
A container is dropped in the driveway, loaded over days, picked up and stored at the company’s yard, and delivered to the new address to unload. The goods are handled twice, into and out of the container, which is fewer times than a self-storage unit. Loading it yourself is the budget version; a moving crew can load and unload it for you.
The constraints are space and rules. The container needs a flat, accessible spot, and some neighborhoods and HOAs limit how long one can sit on a street or driveway. Access while it is in the yard is by appointment. Containers are unconditioned, so the same cautions about heat and humidity apply to a long summer gap.
Making the gap easier
Whichever route, separate what you will need during the gap before the movers arrive: clothes for the interval, documents, medications, chargers, a few kitchen basics, whatever the children and the pets need. That goes in the car, not the truck, and it should be labeled as staying out even when the crew is moving fast. Nothing is more expensive to retrieve than one box in a warehouse vault.
Ask the mover to walk you through where coverage starts and stops in the option you choose, and get the storage charges and the redelivery charge in writing. If the gap grows, as gaps do, know what a longer stay costs and how much notice the redelivery needs.