Free/cheap containers??

[dobanion]

Matson got back to me. Port to port, Tacoma to Hilo, 40', is $9015. 20' was $7857. Seeing as how the cost of the containers are also very close 20 to 40, I'd say don't bother even thinking about 20's.

[Chas]

I know this thread is about containers, but if you are just wanting to get stuff over here, I think a moving company is better. They pack it, move it and unpack it for you.

I was skeptical as I've heard mostly horror stories about moving companies. Since all the reviews for all movers are "best ever" to "worst ever", I just picked one. I used City Moving with great results. They were EVERYTHING you would hope for. Great guys came and packed and loaded my stuff in PA. Took about 2 weeks for the stuff to get here. Another week till they brought it to the house and another great crew unloaded it and took the furniture upstairs and placed it in position.

I had packed all the boxes. Only one box was a little crushed on one side and some stuff came out. It was not damaged though and I didn't lose anything. I had slipped an Air Tag into one of the boxes. I could tell that every night during transit across the country to CA, the truck was in a trucking warehouse type facility. Never just on the side of the road or at a motel or something. It even picked up a ping while it was in the Pacific ocean! I guess a crew member with an iPhone walked close enough to the container. Same thing once it got here. It sat in the secure yard in Kawaihae until they brought it to the house.

I should note that it was only 360 cu ft of stuff, so not enough to fill a container anyway. The cost was around 6k. But even so, it was WAY less work than getting a container, getting everything INTO the container (they don't come with ramps or lift and are at least 5' off the ground). Securing the stuff in the container, then having to unpack and do the same thing in reverse in HI. No thanks. Just the thought of that wears me out. It was WELL worth the money considering the work it saved me.

Plus, do you REALLY need to bring a container's worth of stuff? I even question some of the stuff I brought!