Updated 2018
If we had a dollar for every time someone asked “Wait, you guys do all this DIY but you don’t own a truck?” – let’s just say we’d be able to afford a big ol’ truck. But we love being a single-car household and for years owned a modestly sized Nissan Altima (we now have a small SUV, a Toyota Highlander). So over the years, we’ve definitely had to get creative when it comes to getting large items home – furniture, lumber, tools, etc. So if you find yourself unable to transport something with the vehicle you drive, here are a few ways that we’ve found a solution.
Hauling Tip #1: Ask At The Store
Did you know you can rent a pick-up truck directly from Home Depot and Lowe’s? It’s usually just $19 for the first $75, so it can be a super convenient, affordable, and low-stress option. We’ve rented from both stores SEVERAL TIMES to transport everything from large rented tools, long PVC piping, drywall sheets, hardwood flooring, and oversized bathroom reno materials (and some breakfast bagels while we were at it).
Typically they are meant for hauling items bought at that particular store, but we once had someone rent one to pick up a Craigslist item from our house. They were able to swing by, grab the mattress, and swiftly get the truck back to Home Depot with plenty of time to spare.
Hauling Tip #2: Find A “Man With A Van”
Check your neighborhood message boards – like Facebook, Nextdoor, or Craigslist – to see if there’s a neighbor or other “helper for hire” who will help pick-up items for a small fee. Sites like TaskRabbit even offer furniture pick-up or moving. The added bonus is that you likely get some help lifting or moving large or heavy objects too. Just use your best judgment when hiring a stranger and be prepared to be patient and flexible based on their availability. And be creative too – someone with a trailer could be a great option for hauling junk or piles of reno trash to dump, rather than renting a dumpster.
Hauling Tip: #3: Give It Away
If you need help getting rid of a large item, find a charitable donation center like the Habitat For Humanity ReStore that does free pick-up. This is great because it doesn’t cost a cent, they come to you, and it’s even a tax write-off! We recently donated our old sink and faucet from our big bathroom makeover this way. We just called to arrange a pick-up and they arrived right on time to grab everything. And of course, you can always list things as “free with pick up” on Facebook Marketplace to clear out your clutter in a snap (no driving necessary).
Hauling Tip #4: Phone A Friend
Ask a friend to borrow their bigger car/SUV/truck/etc. John’s sister Emily happens to have a large Explorer and we definitely bribe her with food or gas to switch cars for a few hours (or even a full day) so we can make an Ikea run or take a bunch of items to the local recycling center when it’s garage clean out time. And every once in a while we take on a personal challenge without the help of Em’s larger car (like when we were determined to get two bifold doors into our tiny ten year old Maxima last year (mission accomplished!).
Hauling Tip #5: Rent A Moving Truck
U-Hauls aren’t just for moving to a new house, and unlike the Home Depot or Lowe’s trucks, you may find more flexibility and options through a traditional moving company (like small trailers to large trucks with loading ramps). We rented one once to move a single, vintage stove simply because we needed the ramp. It was a bit pricier and more complicated to rent, but I was able to get exactly what I needed for that particular task. So it never hurts to explore this option!
So that’s how we take home the occasional supersized item, haul a slew of things off to the recycling center from time to time, or even get a local thrift store to do the hard work for us after we tackle some pretty major renos – all without owning a big SUV or a truck. Do you guys have other haul it tips to share? Any especially creative ways that you’ve gotten something huge back to your house (in a not so huge vehicle)? Tell us all about it.
Gretchen says
What perfect timing!
Just this week we needed to get 1 ton (yep, 1 ton) of slate tiles to the home we’re moving into. While we usually borrow my dad’s pickup, the tile weight was too much. Light bulb moment! For $20 we rented the Home Depot truck and my awesome (and left-brained) husband was able to get the tiles to the house and unloaded quickly, and back to HD just at the 70 minute mark. It was perfect! (And considering we’re watching every penny on this reno and using coupons every time we can, who wanted to eat up our savings on a big rental? $20 was perfect.)
As for pickup of other nonwanted things (not home reno things, though), there’s always the lupus foundation pickup and the united war veterans of america — I get a postcard in the mail every month or two, and just call to sign up.
Then I know I have X amount of weeks to start to make a pile of things we no longer use, need or whatever. I even ask them to make a reminder call the day before. Pretty foolproof. Then all I have to do is put it out front by 7 am and bingo — it’s gone, and I’m left with a receipt for my taxes.
Even when I don’t think we have anything, I like to sign up for it b/c once I start thinking about it, there’s always something — clothes my daughter has outgrown, old books we don’t want anymore, craft stuff, shoes, decorative things we’ve been storing for who knows what reason — and they all go to the charity and I get the tax write-off — and I never left my house or loaded a car. I sort of use it as a clutter-keeper-away-er. (Yes, that’s totally a word.) It’s a nice way to purge every couple months — and it doesn’t have to be tons of things. Even just a bag is one bag less in my house and one bag more for the charity.
Wahoo!
Gretchen says
Oops — forgot to mention “freecycle” as an awesome resource. Keep things out of the landfill and circulating among people who can use it.
Yesterday I posted that we had about 50 red clay bricks free for the taking. Ten minutes later I had a response, and within the hour all the bricks were loaded and off my property!
Sweet! They could use them and I didn’t want them. Poifect. ;)
YoungHouseLove says
Oh yeah, we love Freecycle! It’s a great way to get rid of things (no hauling involved at all!) while keeping them out of landfills and giving them a second life.
xo,
s
Becky says
We have chosen to be a one-car couple as well. We’ve done that for the last 4 years and we feel really good about our choice. We have done our share of borrowing vehicles to haul things home. And then haul things away :)
Melly says
I have to throw my “me too” in there with Christina R and Amy. Our local Home Depot would not let us rent a truck without a purchase.
Dana @ House*Tweaking says
I think you maybe forgot one method for getting rid of large loads… listing it FREE with pick-up on Craiglist. (I think you did this for your backyard boxwoods?) Anyhow, I had a huge, old, heavy sofa that I would have maybe gotten $40 for. However, it was handed down to me from neighbors so I felt bad about taking money for it (and they sure as heck didn’t want it back!). I needed it out of my house ASAP as a new sofa was arriving. So, remembering your post about how you got people to remove and haul away your boxwoods, I listed it FREE with self-load and pick up. I’m not joking when I say I had 20 calls in less than 10 minutes. The old sofa was gone in one hour!!! Maybe I missed out on some moola but it seems Craigslist ‘buyers’ are more willing to haul away something on short notice for FREE.
YoungHouseLove says
So true! We love Craigslist and Freecycle for the no-effort-needed approach. It’s amazing when other people will do the work for you!
xo,
s
girlrobot says
if you sign up for a lowe’s business credit card (if you are doing home remodeling this counts), you get 10% off your first purchase and free delivery whenever you order anything from then on! it’s very convenient and nice :)
Benita says
Haha, we’ve renovated our whole house by ourselves and we don’t even have a car or even drive! You just need to plan more and get stuff delivered in bulk:)
chereemoore says
Funny – My husband and I have been renovating our home for the last 4+ years. We too have a Nissan Altima and were a single car family for over a year. You definitely have to get creative in how you haul things. We have hauled a 20 foot board sticking out of the sun roof as well as an armoire {in 2 separate trips} on the roof rack (among other things).
Katie says
I just called our Home Depot and they said that there is a new rule that you can not rent a truck with them unless you are hauling something you bought from the store. Just thought I would share…it maybe just my area.
YoungHouseLove says
Thanks for the tip Katie! We rented a truck from them a few months back and that rule wasn’t enforced at ours (the truck rental desk wasn’t even the desk that you check out at, so we’re not sure how they would enforce it) but perhaps it’s worth a call before assuming you can just drive off with one. One person above mentioned that you can also buy a big piece of drywall or plywood to meet the “hauling” criteria (which should only run you around $6-9 dollars) and then you can definitely leave with the truck no matter what their policy is. Hope it helps!
xo,
s
LyndseyG says
We have a Ford Escape, but it has carseats, so its haul-ability is limited. We’ve tied many things to the roof or left it hanging out the back window with the window tied down.
Also, a time or two, we’ve uninstalled carseats and taken the front seat out of the Escape in order to make more hauling room. When we bought our 5×5 (cubbies, not feet) Expedit, we had to do that. We also did that when we hauled a treadmill home.
Sara says
Our Home Depot only rents to “customers” :-(
My brother rents a truck twice a year and plans all his hauling needs around that: trips to Ikea, large electronics, fitness equip, appliances, etc. In the spring his last stop is for bulk mulch. Then he hoses it out and returns it. It works for him, but he is anal that way :-D
We just bought 20 arborvate and 10 huge bags of potting mix at Coscto. Have a craigslist guy lined up to bring it home – hopefully it will work out! the $250 we saved over the price of the same items elsewhere is WAY more than the cost of the hauling.
Sarah says
Thanks for the hauling tips! Having two smaller vehicles, I am always bypassing great CL deals thinking it would be too much trouble to haul them away.
Beth says
You guys are great! Like you, we regularly rennovate and haul without a truck and are big fans of the beg and borrow method. We have mannaged to tie a surprising number of things to the roof of our civic and when we bought a new car last year, we got a honda insight — just as much for the hybrid as for the fold down seats and hatch back. We’ve become real experts at making this work.
Heather S. says
I have a Cavalier and have brought home bookcases, a dining table and chairs in it among other things (bikes, ladders,etc). The only time I rented a vehicle was a Home Depot truck to bring drywall to my house during my recent basement remodel.
Off topic (kinda) but I thought you guys really wanted a Rogue. What steered you away from the Rogue and to the Altima?
YoungHouseLove says
Hey Heather,
Alas, we will always be Rogue lovers from afar, but after comparing prices and test driving a bunch of them we came to the conclusion that it was thousands of dollars more for a base model Rogue (it didn’t even have a mirror behind the sun visor in the passenger seat) with just a smidge more cargo space (the entire backseat of our Altima folds down, so we would really only gain a bit more headroom storage in the Rogue). And of course the Altima’s superior gas mileage and 5-star safety rating coupled with the fact that it was car of the year swayed us as well. It’s definitely a personal choice, and maybe we’ll opt for a crossover when we have more kids and kid gear to tote around, but with one little baby it seemed like a big jump to go from sedan to crossover (especially since we could save some substantial money up front and in gas over time by sticking to the sedan, which came with a lot more features than the base-model Rogue did anyway). Hope it helps!
xo,
s
Tiffany says
We do the homedepot truck rental as well or borrowing a friend’s car. Currently, huby has measured the trunk and backseat of our bigger car so now I know what I’m limited to when shopping :P
Heather S. says
Thanks for the info! I’ve been looking at the Rogue and wondered what made you change your mind. My Cavalier is on its last legs so a new car is in my near future unfortunately.
Miriam says
We are a 0 car couple. Hauling things by bicycle, handwagon and sometimes motorbike and trailer is what we do. We have bought a house near a train station to get to work.
If necessary (once or twice a year) I’ll rent a car from Mobility. Their red cars of all sizes tend to gravitate towards IKEA somehow.
Kelly says
My tiny VW Cabrio convertible was a go-to moving car. I hauled a table and 4 chairs, securing them all to the rollbar. It looked a little hillbilly and it wasn’t fun if it rained, but it worked better than my friends’ sedans!
Erica says
I drive a Honda Accord, and the back seat folds down so I can haul some larger items in the trunk/backseat with the seat down. I’ve managed to fit a LOT into my little Honda! I just have to call friends to help unload, since I’m single and don’t have anyone to help me unload heavy stuff!
If I can’t fit it in my car, I usually call my parents. My dad has a truck and my mom has a van, and most things fit in there. :-) Unfortunately, though, they live an hour and a half away, so I can’t borrow their cars very often. I have another friend who has a hatchback car I’ve borrowed a few times, but since they are moving soon, I guess I’ll have to try the Home Depot route! I hope they don’t just restrict to customers around here, because they’d be losing out on money if they did. That seems like a silly rule to me, but I guess it’s not my decision to make!
Kirsten says
It’s amazing what can fit in a small car if you really try. My husband and I drove to our nearest IKEA (4 hours each way) and managed to stuff 3 of the shorter Billy bookcases, 2 Lesvick CD towers, a 48 inch Lack wall shelf, and a bunch of other miscellany in my Ford Focus hatchback – and we were able to close the hatch as well. Also, neither one of us is small. I have long legs and need to have the seat all the way back when I drive, so there was no moving the seats up a notch to make it fit, though there was a bit of a wall between the hubs and me due to the CD towers.
I love your other ideas as well – a little creativity can get almost anything to anyplace!
Katharine says
I skimmed the comments and didn’t see anyone else suggest this – but try renting a minivan or cargo van from Enterprise or another car rental company. We did that several times to pick up furniture. It’s cheaper than renting from UHaul because mileage is unlimited.
andrea says
My little brother once went to Ikea with his wife. They ended up loading their car with their goodies and strapping a couch to the top! Then they went home (from DC to NC) hilarious!
Peggy says
This post made me smile. We have done the same thing—lots of house work with no truck. I just had to post a picture of us hauling 4 new doors and some chair rail home in our Honda Civic. You can’t tell, but there are also two carseats in the back with our two girls in them. Good times! My husband is a pro at this kind of thing—he’s not afraid to take a 19′ ladder on the freeway in the back of this car! http://lundanway.blogspot.com/2010/04/hauling-it.html
Rachel says
You can also rent a large van from Ikea for about the same price (at least you could in Montreal). My friend did this when she bought a tiny desk from there – so that we could switch beds (she was moving to a smaller apartment so I took her double size bed for my twin – score).
Elizabeth says
As a car-free person, I have to put the word in for Zipcar. It costs me around $10/hour and I can get a Subaru Outback or Tacoma Pickup when I need it to get transport those thrift store or Craigslist finds.
Jenny says
Thanks for sharing this post. This post was how I learned that Home Depot rents trucks, actually. Although I saw that their truck says, “rent me hourly” instinctively I always think, “yeah right, its probably difficult to rent and lots of hidden fees etc.” — But after reading about your experience I decided to call and get details then we gave it a try. It was super easy, the guy here said they don’t check mileage – just fill it up before bring back. And so, we transported our front loader washer and dryer home.
JacK says
Having limited cargo room has saved me lots of money on impulse buys I must admit. Amazed what I can haul in the Toyota Matrix with the seats folded down. Hauled fifty (50) eight foot 2×4’s and managed to get all the doors closed. Had to take it easy around corners to keep the stack from tumbling on me. The guy in the lumberyard gave me a questioned look when I handed him the load slip and said, “In this??” The wife now refuses to go with me to home depot after one incident. Driver, passenger, and a baby packed into the matrix with two 2x6x8’s, 10 bags of concrete, 4 cinder blocks, and 5 rolls of insulation. This car is great for hauling lumber, however, I’m not going to attempt drywall or plywood. That puts the brakes on a lot of little weekend projects. Will Home Depot rip a 4×8 sheet in half for you?
YoungHouseLove says
Not sure. Hmm. Anyone know? Sometimes we rent their $19 Home Depot truck to get lots of big stuff home.
xo,
s
JacK says
I once hauled a ton of plants in my Wrangler. We just built our house and needed lots of landscaping. Had to put the top down and had plants overflowing in every direction. Had a plant on my lap and some bigger trees (6-8ft) too. These where burlapped up and hung down over the back in “The Grinch Who Stole Christmas” style. Had to go slow as I was leaving (a pun?) a trail of leaves behind me. I should have taken a picture of that setup, but at the time was too embarrassed. Needless to say, despite being a road hazard, I brought a smile and laugh to a lot of fellow motorists that day.
DJ says
I once had no car and needed to transport a bifold door to downtown denver. I took the bus!! I kid you not. The drive gave me weird looks, but said nothing, so me and the door took a seat in the back, not one person complained or asked what was going on. I only got a few strange looks. Then after I got off, after about 20-30 mins, I had to walk across civic center park in the main area of down town, all without one problem! Too bad I didn’t have someone snap a photo!
YoungHouseLove says
That’s amazing! Haha. Love it!
xo,
s
Marita says
I just saw this post and had to add –
One time, I passed a free entertainment center on the side of the road. I was so excited that I pulled over right away… but it didn’t fit in the back of our hatchback! So, on my husband’s recommendation, I drove to Lowes and bought a furniture dolly. We then lashed the entertainment center to the dolly and pushed it up the hill to our apartment! It was a ton of work but it got the job done!
YoungHouseLove says
That’s amazing Marita!
xo
s