Well, the main problem that needs to be solved is, you need a reliable way of packing, storing and moving one or more person's stuff from one location to another and possibly and possibpy unpacking on arrival on a specific date.

As it is now, the solutions to these problems have varying levels of self reliance. At the bottom, most simple, with highest level of self reliance

- Own, borrow or rent a truck, pack your own things, drive your own things to your destination, return truck if not yours. Requires packing loading and driving everything yourself. Price can vary but usually cheaper than movers.

Next you've got:

- Random personal ad people with trucks. Not usually professional companies, varying levels of quality and reliability from, will probably smash and lose your shit to basically a professional. Vehicles come varying sizes, may not be suitable for large or high end moves. Price varies, quality tends to correspond with price.

- Professional movers, varying levels of quality from will probably not break your stuff to will dust off and spit shine everything you own. Service can vary from simple loading transport and unloading to complete packing, loading, transport, unloading and unpacking. Cost can get high.

- Container options. These have much of the same upsides and downsides as a truck rental, with the fun of dealing with shipping.

All of these suffer from problems with shortage of booking around common moving days, a problem that has more to do with the way moves tend to be either the end or the the middle of the month.

Anything that involves other people handling your property will have a risk of poor reliability. Movers are one of those professions, similar to landscaping and other jobs that are physically demanding, but not that difficult, so tends to be a lower paid job companies fill with unskilled and temporary labourers, the reliability of whom can be questionable.

I've probably missed some things, but after moving only a few months ago, this is kind of the summary of what I found available. I just can't really think of anything that could really do it any better under those constraints.

You can also pack your stuff into boxes and ship it via FedEx to a package pickup point near your new house.

It doesn't work for furniture, but it can go a long way.

I would assume anything small/light enough to be easily shipped via FedEx could also fit into a reasonably-sized personal vehicle. Renting a one-way van is a fairly straightforward way to move a modest amount of stuff although you do have to plan ahead if you're moving at a busy time.

Or you're moving across the country and want to fly.

Well, sure, if you don't have a car and basically just have the equivalent of a dozen suitcases of stuff or so to transport. Personally, I haven't had that small amount of things since I entered college. Perhaps I'd be more compact these days with digital media and so forth, but I doubt I'm all that unusual.

I've lost count of how many times I've moved in the last 6 years since college. For the big moves, I just sold my furniture before leaving. Other than that, I pretty much fit your description.

If you're renting you really shouldn't be spending on furniture anyway, just get rid of it.

If you just need to ship things then there are all sorts of specialty pallet type containers that you can stick your things in and the LTL industry will get them where they're going within a couple percent of cost.

It's getting someone else to show up and stick all your crap in containers to your satisfaction and then the reverse at the destination that's the problem.