Moving across country: Sell everything or pay movers?

[Anonymous]

If you love it and it makes you happy then move it. If not enjoy shopping and maybe even changing the style there.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Get rid of anything you don't think you'll need or want. Be ruthless. Then get new quotes for packing, shipping and unloading. No unpacking.

There are fees associated with interstate moving and distance that you'll have no matter what. The variable is how much stuff you have to pack.

We just moved 2 bedrooms/2 baths/LR/DR/Kitchen + a Storage pick up 2200 miles for 10K. They packed us, but did not unpack. One day for packing, one day for loading.

I like your price much better.

We used United, though it's always dependent on the local carrier. Like you, we've had a bunch of corporate moves so we know the drill. We've just never had to pay ourselves.

One thing that we didn't have to deal with is that I think starting end of April, rates go up due to moving/busy season. We moved just before the end of the year when no one was moving. The difference would have been about 1K to 1.5K if we had moved in busy season.

I will add, that replacing has always ended up being more expensive than moving the furniture. Though it's only worth keeping if the old furniture fits in the new house and is worth saving. Cheap furniture can be replace with more cheap furniture, but expensive furniture just gets more expensive. Plus, selling even good furniture gets a fraction of what it's worth.

[Anonymous]

One out of the box idea - if you’re willing to drive a U-Haul or similar, you can cut your costs waaaaaay down. You could pay packers, then pay “moving helpers” to load the truck, then another set of moving helpers to unload on the other side. If you were planning on driving anyway, it’s not any skin off your nose, and a lot of U Hauls will let you tow your car. When I priced out movers, for a long move (although not that long) it cut my costs by 2/3rds.

Outside of that - the details of my move were different, but I also considered selling everything instead of moving it. There’s costs either way. But what I found is that if you have even just ONE piece of furniture that you’re unwilling to sell and want to keep, and thus you have to get some level of movers, the math immediately swings towards just moving all your stuff. The cost savings of decreasing the amount of stuff you’re moving is not enough to make up for the costs of having to buy stuff, so at that point, you’re better off keeping everything. Just something to think about.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Get rid of anything you don't think you'll need or want. Be ruthless. Then get new quotes for packing, shipping and unloading. No unpacking.

There are fees associated with interstate moving and distance that you'll have no matter what. The variable is how much stuff you have to pack.

We just moved 2 bedrooms/2 baths/LR/DR/Kitchen + a Storage pick up 2200 miles for 10K. They packed us, but did not unpack. One day for packing, one day for loading.

I like your price much better.

We used United, though it's always dependent on the local carrier. Like you, we've had a bunch of corporate moves so we know the drill. We've just never had to pay ourselves.

One thing that we didn't have to deal with is that I think starting end of April, rates go up due to moving/busy season. We moved just before the end of the year when no one was moving. The difference would have been about 1K to 1.5K if we had moved in busy season.

This is my issue. I’m spoiled. But now it’s time to put the big girl panties on and strategize this thing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:One out of the box idea - if you’re willing to drive a U-Haul or similar, you can cut your costs waaaaaay down. You could pay packers, then pay “moving helpers” to load the truck, then another set of moving helpers to unload on the other side. If you were planning on driving anyway, it’s not any skin off your nose, and a lot of U Hauls will let you tow your car. When I priced out movers, for a long move (although not that long) it cut my costs by 2/3rds.

Outside of that - the details of my move were different, but I also considered selling everything instead of moving it. There’s costs either way. But what I found is that if you have even just ONE piece of furniture that you’re unwilling to sell and want to keep, and thus you have to get some level of movers, the math immediately swings towards just moving all your stuff. The cost savings of decreasing the amount of stuff you’re moving is not enough to make up for the costs of having to buy stuff, so at that point, you’re better off keeping everything. Just something to think about.

Unless you just want new stuff for your new house.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If you love it and it makes you happy then move it. If not enjoy shopping and maybe even changing the style there.

OP here. There are a few pieces I love and absolutely must keep. The rest? Not so much. I’m going to consider cheaper ways to do this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Get rid of anything you don't think you'll need or want. Be ruthless. Then get new quotes for packing, shipping and unloading. No unpacking.

There are fees associated with interstate moving and distance that you'll have no matter what. The variable is how much stuff you have to pack.

We just moved 2 bedrooms/2 baths/LR/DR/Kitchen + a Storage pick up 2200 miles for 10K. They packed us, but did not unpack. One day for packing, one day for loading.

I like your price much better.

We used United, though it's always dependent on the local carrier. Like you, we've had a bunch of corporate moves so we know the drill. We've just never had to pay ourselves.

One thing that we didn't have to deal with is that I think starting end of April, rates go up due to moving/busy season. We moved just before the end of the year when no one was moving. The difference would have been about 1K to 1.5K if we had moved in busy season.

I will add, that replacing has always ended up being more expensive than moving the furniture. Though it's only worth keeping if the old furniture fits in the new house and is worth saving. Cheap furniture can be replace with more cheap furniture, but expensive furniture just gets more expensive. Plus, selling even good furniture gets a fraction of what it's worth.

Good point about furniture depreciation.

[Anonymous]

We moved our stuff cross country. Kind of regret it. It wasn’t ikea but not super nice furniture. Bought a more modern home and the furniture doesn’t quite fit but we made it fit.

[Anonymous]

Sell!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you love it and it makes you happy then move it. If not enjoy shopping and maybe even changing the style there.

OP here. There are a few pieces I love and absolutely must keep. The rest? Not so much. I’m going to consider cheaper ways to do this.

Take what you love and (let go of) sell the rest. Recently shut down my office and did well posting things on Craigslist and FB marketplace. I don’t miss what I sold at all and I kept what I adore. Good luck.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think you'd break even either way.

If you like your stuff, pay the movers.

If you want to start fresh and buy lots of new stuff during a pandemic where it's harder to go in person to buy things and there are shortages of things like common household appliances, then do that.

+1 this seems less like a "money" question and more of a question of how much you like your stuff, how stressed you are at the prospect of having to try to get rid of it, how much you have the appetite for going out to buy new stuff.

it seems hard to think you could spend less than $20k for a whole house full of furniture, that said. i'd imagine you'd end up spending quite a bit more. but, you'd have new stuff that is bought to be nice in your new house.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think you'd break even either way.

If you like your stuff, pay the movers.

If you want to start fresh and buy lots of new stuff during a pandemic where it's harder to go in person to buy things and there are shortages of things like common household appliances, then do that.

+1 this seems less like a "money" question and more of a question of how much you like your stuff, how stressed you are at the prospect of having to try to get rid of it, how much you have the appetite for going out to buy new stuff.

it seems hard to think you could spend less than $20k for a whole house full of furniture, that said. i'd imagine you'd end up spending quite a bit more. but, you'd have new stuff that is bought to be nice in your new house.

I agree about the stress of buying new furniture. The amount of time it takes driving around DMV traffic. Assuming that you will find what you are looking for. I would take as much as I can while keeping it within the moving budget. Have a yard sale for the remainder and make a few bucks.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I agree with not paying for unpacking services. Everytime I move I have had to clean the new house which best occurs prior to unpacking.

Yeah, good point. I guess I’m just used to company-paid and military moves where they do everything for you.

Military moves unpacked for you? We only did one move in the military. I had thought they unpacked for you too--but when I asked our movers they were really offended and kind of angry that I even mentioned it. We had 4 kids under the age of 7 at the time (including a 3 month old) so we really could have used the help, but they refused.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:One out of the box idea - if you’re willing to drive a U-Haul or similar, you can cut your costs waaaaaay down. You could pay packers, then pay “moving helpers” to load the truck, then another set of moving helpers to unload on the other side. If you were planning on driving anyway, it’s not any skin off your nose, and a lot of U Hauls will let you tow your car. When I priced out movers, for a long move (although not that long) it cut my costs by 2/3rds.

Outside of that - the details of my move were different, but I also considered selling everything instead of moving it. There’s costs either way. But what I found is that if you have even just ONE piece of furniture that you’re unwilling to sell and want to keep, and thus you have to get some level of movers, the math immediately swings towards just moving all your stuff. The cost savings of decreasing the amount of stuff you’re moving is not enough to make up for the costs of having to buy stuff, so at that point, you’re better off keeping everything. Just something to think about.

Unless you just want new stuff for your new house.

Sure, but that's a different question. This is about the cheapest way to get your stuff over - whether it's to move the stuff you have, or sell it and buy equivalent stuff on the other side. If you're also wanting to upgrade your stuff, that would add a whole bunch more money and a whole different angle.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:One out of the box idea - if you’re willing to drive a U-Haul or similar, you can cut your costs waaaaaay down. You could pay packers, then pay “moving helpers” to load the truck, then another set of moving helpers to unload on the other side. If you were planning on driving anyway, it’s not any skin off your nose, and a lot of U Hauls will let you tow your car. When I priced out movers, for a long move (although not that long) it cut my costs by 2/3rds.

Outside of that - the details of my move were different, but I also considered selling everything instead of moving it. There’s costs either way. But what I found is that if you have even just ONE piece of furniture that you’re unwilling to sell and want to keep, and thus you have to get some level of movers, the math immediately swings towards just moving all your stuff. The cost savings of decreasing the amount of stuff you’re moving is not enough to make up for the costs of having to buy stuff, so at that point, you’re better off keeping everything. Just something to think about.

I did this too and saved a ton of money. Basically you're not paying for the man hours for an entire moving crew to drive numerous hours with your stuff.