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I plan to move within 2 years, from Florida to Texas. That will be a long haul, and we are trying to weigh the pros and cons between getting movers for this long trip, or just buying all new furniture for the house.
My husband seems to think it is going to be between $8-10K for cross country movers. Then, we have to hope that we don't have a horror story for moving (we had one coming down to FL from PA).
Now, our furniture is not expensive. Almost every piece except for our dining table ($300), bunkbed($250), mattress($1100) and sofa($2000) was basically...walmart. TVs are all about 8 years old. I figured, without going upscale, it might either come to the same price as a moving company, or less, to just get new furniture, and then we don't have to worry about any hassles from a moving company.
What would you do?
If your furniture isn't especially meaningful and valuable to you, I'd sell it where you are and buy new when you get to Texas. It's not worth the cost and hassle if the pieces aren't something you treasure and want to keep. I moved from Las Vegas to Springfield, Missouri and my bill (I got packed too) was $6500... with LOTS of problems with Bekins. In my case though, I really have some nice stuff and not taking it with me wasn't an option. But your husband is pretty close on pricing, though, it depends on gas prices too and what services you actually use. I had my stuff in storage for six months while I looked for a house here. Or, you could check out those Pods where you stuff what you want into a big Pod set in your driveway and they take it to wherever you're going at a decent price I believe. One nice thing about clearing a lot of the old stuff out is that you end up with a clean slate and can be careful about what you purchase going forward, which is really nice as an uncluttered house is far nicer than one stuffed to the rafters.
We brought all of our stuff to Colorado from the DC area. I packed it all, having done lots of packing & shipping over the years. I packed over 300 cartons of stuff, wow, what a job, took 1.5 months. Model trains, model horses, 60 cases of books and paper files, 15 cases of records, cd's and cassettes, tons of kitchen appliances, dishes, glasses, tool boxes. Oh yes, 20 cartons of stereo gear too, in the original cartons that I saved for years. We accumulated a lot in 30 years of marriage. I packed it, so National Van Lines and their agent in Fairfax, VA (All Star Movers) gave us 65% off the full commercial tariff rate. They were GREAT to work with, my realtor hooked us up with them. Still, we paid $8,000 for the move, 12,000 pounds of stuff. We used 30+ feet of a 53-foot long semi-truck and he packed it a good 10 feet high, right to the ceiling. Paid an auto hauler $1,000 to ship the Camry across. Paid $1,000 for boxes, peanuts, bubble wrap, wrapping paper and 60 rolls of tape. Best source I found for moving boxes (300 of them, in every size and type you can imagine) was uline. Nothing got broke except a few cheap wine glasses that I did not wrap in wrapping paper. No damage to any furniture, of which we had a lot. Nothing missing or stolen. A very successful move.
BTW, I checked on using PODS. Just one 20-footer would have cost me $4.5k and I would have to load it and unload myself. NOT a good option for me. I don't think upack (ABF) will be a bargain either, and you still have to load and unload it yourself.
Okay, with all that said, here's what happened. When we got to Colorado, we found a furniture store called American Furniture Warehouse. His prices are so low it isn't funny. Wife wasn't nuts about our BR furniture, great stuff, but not what we wanted for here, so we got $3k for it locally. Prices are so low at this store, and quality very good, so we did the whole house. Two full-size leather couches at $995 each, gathering table and 8 chairs, master BR set, guest BR set, 4 barstools, coffee table, end table, lamps, office furniture and chair, bench seat. We paid less than $10k for all that stuff, and its great stuff. The top of the coffee table is on a hinge of sorts, it rises up and slides in over the couch so you can sit there and work on a laptop PC or eat or whatever - how cool is that! Gathering table in the dining nook is 36-inches high (standard is 30 inches) - same as kitchen countertop, so the 8 chairs work both ways and are split between the table and kitchen counter. This table has a leaf that folds up and stores itself under the table, out of sight. We sold our family heirloom cathedral mahogany DR set before we left VA for $2.5k.
Going back to 1990, I wish we hadn't spent $8k on that beautiful set of BR furniture from Thomasville - solid cherry, bulkhead headboard, light bridge, tall side piers, tripple dresser, chest of drawers, mirrors, lingerie chest. We needed storage, as our house had tiny closets. New house has huge walk-in closet with floor to ceiling racks - the works. The old BR set was overkill, and too dark for this bright modern ranch home. Got $3k for it from a local chap. Moral of this story - don't spend big bucks on superb items unless you are upper brackets type. Styles change, tastes change, situations change. If you have kids and want to leave them some heirloom quality furniture, okay, but if not, URGE you to consider something solid & basic to serve 10 years and then kiss it goodbye.
Bottom line, probably best to let go of the current stuff to save moving costs and then buy new in TX. You may even want to let the TV's go and treat yourself to a new HD set with the money saved on moving. That mattress sounds like something you want to take with you, but the BR set itself you may want to leave behind.
If you have only a few large items to move, consider packing it and moving it by yourself and save more. If you rent a truck, I suggest Ryder/Penske. I see so many u-hauls broken down on the side of the road.
In Other Topics forum, see the posting on Cleaning Out the House for ideas on how to get rid of stuff before you move.
s/Mike
Last edited by Mike from back east; 10-14-2014 at 01:47 PM..
Reason: Added a link.
Thank you so much for all of your advice. I did want to buy all new (what woman wouldn't), but my husband seemed to think it would cost the same, if not more, than movers, and we wouldn't really save any money. We were in a disagreeance. Even if it had cost the same, I just didn't want the hassles of a mover.
Now, we both have 2 cars. A 2002 Hyundai Elantra and a 1998 Toyota. Figure-then, roughly about 70K miles on the Elantra and about close to 100K on the Toyota. We were planning on renting a SUV or van (for househould items that we will be taking), pulling one of the cars behind it, and then driving the other car with the 2 kids. Good? I am expecting someone to say get rid of either one of the cars (hopefully, but possibly, not both!) because it or they aren't worth the trip. Opinions?
The Camry we shipped was the new car. We drove across in the 99 Grand Cherokee, with 103,000 miles on it. It held all our luggage, computer, critical papers, etc. Your plan for renting a van, truck or SUV to haul stuff and tow a car is sound, unless the older car is a real raggy thing and on its last legs, in which case sell it or junk it and buy your own big SUV and don't pay to rent anything. If you buy a good used SUV and don't overpay, you may be able to sell it for near the same when you get to TX. Hmmmmm.....simplified scheme, no rental, no towing, use the SUV all you want, get most of your money back on the other end.....If the older car has had no major repairs, so far, it may now be a good time to get rid of it, as next month it could go all to pieces, never know. If you've just sunk a lot into repairs, probably want to keep it.
Furniture issue needs some logic and a decision. Here's some logic to work through: Mover costs $8k and you end up with same old furniture. Move yourself and spend at the most $2k; Less assume you have a very successful yard or internet sale of old stuff and get $1k. Leaves you $7k to use on new furniture. So what if you end up spending $10k on new furniture. When you minus out the $7k saved by selling old stuff and moving yourself, you are only $3k out of pocket. Okay so far. Decision part is a judgement call, always tricky: Is it worth $3k out of pocket to have $10k of new stuff? I'd say yes! But money is an "emotional" issue that makes people crazy, and that's where hubby needs to see the "value proposition" of getting new stuff for "$3k" out of pocket.
I agree with Mike. In my case though, I had a Duncan & Pfyffe mahogany dining room set, mahogany antique sideboard that matches, mahogany and velvet Victorian chairs and a Victorian couch from my grandparents' home, dozens of fine paintings, and a living room set that is really nice and timeless ( on top of a bunch of other stuff). For me there was no option and I like higher end furniture that I've accumulated over the years. When I hasta la pasta and my heirs think it's crap, that's then their problem
We used PODS for our move. What was great about it was that they put it in our driveway & we could take our time loading it. We locked it. They stored it for 6 weeks (closing nightmares, whole other story), then delivered it to our new house when we were ready. We took our sweet time unloading. They came to get it when we were done.
It was the most cost effective choice for us, and the least labor involved. We would have had to rent a truck, and a car carrier for the move. I would not have wanted to put gas in a rental truck that was pulling that much weight!
There are also some trucking companies that will allow you to load their trailers and they load freight behind your belongings. I was not comfortable with that. And, as it turned out, would have had to find a place for a 3 bedroom house full of stuff.
We are in the same boat - have very few large possessions worth much. We plan to donate/throw away most of what we have, and probably just rent a truck and drive it. One of us will drive the truck, the other one of our cars; we may have to find a friend or relative to drive our other car, and we'd have to pay for that person to fly back out. We aren't sure yet. I also looked into the Pods and for me it seems expensive, $2k - $3k to move hardly anything. But it would allow us to drive both cars out and not have to find someone to drive one of them for us.
Christina0001: Here are four ways to solve your 2-car issue, in order of preference.
1. Any rental truck can also tow a car, we see it often. The best option.
2. You can tow your smaller car with your larger car. The truck rental place also will rent you the devices for this. Good option.
3. If one car cannot be towed, it can be put on a rental trailer and towed by the truck or your car. I see this, but less often. An option.
4. You can get a larger rental truck and load the smaller car into the truck itself, there are ramps for that sort of thing. Is possible.
s/mike
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Mrshvo
Leave it behind
Things to ponder
