Move furniture or rebuy

[Zette]

My DH and I are more Boggleheads than Mustachian, but I enjoy reading this forum more.  We are about 10-12 years from retirement, just waiting for that last doubling and to hit 59.5 for withdrawing from retirement accounts.   He recently interviewed for his dream job, and if he gets an offer it would likely involve moving from our 4500 sq ft house in a HCOL to a 2000 sq ft or less rental house in a VCOL about 10 hours drive away (Bay Area CA).  We’ll probably rent as we don’t want to stay there long term and are worried about a real estate crash. The company is likely to pay for moving costs - I do not know yet if that will be reimbursement or a lump sum.  I’m looking forward to a massive decluttering effort to get rid of all the junk that has accumulated over the last 20 years.  I’m wondering about furniture.  Would we come out ahead by moving it or selling it and rebuying in the new place?  The kids beds are all from IKEA with mattresses you can buy online and ship to your house, so say $400 to replace for each kid. The couch is a sectional from Costco, about $2k to replace, and we’d only move the pieces that would fit wherever we initially rent.  The kitchen and dining room tables are also Costco level quality, say $1500 to replace.  Our bed is a frame we don’t really care for and a king mattress and box spring that is 15 years old, but not in need of replacement. I’m not sentimental about any of the pieces, and wouldn’t mind replacing some bedroom furniture that has gotten scratched.  While buying secondhand would be cheapest, I’m not sure we have the patience for that while trying to settle the kids into a new home and schools.

If we don’t have furniture to move, would one of those PODS moving systems be better, or just stacking boxes in a spare room as I pack them and having traditional movers do it all at once?  Any other tips?

[mandy_2002]

I think to answer these questions you'll first need to know how the move will be paid for. If the company will pay and send someone out, keeping everything would be the best option. If they'll give you a lump sum and have you arrange everything, reducing what you have could net you some cash for upgrades. Get the moving package figured out, then the numbers will have meaning.

[BudgetSlasher]

I agree with Mandy, you need more information (hard numbers). But . . .

If the company only reimburse for actual moving expenses, you are likely better off moving; unless there is a cap what the company will reimburse and your out of pocket will be greater than replacement value.

If the company will one time fee to you, then you need to know how they will pay and how much moving will cost. The internet might not be able to help with the amount of the benefits package, but it can give a guess as to moving costs (though you should still get local costs) National Van Lines' website says this

DIY by renting a truck or trailer for about $3,000. Container services are good alternatives to moving yourself and cost about $4,500. Professional movers with full services cost around $1,000 per room, but this is really depending on the weight of the items in each room

and home advisor says this

Moving a typical 3-bedroom house from San Francisco, California to Brooklyn, New York can cost from $7,000.00 to $10,000.00. Packing supplies (boxes, tape, markers, moving blankets, etc.) can cost another $500.00.

You can rent a truck from companies like Penske, Budget, and Upack for about $3,000.00

You have already mentioned 2,000(the couch)+400(kid 1 bed)+400(kid 2 bed)+1,500(kitchen table and dining room)+500 (Costco price since you didn't mention a price to replace your mattress)+800 (what the internet says the "as low as" is for an out of town POD rental is) and you are already to 5,600. If you take the 4,500 for a container service from National Van Lines' website instead of the 800 that becomes 9,300.

It would seem that the costs that you are already talking about cover anywhere from a DIY truck rental to a full fledged moving service. And what you mentioned didn't seem to include any smaller furniture (living room chairs, bed side tables, desks, coffee tables, end tables with the sofa, the small table by the door you leave your keys on, or a new king bed frame that I didn't include with the mattress.) If you truly add up what it will cost to replace all the furniture (new) you will put it your rental I bet that number goes a bit higher.

The TLDR version: If they only pay actual moving costs, take the moving costs. If they pay a set amount find out what it is and price out the cost of everything you would want replace and compare the two numbers; my gut says you will not find a savings by choosing to rebuy new.

[Zette]

BudgetSlasher, thanks for the analysis!  I think I was hoping that a “clean slate” furniture wise would be cheaper.  :). I know that boxes of stuff will take up a huge amount of room in the truck as well, every time we have moved I have been astounded by how much there is.  When we moved from our previous house to our current house 6 years ago it took a large truck and a medium one.  I’m planning to KonMarie the heck out of the house and get that down by at least half.  My gut says there will be a large savings if we can avoid needing two trucks.  That is one thing attractive about the PODS, I would be able to visualize how much room is left as I fill it up, which would give an extra nudge to get rid of more.

[Sibley]

In general, when I moved long distance, I did not move anything from IKEA or similar stores. The stuff is too cheap. This was less of a cost issue and more of a it-won't-survive-the-move issue.

[Zamboni]

Besides the cost-benefit analysis, it sounds like perhaps you have some furniture that you would like to replace? Is this the right opportunity for that?

Obviously don't move furniture that just really needs to be replaced anyway. Also, you can Kon Marie your furniture, not just clothes and smaller things. Do you hate it? Worn out, irreversibly stinky, torn, scratched? Does it not spark joy, even from a utilitarian aspect? Well then here's your chance to get rid of it as part of a greater movement towards joy in your life. I did that as part of a recent move; it has really helped my "peace in the home" to learn about interior design styles and transform my living quarters to being populated by things I actually like: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s-sdIPkMSOk

Otherwise, for a move the distance you are citing, it is very likely much cheaper to move what you have while being selective about downsizing. Most used furniture is just not worth very much, so don't count on getting much out of selling it. Especially since you have quite a large house, you may have relatively large furniture, and the used resale market on the biggest pieces is pretty terrible. Can you sell your kids' dresser for $40? Probably. But don't think that because you paid $500 for it that you will be able to sell it for $200. Your giant Costco sectional? Or if you have a $2000 entertainment center cabinet? Or a really big dining room table? Alas, almost no one probably wants it these days, and people who can afford to pay you are mostly just going to buy new since design trends change. I have found that things like clothes W/D sell fast if they are priced right, which is less than $100 each. Same with power tools, yard equipment, kids bicycles, etc.

Most people in the used market don't have more than $200 and are looking for pieces under $100 unless it is exceptionally nice . . . and even then sometimes it takes quite a bit of time with something listed to find the right buyer. This has been my experience, anyway. If you decide to sell a bunch of your furniture and appliances and get $500-$1000 for it altogether, then I'd consider that a win. It's just as likely that you'll have to see if the charity truck will take it (often they reject banged up stuff, older electronics, etc.) If they reject something and you don't want to move it, then you'll have to either load it up and haul it to the dump yourself or pay GotJunk or some other junk hauling service.

I will caution you that furniture delivery lead times seem to have gotten longer and longer during the pandemic. Supply chain issues, everyone nesting, blah, blah, blah. For example, I ordered a sofa from a reasonable & reliable online merchant (Article.com) and it's going to be about 5 weeks for delivery. You'd be fine without furniture for a short period  . . . just set up a badminton net in the living room and your kids will be happy . . . but I do want to warn you about this.

[Ron Scott]

I echo the difficulty in buying furniture given lead times and covid delays. We recently moved about 4500 sq ft and are replacing stuff that doesn’t look great in the new place—stress free—as we go and without the need to hurry. This might cost a bit more but taking out one stressor during a big move is worth it IMO.

[chemistk]

Just noting here that this thread was pulled from the dead by a solicitation post - OP is from 2019. Not against sharing new information, but I think OP has long since moved.

[terran]

Seems like people have covered your main question well. Something I'll add that you should keep in mind is that moving expenses are no longer tax deductible, so moving expense reimbursement is now effectively taxable income. Some employers will "gross up" your reimbursement to cover the tax cost, so keep an eye out for that in your husband's compensation package. If not then there's some incentive to keep moving costs down since even if you get it all reimbursed you'll still end up paying your marginal tax rate times the moving cost even though you don't pay the moving cost directly.

[Zamboni]

^^LOL good catch! Ah, well, it seems timely and topical, so I don't regret my time spent typing a reply to Zette. Did you move, @Zette ?

[kite]

Glad this was revived, as I'm facing a similar kind of choice. We're having work done to our home that will necessitate a move out for a period of time. Do we move our stuff twice? Pay to store our stuff and rent something furnished? Or just get rid of it?
I'm of a mind to purge/downsize as much as possible now (we're mid-late 50's) so that there is very little to do after we're dead.

I feel as though the first effort at Marie Kondo's method left me with things that spark joy, yes. But maybe not enough joy to move it all out to a storage unit, pay storage fees, and then move it all back in. 

[AMandM]

@kite  Speaking as a fellow mid-50s person, maybe this is a good time to move on from Marie Kondo to Swedish Death Cleaning. Having less stuff in your house after the work is done, regardless of whether it's stuff you already know, is probably a good thing.

In your shoes, I would spend a little time on Craigslist/kijiji/FB Marketplace to get a sense of how much time and effort and money would be needed to refurnish, and compare that to the time and effort and money needed to move, store, and move your existing furniture.

[Car Jack]

I'm going to tell this story again.  A (real) friend of mine moved from Hudson, MA to Mesquite, TX.  Before moving, he sold everything he owned, including his house and his goat (not a 67 goat, an eat the lawn goat).  He loaded his Volvo wagon and a small utility trailer, needed for his ginormous klipsch speakers (over 5 feet tall and a couple feet wide).  His album and bootleg tap collection of Grateful dead took up quite a bit of room.  He did donate whatever didn't sell and had next to nothing to throw out or donate. 

Now to back up, he was going to work for AT&T (I don't even know what their name today is) and had negotiated instead of moving expenses that they pay him a $10k check for him to move himself.

He arrived in Texas and bought a house soon after, then bought all new stuff.  He told me that he actually made money in this scenario compared to having let the company move his stuff there.  He also got to declutter and buy brand new stuff.

This was before the internet.  So now, with eBay and craigslist and failbook marketplace and next door and consignment shops (we have several furniture and kids stuff consignment stores within 15 miles), you could likely sell absolutely everything in your house.

Eat everything in your kitchen, even if you have to order a pizza to make it into a meal for everyone.  Moving food is about the dumbest thing there is. 

When I last moved, I looked at the quote that was broken into weight and miles.  I figured out that some of our older, heavier furniture cost more to move than it was worth....literally.  I put up ads at the local college for either free or $5.  The goal was to get the heavy, expensive to move stuff out of here.

Finally, have a yard sale.  They DO work.  Make stuff extra cheap and literally accept any offer on anything.  I've had many of these and always made quite a bit of money on stuff that was mostly ready to throw out.

I'll throw in a caviet.  You need to be the kind of person that's not going to freak out that a craigslist person is going to be in your house.  I've sold dozens of guitars through craigslist and have had half of those sold, bringing buyers into my house.  And I was hardly ever murdered or anything.  If you're the kind of person who has to show stuff at the police station, then just throw it all out.

[Zette]

Lol.  How funny to see my old thread revived!  It turned out the company paid for not only moving but also packing, and grossed up the taxes. I sold cheaply or donated a couple of extra couches and a pool table, and reduced the misc extra “stuff” in our kitchen and closets by what felt like half but was probably closer to 25%. I gave away stuff like cleaning supplies on Craigslist, and felt bad that an elderly guy who I suspect may have been a hoarder picked up the bulk of it. (I hope I’m wrong and he took it to sell at the flea market!) We rented a 2500 sq ft house with a 500 sq ft sun porch so didn’t have to pare down as much as I had initially expected.

After renting for two years, we bought a 2700 sq ft house 10 min away, and for this move we ended up doing 3 PODS loads and one moving truck (with movers) for the heavy/bulky furniture.  We gave away an extra bed and donated a China cabinet I was tired of. When DH retires in about 10 years, I definitely don’t want to move this furniture again and plan to sell/donate  it and downsize.

[Plina]

I have moved a lot and as I have paid by squaremeter in longer moves I have chosen to get rid of all the unnecessary stuff that I haven’t used for a while. So when I know I am going to move I start decluttering. Most of the times I have sold the sofa because it would be expensive to transport and a new similar would not be expensive. Sometimes I have also sold the bookcases because I can order new ones easily. The difference between what I can get for them, the cost for transport and a new one is minimal. And they can only handle a limited amount of moves. Most of modern furnitures can be dissembled and doing that also saves space and money. If you want to upgrade the furniture, a move is a great time to do it. Why pay to get something moved that you are going to replace.

[Cranky]

Lol.  How funny to see my old thread revived!  It turned out the company paid for not only moving but also packing, and grossed up the taxes. I sold cheaply or donated a couple of extra couches and a pool table, and reduced the misc extra “stuff” in our kitchen and closets by what felt like half but was probably closer to 25%. I gave away stuff like cleaning supplies on Craigslist, and felt bad that an elderly guy who I suspect may have been a hoarder picked up the bulk of it. (I hope I’m wrong and he took it to sell at the flea market!) We rented a 2500 sq ft house with a 500 sq ft sun porch so didn’t have to pare down as much as I had initially expected.

After renting for two years, we bought a 2700 sq ft house 10 min away, and for this move we ended up doing 3 PODS loads and one moving truck (with movers) for the heavy/bulky furniture.  We gave away an extra bed and donated a China cabinet I was tired of. When DH retires in about 10 years, I definitely don’t want to move this furniture again and plan to sell/donate  it and downsize.

Having recently moved using 3 PODS - you can cram an awful lot in a POD. I think I divested about 50% of our possessions, and we still hauled everything we actually cared about.