Moving without furniture

[marbel]

This is probably a dumb, unanswerable question, but at least some of the thousands of people on this board must have experience and an opinion.

 

We expect to move in the next few months. Some of our furniture - specifically our living room couch and chairs - are pretty beat up and I'd like to just ditch them and not pay to move them.

 

But then I'd have to acquire furniture pretty quickly once moved.

 

At first I thought we'd just go to IKEA once we arrive in our new home, but one of the states we might end up in hasn't one. Imagine that!

 

So, if anyone has done this, did it work out? Did you wish you'd just brought your old stuff so you weren't sitting on the floor while waiting for new stuff?

 

I'm just trying to think ahead. Not one of my strong points. ;)

[Ghee]

At first I thought we'd just go to IKEA once we arrive in our new home, but one of the states we might end up in hasn't one. Imagine that!

 

 

Thank you for captioning my life :glare: No IKEA here, though I *am* happy that we might be moving to a place that IS close to one LOL

 

Craigslist? We found a really pretty sleigh bed on there months ago and then found a dresser set that matched it really closely this summer. I think we spent under $400 on the whole set up and it's nice, heavy furniture. I just sold a really nice recliner on there for 1/2 what it would have cost to buy new and it looked pretty much new.

[TranquilMind]

This is probably a dumb, unanswerable question, but at least some of the thousands of people on this board must have experience and an opinion.

 

We expect to move in the next few months. Some of our furniture - specifically our living room couch and chairs - are pretty beat up and I'd like to just ditch them and not pay to move them.

 

But then I'd have to acquire furniture pretty quickly once moved.

 

At first I thought we'd just go to IKEA once we arrive in our new home, but one of the states we might end up in hasn't one. Imagine that!

 

So, if anyone has done this, did it work out? Did you wish you'd just brought your old stuff so you weren't sitting on the floor while waiting for new stuff?

 

I'm just trying to think ahead. Not one of my strong points. ;)

Craigslist! Take your mattresses, any heirlooms or important furniture and go. That's what I'm doing next time.

[GoVanGogh]

DH moved across country 25 years ago. His company paid to move our (limited) belongs, but they couldn't deliver for a month. They were going to pay to put us up in a hotel during that time, but we got tired of that after a week. We moved into new home w/o dishes, furniture, pillows, etc. We ran to the store and bought a few limited things (pillows, blankets) and slept, sat, ate on the floor for three weeks.

We were young and foolish, but we both have fond memories of that time. I would be open to doing it again, even with children.

 

DH and I then moved into this house 15 years ago. We didn't move our kitchen table and just ate at the coffee table for a month or so until we found what we wanted.

 

I'm not big into possessions or furniture, so I wouldn't have a problem with moving and leaving behind pieces I knew I wouldn't want in a new place.

Now we were once without a working fridge for a month and I would never, ever do that again!

[sourpatchbaby]

We just did that a couple of months ago. We knew we had to replace the dining room, living room, mattresses for us, and get the boys new beds and mattresses (the six year old was still in a toddler bed) and had been saving for it (moved from Hawaii to Texas). We ditched everything before the movers picked up our stuff and when we got to TX and were in the hotel we went around to different stores and priced out things. Then once we signed a lease in our new place we went to the stores where we'd found the things we wanted and had them set up delivery for the day after we moved in. It worked out great because we moved into an empty house on 4/27 and didn't get the things from the old house until almost the end of May. We had somewhere to sleep and eat in the meantime.

[Candid]

If you are paying movers, having them move the old stuff won't save you a thing, so you can move it with you and then search for new stuff at leisure.

 

I would say it would be smart to not buy new stuff now. Wait until you've been in the new place and get it then that way you spare it a move related accident and get something that suits the space.

[sourpatchbaby]

Oh, and we had in one of our ten suitcases some blankets/towels and bought an El Cheapo set of pots until our stuff got to us. We also brought with us a bassinet for the baby to sleep in during the day (to give you a timeline: baby was born 2/28, movers came on 3/15, we moved into a hotel on 3/23, flew out of HI on 4/1, stayed in hotels in FL until 4/14, drove to TX over a two day period, and stayed in a hotel there until 4/27). It was CRAZY!

[sgo95]

We've done this and loved being able to start over with a clean slate. Furniture-wise, we moved our mattresses, 4 folding tables (to serve as a dining table and desks) and 8 folding chairs. We unpacked a few boxes of toys and books for the kids which they played out of (we kept our books, kitchen things, clothes, linens, etc.). We had four kids at the time and it really was not a big deal, in terms of day-to-day living. It took us about six months to purchase new stuff, but I love that we were able to decorate the new place without any old things that we didn't choose ourselves and love.

 

Even if you didn't move with any folding tables or chairs, you could easily pick that up in your new town.

[EducationX2]

Rent A Center?

 

We rented our couch and my bedroom suite, and when it came time to move- they moved it for us!! Awesome! :D Of course it was just an across town move, I don't know how it would work for a long distance move. But you could move without furniture and look at a rent a center once you've moved, either just to rent a couch for a week or two while you look for something permanent, or to actually get a set from.

 

It is a horrible deal if you rent through the end of the term, but we got a really nice couch for not a bad price. It had been previously rented, but was in great condition, and instead of renting for the full term we paid it off within 90 days. RAC even got us a brand new mattress for the pull out sofa. We got my bedroom suite during a sale and by paying it off before 90 days ended up paying... somewhere around 600 dollars? Not bad for a brand new bedroom set.

[mumto2]

We moved to the UK from US with eight stuffed bags --we do still have belongings stored in US. They included an inflatable bed and linens and blankets for all. We moved into a 700 sq ft partially furnished flat for 6 months. We accumulated cheap towels, dishes, etc while there.

 

Six months later we moved to a larger unfurished place. We had a huge IKEA delivery -- a nightmare box day for dh. He assembled for days. We did everything really inexpensively at first. I have spent the past four years upgrading as things go on sale. We still have lots of IKEA belongings but I could have shopped other places easily. We had never had IKEA before and it seemed so easy.:lol:

 

I really don't miss the belongings I gave up furniture wise. Certainly saved a ton of money by not moving a bunch of well used stuff. It is weird that my just married neice is furnishing her house with family things that I either had and returned or things I planned to have one day. It is hard to say that she can have these things gracefully. But it was not meant to be apparently.

 

It can work fine. It is an adventure that my dc's were able to be part of.

[duckabell]

We've done it before and have changed furniture a few times in our married years. At this point hunting down new furniture is a time/money drain to me after we move and so we just keep what we have -- plus, what we have is nicer than any furniture we've ever had, even if it's not that nice.

 

In some ways I'm more hesitant now to get used furniture from a source I'm not familiar with because of the rise in bed bugs these past few years. So I think I balance it with will it cost more to move this furniture or will it cost more time/money to replace it?

[kroe1]

Here in Florida it is fairly common because so many places sell furnished. Our place on the island, for example, came fully furnished so we didn't need to bring anything.

 

We also had a builder in Arkansas who sold us his house, and, suprisingly, left his home taking only his clothes. Since we had a very small amount of furniture at the time, it was great for us.

 

We have some friends on the mainland who just sold their home. The buyers wanted about 1/2 the furniture included in the deal. My friend has gorgeous furniture so I hope she knows what she's doing. :)

[marbel]

Wow, and here I wondered if there would be any replies at all! ;)

 

Thanks for the comments. I think considering the shape some of our furniture is in, we will likely leave it behind. I am not always a good out of the box thinker so it's hard to imagine living without some of the typical things. But it would make the move a lot simpler since couches and easy chairs are heavy.

 

I had not thought about bedbugs when considering used furniture! Yikes.

 

But there are usually places to get things inexpensively. We should probably go sit on some couches in IKEA now so I might know what we like in case we would order it later. I wouldn't want to order furniture like that without making sure it's comfortable.

 

Thanks so much for helping me think this through!

[JennyD]

We gave away some of our very beat-up furniture when we moved last year. We were also moving to a place that does not have an IKEA (sob), and our move was paid for by DH's employers. So DH took meticulous measurements of our new house (I did not see the place until the day we moved in), I measured all of the few pieces of furniture we were going to keep, and then we sat down with an IKEA catalog and figured out exactly what we needed and where everything was going to go. (The catalog also includes weight, so I was able to give those numbers to the moving company as part of the estimate.) Three weeks before moving day we went to IKEA, bought everything, had it delivered, and finally the movers took the boxes with them as part of our move. Once we arrived DH spent two miserable days assembling everything, but it all fit perfectly, just like it did on paper. :001_smile: