What to Move

[alotofyarn]

We're having moving companies give us estimates on Monday, and I'm so overwhelmed with trying to decide what furniture to keep and move and what furniture to replace. In an ideal world with all the money I could ever want, I'd replace most of our living room furniture, but I'm just not sure we can afford to do that. How do you decide?? My husband doesn't seem incredibly helpful and says he doesn't want to get rid of "perfectly fine" furniture - although by perfectly fine he means decently scratched up by the cats over the years.

[spotty_dog]

From medical school to residency? We packed what we could fit in the Penske truck. Well, 2/3 of the Penske truck...we saved money in the move by sharing with another med student who was going our way. We definitely didn't have the money to replace furniture, even though everything we owned was hand me downs or thrift finds. It was bad enough that the new place was significantly bigger than the old place, with twice the bedrooms, so we had the expense of buying furniture for the new rooms...fortunately the new place was about 1/4 mile from IKEA.

IMO, it's nuts to buy a houseful of furniture immediately after four years of living on a single income, looking at living on a single income again until a job contract for you is signed, and immediately before the new unforeseen expense of a baby. I'd either move everything and replace it slowly, or move as little as possible and commit to having empty spaces for a year or two. But decades of exposure to my husband have admittedly made me as cheap as hell.

[diggitydot]

We got rid of almost everything big (outside of bedroom furniture) when we moved for residency. The cheap shit we had wouldn't have survived the move. We slowly purchased stuff through the 4 years of training and kept most of it when we moved again for The Job.

[moonlight]

We took most if it because I knew we couldn't buy anything new or nice during training years. Now that we are nearly done with training, I am getting rid of my cat scratched crap.

[MrsK]

Each time we've moved, we have parted with furniture (though we've accumulated baby furniture and toys as we accumulated children too.) Keep what you need, use, or love. If you hate your sofa but need something to sit on and cannot afford to replace it, keep it. If you sleep on your matress every night, keep it. If the thought of parting with your grandma's coffee table gives you heartache, keep it. Everything else goes. Also consider whether it will be more costly to move than replace. a

[ladymoreta]

We've kept everything from undergrad except the Wal-Mart some-assembly-required desks that had already made one move and were very unstable. We have the awful cat-scratched couch and recliner, too. It's so bad the wood is exposed... :P It's going to make this next move a year after starting The Job, and I'm trying to convince DH to keep it until DD is potty trained. We have a guest room in our new house, so we're buying a king mattress and bedframe and put all but our nightstands in the guest room until we can afford master bedroom furniture. We're glamorous!

[Auspicious]

I'm with your husband, ALOY--if the furniture is still functional, I wouldn't get rid of it at this point, unless you're flush with cash. You still have the cat, right? And little kids are hell on furniture in my experience.

We've kept all furniture through the past four moves/eleven years. The situation is getting pretty dire at this point, but now I just want to wait until we have a more permanent house and get the furniture to fit it.

[SuzySunshine]

I agree, keep it. We took everything from our one bedroom apartment to a 4 bedroom house for residency because we knew we were going to have LOTS of space. As we could afford to replace things we did but we still have furniture (9 years later) that we had during med school.

[diggitydot]

The only pieces of furniture we still have from before residency (so 5 years ago) is DS' bunk bed, his dresser, and a folding table that we used as a computer desk. Keep in mind that we trained at one of the highest paying programs in a low COL area that also allowed/encouraged moonlighting. Without that specific financial scenario, we would not likely be in our current position of not really needing to purchase much after training.

[alotofyarn]

We finally decided to pretty much keep all the furniture, except stuff we know doesn't have a place and won't need to be replaced (like one of our entertainment centers, since we'll be able to mount the TV on the wall, and our wine rack, which isn't child friendly and won't be necessary since we have a wet bar). We will be a two income family, and I'll be making probably a little over double what my husband will bring in as a resident, but we want to save, be able to buy stuff for baby when necessary, and finish upgrading the house (countertops, lighting, hardware, etc.).

The cats are going with us, but we finally have a good room to lock them up in when we're not home, so I'm hoping they won't do any further damage on the furniture. But, since I don't want to spend money on anything new right now, it will probably be best just to hang on to it all and then upgrade in another year or two when we're able. Or get slipcovers.

[alotofyarn]

Up to 10 boxes of stuff to get rid of so far!!

[v-girl]

We did slipcovers until we could afford a new sofa! Well worth it! When we donated the sofa and loves eat, we were able to give them the slipcovers too (gave to a family in need).

[SoonerTexan]

Do you have a truck, some spare time with your husband, and a willingness to Craigslist?

If so, it can be a great idea (though I'm against Craigslist for couches and beds--too gross and too much possibility for bedbugs) if you are willing to hunt stuff down and potentially do a little refinishing. The Craigslist app is golden for that (you can set up alerts and be the first to respond to good stuff.

In the past four years I've picked up some treasures:

A round pedastal dining table and 4 really nice chairs (all of it was $150-$200--cant remember)

A Jenny Lind Crib, crib mattress, and white Land of Nod dresser in perfect condition for $125

A really nice gas grill for $150--it's being sold for $500 at Costco right now.

I'm on the hunt for a Jenny Lind twin bed right now...but consider I can borrow my dad's truck and drag DH along with me if I plan it right.

[moonlight]

I agree! I like to buy furniture second hand for environmental reasons. If you have the time to shop CL or find those really good second hand shops, its worth a visit. MIL bought our bedroom dressers for $180... all real wood heavy duty last forever type stuff, at a second hand store here and did a quick refinish job to match our bed. I also bought a Ethan Allen china cabinet for $200 right when I first moved here that matches my "nicer" stuff perfectly. Don't be in too much of a hurry. Get all the basics then have fun with it!

[MsSassyBaskets]

I've had good luck with trimming the cats' claws weekly and squirting them with water if they lift a claw to the couch or chair. I also hand-made an extra-tall scratching post and rubbed it down with catnip. We have perfectly nice 3+ y/o furniture that has just a few small snags from the cats jumping around. You can have both if you want to put in the attention and patience to train the untrainable.

I'm also finding that my cats do more damage to certain types of fabric. I will never own another piece of brocade-style upholstered furniture, they can't help but catch their claws on it. Velour styles and other cut-end upholstery fabric don't snag as badly, and hide the snags they do get.

I second the recommendations to hold onto it until you can replace it or don't need it any more. If you're already paying for the truck, and the furniture fits, you don't lose anything by moving it.