As you contemplate a long-distance move (or perhaps you have already made the decision to move), one of the early questions that arises deals with the moving of furniture.  If you are using professional movers, you will want to think about this prior to the appointment, as the contents of your house will be inventoried, and you will generally need to know if you plan to move an item to your new home.

There are a few questions you need to consider as you think about this.  How old is my furniture?  Is it worth moving hundreds of miles?  For us, the answer is no, it’s not worth it.  The majority of our furniture are older pieces, and realistically, the cost it would add to our invoice is more than its value.  We are only keeping a select few pieces of furniture, and most of it is being discarded on Freecycle.

We will state, however, that it is kind of stressful to dispose of your furniture and not move it.  We made the decision early on that we were not going to move our desk; it is solid oak and extremely heavy.  It has been the thorn in our side for every move, and we’ve simply had enough with it.    We made arrangements with a local person to come and pick up the desk.  In order for this to happen, the desktop computer and work laptop needed to be disconnected, which is not a small feat given the massive piles of cords and modems involved!  They were temporarily placed on the kitchen table, while we moved the desk out to the middle of the room.  Unfortunately, this person never showed up, and we were faced with an enormous desk in the middle of the dining room, and computers disconnected and sitting on the table.

Thankfully we have a large foyer by the front door, and we were able to drag the desk out there and reassemble the dining room into some semblance of order.  We used four smaller tables/bookcases to replace the desk, and while not an ideal situation, it should be okay for the next five weeks.  We have someone new scheduled to come tomorrow, so if all goes well, the desk should be gone by tomorrow afternoon.

We have been slowly giving away our furniture; this week alone we have parted with 2 bookcases, a rocker & ottoman, three chairs, and (hopefully) a desk. We prefer Craigslist and Freecycle as means to dispose of our furniture because you can set the time frames when you want people to come buy to pick up your stuff.  Another option you have available is to hold a rummage sale, but then you are responsible for hauling your furniture outside, sitting outside with it all day while hoping it sells, because if it doesn’t, you will have to bring it back inside (or place it in a garage if you have one available to you).

There are a few furniture stores that we are considering in Florida, recommendations given to us by friends:

• Clermont Furniture on Hwy 50
• Ashley Furniture
• Rooms to Go Outlet in Altamonte Springs
• American Freight
• Sears (for mattresses)
• Original Mattress Factory
• IKEA