Should You Move Your Furniture or Buy New After the Move?

When getting ready to move out, one critical issue is what to do with all the furniture pieces you own.

Are you taking some or maybe all (!?!) of your furniture with you? Or are you leaving those big and heavy items behind and buying new ones when you get to the new place?

And if that’s the case, then what are you going to do with all the furniture items you’re not moving? Give them away? Sell them? Just leave them where they are?

Is it better to move furniture or buy new? This is often a tough question to answer… but answer it you must very early in your preparation, way before you begin to pack up your house.

The most important thing to understand is that choosing what’s best for you and your furniture will depend on several key factors. Depending on your specific house moving circumstances, making the right decision may turn out to be either a no-brainer or a tough call.

To help you decide, here’s what you need to know when wondering whether to move furniture or buy new after the move.

Should you move your furniture at all?

It’s not always easy to know right away what to do with a furniture piece when you’re getting ready to move out of a place. Under ideal relocation circumstances, you will take NONE of your furniture with you, thus saving yourself from a lot of hassle that comes with moving furniture locally or long distance.

The shrewd decision not to move any furniture will enable you to save:

• MONEY. Moving furniture from one home to another will cost money due to the inevitable packing expenses and transportation costs. Also, you may need to pay professionals to disassemble some furniture pieces before the move and put them back together after the move.
• TIME. Not having to deal with your furniture at all (initial assessment, disassembly, protection, lifting and carrying, and loading are all time-consuming jobs) will free up plenty of time on your packing and moving calendar – precious time that you can invest in important yet frequently neglected or underestimated tasks such as saying a proper goodbye to your good friends.
• LESS STRESS. Knowing that you won’t have to bother with any big and heavy furniture pieces will definitely make your house move easier and more straightforward. As a result, you will feel less stressed out as you’ll be taking a huge burden off your shoulders. Ultimately, no furniture to move will prove to be easier on your nervous system.

Despite the above-mentioned advantages of not moving any furniture during a house move, sometimes that’s just not something you can afford to do. For some reason or another, you may decide to take some furniture items with you, like your favorite couch or the antique dresser that’s been in the family for generations.

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Is it better to move furniture or buy new?

Moving furniture from one place to another is an investment so you want to make sure you’re not wasting your hard-earned money without a good reason.

You’re going to have to assess each furniture item individually to figure out whether it’s better to move furniture or buy new after the move. Use the following criteria to help you reach your final decision – one that you won’t regret after the move is already a fact.

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  Some furniture pieces will be too practical to just leave behind.

  Practical value. Look at each furniture item you own and think about how practical and useful it is in reality. The aesthetic qualities of a furniture piece are important but you also need to look through them and assess its practicality and functionality because these are the features that will continue to serve you well in the new home.

• Monetary value. How much money did you pay for the furniture item in the first place? Did you purchase it brand new or second-hand? Is it an expensive superior furniture piece, made from high-quality materials and crafted with exceptional skill? Was it made by a well-known and reputable furniture manufacturer? Or is it fairly inexpensive ready-to-assemble furniture like an IKEA piece?
• Sentimental value. Whether or not a furniture piece has any sentimental value for you will affect greatly your final decision. If the furniture item is a family heirloom or an antique piece that’s practically priceless, then you won’t want to part with it no matter the relocation efforts and moving costs. Also, you may happen to associate the piece with a happy memory or a special person or moment in your life, and you would love to hold on to it in order to keep the memories alive.
• Aesthetic value. How beautiful and attractive is the furniture piece? Is it stylish and pleasing to the eye? Will it match the rest of the furniture in the new home?
• Dimensions. It’s important to take into consideration the fact that the furniture piece you’re thinking about moving with you may not fit the layout of the new place. Whenever possible, measure its dimensions and compare them with the floor plan of the new home. If it turns out that the furniture item is too big and cannot be safely disassembled, then you should not pay to move it.
• Current condition. What’s the current condition of the furniture piece you wish to move to the new home? If it’s still in excellent to good condition and you plan to use it for years to come, then it’s more likely that you’ll be willing to cover the moving expenses to take it along.

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Is it cheaper to move furniture or buy new?

When you look strictly at the financial side of the conundrum of whether you should move your furniture or purchase new one after the move, you should know that there are a couple of major factors that are bound to influence your decision:

Move distance

The move distance between the two homes will matter more than you think when you’re deciding whether or not to move some of your furniture.

When moving locally within a radius of 100 miles, then it can make sense to move your most favorite furniture items simply because local moves are usually cheaper. Also, thanks of the shorter distance, the risk of something bad happening to your furniture pieces will be much less because they will be on the road for a shorter period of time.

When moving long distance, you should know that the cost to move furniture will be calculated based on weight of your household items and the distance between the two homes. As a result, moving a furniture piece may prove to be too costly to be worth it.

Remember that when moving across the country, it can prove to be cheaper to sell all the furniture you own prior to the move and then buy new when you reach the new home. That’s often the case because the cost to move old furniture across hundreds or thousands of miles will exceed the cost of new and better furniture after the house move.

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Job difficulty

Think about this: moving furniture items that are extra fragile and delicate will require professional packing and handling to survive the move without any damage whatsoever. That fact alone will increase the shipping costs.

Also, larger and heavier furniture pieces will need to be disassembled properly for a much easier and safer move, especially when the place you’re leaving has relatively small doorways, narrow corridors, sharp turns, and, of course, stairs. And if you don’t have enough experience or courage to take apart those units, then you’re going to have to pay professional packers to do it for you. And all that effectively means more expenses for you in the end.

To know for sure whether it’s cheaper to ship furniture or buy new upon arrival, you’re going to have to compare the two expenses side by side. The direct price comparison is not likely to be very accurate but you can still get a rough idea about what it’ll cost you to move the furniture you want to move.

Here’s how to do it:

• Ask a few moving companies to visit your home for a visual inspection and request written cost estimates for the furniture you plan to move.
• Visit the websites of the largest furniture stores in your destination town or city – either national store chains or local ones – in order to compare the prices of the new furniture pieces you will need to purchase after the move.

Remember to take into account the fact that, should you manage to sell the furniture pieces you’re leaving behind, the money from their sale can go into the new furniture fund, which should help you resolve the furniture moving dilemma.

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Advantages of moving your furniture

To help you decide what to do with your furniture items when moving house, here are the major pros of moving furniture:

• You will have the furniture pieces as soon as they get delivered by your furniture movers. Yes, some of them will probably need to get re-assembled by the pros, but you’ll have them installed and ready to use very soon after the move.
• You will save time by not having to go to various furniture stores in search of new furnishings for the new place. And that’s a good thing considering how many things you will need to take care of right after the move.
• You will keep the furniture pieces you’re used to having around you, thus creating a familiar and comfortable living space in the new place. Being surrounded by things that you know well will speed up the process of making the new house or apartment feel like home.
• You will keep the furniture pieces that you know are high-quality ones, sturdy and built to last by a reputable manufacturer. In no way does purchasing brand new furniture mean that the new one will be better than the old one you already own.
• You may find it cheaper to move your own furniture than to buy new one, especially when you’re moving only a short distance away.

Safety tip for moving furniture

Disadvantages of moving your furniture

There are also a number of cons of moving furniture during a house move. Here they are:

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  No matter how careful you are, there’s always a risk of furniture damage when moving house.

  You will lose plenty of time to disassemble, pack, and move large furniture pieces from your soon-to-be-old home to the moving vehicle, and then to unload them from the truck, take them inside the new place, unpack and put them back together. Of course, you can pay professionals to do it all for you but it will cost you.

• You will have to pay more money to get the necessary packing materials to protect your furniture items on the road.
• You will need to disassemble your larger and heavier furniture pieces and if you don’t know how to do it safely, then you may need to pay furniture movers to do it for you.
• You will have to pay for higher transportation costs when transporting any furniture pieces between Point A and Point B. When moving across the country, it can often mean that you’ll pay more to cover those extra moving expenses than to purchase new furniture.
• You will run the risk of damaging or ruining some of your furniture items forever during the house move, thus creating more problems for yourself than you would want.
• You will have the opportunity to sell your old furniture pieces, thus earning some cash which you can use toward your moving budget or post-relocation budget for purchasing new furniture after the relocation.

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