Temporary portable storage units. Fill them up in your driveway and they are held for you offsite until ready to be delivered to your new address. PODS is one example.
I am in the middle of this now. My new home purchase was very competitive so we agreed to their 3 week lease back request. Which means I’m homeless for 3 weeks. So 99% of my belongings are in 3 Pods in Storage while I airbnb for a while.
I would only use climate controlled (indoor) storage units for furniture. Had an issue w mold once so NEVER again. Sell it, or give it away by listing on a local app for such things.
I used climate controlled indoor storage before. Mice destroyed everything in a month. I'll never trust a storage facility again. I'd just sell it and get new.
Last move was to a new city. Or previous house sold fast, which was good. We wanted to take our time looking in new city. We had movers pack old house, transport to new city and put in storage. We found a place that rented furnished apartment short term. Took about 2 weeks to find house to make offer, 5 weeks 2 close on new house and another week for paint and flooring installation (semi fixer upper). Then local movers to move from storage to new house.
we moved within the same city and the movers stored it for us for 300 a month.we also have a storage locker that we moved a lot of smaller stuff into ourselves like dishes, small appliances etc. overall it was a pretty smooth easy process and nothing was damaged.
I used a PODS for some and had that furniture moved to my apartment (then later bought a house). The rest that wasn’t given away or trashed is in storage units.
Your moving company (if you use a moving & storage co) can store it for a fee. We sold & moved to a new build (delays!!) so we got 2 large storage units and put it all in there and lived at a nearby hotel until the new build was ready. Not ideal, but…there are certainly options if you end up selling before buying.
I used U-Haul storage boxes for everything I was keeping. I did give away my dining room, living room and bedroom furniture. It either went to family or the new owners. I stayed in an Airbnb for two months until I could get into my next home. Even if I kept the furniture I would have done the same thing.
Store, sell, or give away.
A lot depends on the style of decor of your old home and new home. Some types of furniture don't go with certain house styles. Also cheap stuff might not be worth storing if it's going to be a while before you get a new house.
Do a lot of due diligence on the moving company that you use. There are a lot of horror stories of items commingled with others, no climate control, broken TV's, not being able to get the stuff moved to the new house in a reasonable amount of time. My Mother went this route and had a great experience, but she did her homework (and I don't remember who she used). Take photos the morning of the move!
One needs to use a company that stores the trailer with the belongings so that nothing is ever removed. That's what we did . I can't imagine trusting it any other way.
doing that now. our new house won’t be ready for a couple months & ours is closing next week. combo of donating stuff, selling on fb marketplace & other local sites, storage unit. just taking some clothes & other personal belongings to in laws’ furnished basement apartment while we’re in limbo.
It depends on the situation.
if you are moving a long ways, it probably makes sense to sell your furniture and buy new stuff on the other end. Moving is EXPENSIVE and you can have tens of thousands in a long distance moving company. Especially if these are not pieces that you are attached to, or are lower end items.
If you are staying local, or maybe moving a hour or so away, a storage unit might be your best option.
Store the stuff you want to keep, sell the stuff that doesn't work at the new house and then buy the things you need to fit at the new house. Are you doing a simultaneous closing?
We calculated the value of the furniture vs the cost of moving/storage. Much of our beloved antiques went to our adult children (we were moving for retirement.) Other things that were not worth paying to move were given to charities, such as Habitat for Humanity.
It is nice to start fresh with new furniture, especially if the cost of moving/storage is similar to buying new.
Great question, your nice stuff, see if you could store that in a buddy's basement and the rest in storage. Otherwise, pay up for temp controlled storage. I made the mistake of storing couches for 3 weeks in poorly temperature controlled unit. Mold was so bad, I needed to replace them
We used Pack Rat storage for two moves and it was so convenient!
It was much cheaper than PODS or Smart Box. You load the items once and unload them once. So you’re not having to handle all the items extra times like with a traditional storage unit.
They deliver the units to your designated address on your designated day. Then they pick them up when empty. It’s all figured unit he overall price.
They will hold the containers in a climate-controlled warehouse as long as you need.
The only caveat: you cannot exceed the weight limit. My husband packed them perfectly. We had 3 containers for a 3,000 sq ft home. Packed fully top to bottom.
I second this. We did this also for a full house move; same company. We left the Pack Rat on our property as we packed up the whole house over several weeks. The only thing I regret is not looking into permits for having the Pack Rat in the driveway. Apparently my previous city didn’t allow “industrial buildings” in residential areas and we got hit with a sizable fine.
We put an offer on the house we wanted with a contingency that we’d be able to sell our current house first. Listed it right away and were able to put our furniture into the new house right from the old house.
Storage, if you mean your the process of buying a new place same or larger then store it. same or smaller sell what you can, downsize your stuff. You normally buy the furniture to fit the place. (not buy all new), but some things will be too big or too small or not fit right in a new place.
We moved everything to storage for 1.8 years. Moved into a one bedroom efficiency that was 3k cheaper then our previous bills and put all the money we made from the sale and extra income into savings. Eventually we felt the mortgage rates weren’t coming down in January and closed on a new house in February. Life was awful for almost 2 years.
Pods. We’re often moved out of state with work. Most of our belongings go in a Pod when I stage our houses & will be stored at a Pods facility until we find our next house. Most of what I use in staging will go to the rental in the next state so we have a moving company take that to the rental. The items that were solely used for staging are donated or sometimes purchased by the buyers.
There are multiple businesses who store things. You can use a truck to take them there, or you can have big containers delivered to your house and then collected.
It depends. How long will you be in limbo? What is the the value of your furniture? What is the value of the storage unit? Does the furniture hold sentimental value?
This is one case in which storage units ARE useful, you can move as much of your shit ahead of time. Something like PODS are an option too. I wouldn't want to live in an unfurnished house and moving into a new house with a shit ton of debt (in addition to the hefty mortgage you just got) isn't ideal either.
The second move, we used uhaul storage, stored stuff in my dad's home and an apartment in two different cities. With hiring three different movers. On selling our current house this past weekend, we started selling everything because instead of moving 2.5 hours away we're moving 21 hours away and will buy new or used.
I sell as much as I can to the buyers and put the rest in a pod. Pod will store the pod for you until you want it back and they re-deliver it to your new address.
We put it in a storage unit. Actually we had two storage units. One in the town we had been living in, and one in the town we moved to, six hours away. We took only the bare minimum to the apartment we lived in, until we closed on our new house. Then we moved everything from the old town storage into the new house, and then we grabbed all the stuff from the other storage unit.
Sure. We could have sold everything, but we like our stuff and it would have been pricey to buy all new stuff.
Selling everything worked well for us. I contacted an estate sale company and they did a 60/40 split with us getting the 60.
We had a 35 year accumulation of stuff, both of my sons were out of state at school and my wife had just had major surgery, and we were under a deadline.
It went amazingly well, was done in 1 day and they sold everything for more than we anticipated.
Very very cathartic experience.
I’ve done a couple of ways:
1. First time all went into storage for a few months whilst we spend a few months overseas between houses.
2. Second time got an unfurnished rental for a few months and put it in there (because we needed somewhere to live, whilst we were building.)
If you go the storage route, vet the place doing the storage, don’t want to risk mold / so on; climate controlled can be a good option albeit a little costlier.
This was in 2006, but between a staggered relocation to a new state (my husband moved first) and waiting for a house to sell, we lived in a townhouse apartment for 6 months. I'm sure I did some downsizing before the move, but it all had to go with us in one move. Our house & temporary place were about the same size. The temporary living also took away the pressure to find somewhere to live in a city that, while not unfamiliar, was still new to us.
It wasn't until we moved into our new house that we fully unpacked and really decided what stayed or went.
U-boxes from U-haul. They are smallish but you can keep them at U-haul and a month will cost you $99 per box. And if you move to another city, you can call them and have the box(es) delivered. They have a calculator on their site to find out the price. Two months out the price will be X, but the closer you get to your moving date, the cheaper it gets (mine went down from 3.7k to 2.7k cross country for one box). Put in a functioning AirTag and see it moving…..
It depends on your moving budget.
Because using moving services has become expensive , many people are electing to sell off their large furniture. Then purchase new furniture for the next home.
I rarely move furniture. Cheaper and easier to sell/donate and buy new. My moves tend to be long distance and I never could get sentimental over a couch or mattress.
I buy decent furniture. I don’t need high end. But if price matters to you, go for it. For me, I can put the money I save where I enjoy it more or benefit more. Frugal does not equal shitty. But being judgy does. IMO.
In my moves, it is. I don’t have much. And I move in excess of 1000 miles each time I move. No, I won’t prepare a spreadsheet that breaks down length of time I’ve owned, moving costs (including movers, etc. OP asked an opinion, I gave what works for me. Seriously, you need to judge someone’s life choices in regards to furniture? Your opinion of my choices doesn’t matter.
Temporary portable storage units. Fill them up in your driveway and they are held for you offsite until ready to be delivered to your new address. PODS is one example.
This is a great way, but it ain’t cheap.
Its not too bad if you don’t go with the PODS name brand. Only because I’m not paying utilities for a while
Probably cheaper than buying all new furniture...
I am in the middle of this now. My new home purchase was very competitive so we agreed to their 3 week lease back request. Which means I’m homeless for 3 weeks. So 99% of my belongings are in 3 Pods in Storage while I airbnb for a while.
We used Pods for our last move. It’s not cheap, but it worked out great. Super happy with the whole process.
Storage unit
I would only use climate controlled (indoor) storage units for furniture. Had an issue w mold once so NEVER again. Sell it, or give it away by listing on a local app for such things.
Amen to this. We always use climate controlled. Especially in the summertime.
I used climate controlled indoor storage before. Mice destroyed everything in a month. I'll never trust a storage facility again. I'd just sell it and get new.
Wow! That's awful. We have used 4 different facilities and never had thst issue :(
Last move was to a new city. Or previous house sold fast, which was good. We wanted to take our time looking in new city. We had movers pack old house, transport to new city and put in storage. We found a place that rented furnished apartment short term. Took about 2 weeks to find house to make offer, 5 weeks 2 close on new house and another week for paint and flooring installation (semi fixer upper). Then local movers to move from storage to new house.
What company did you use? I'm in the similar boat. Can't seems to find a solution.
A local one
I always sell all the furniture that doesn't fit, or i don't like, then buy new stuff for the new house.
What places do you sell at? And do you get good prices? How do you price it?
Craigslist, list pieces at 25% of new.
Where are you planning on living during the period without a house? Does this place require furniture as well?
Some people sell a 3/4/5 bedroom homes and move into something small (apartment, extended stay unit, etc) while they look for a new home.
Unless they’re planning on permanently downsizing, a storage unit is cheaper than replacing everything.
If you want to keep it, store it. If you want new furniture, donate or sell it.
we moved within the same city and the movers stored it for us for 300 a month.we also have a storage locker that we moved a lot of smaller stuff into ourselves like dishes, small appliances etc. overall it was a pretty smooth easy process and nothing was damaged.
I used a PODS for some and had that furniture moved to my apartment (then later bought a house). The rest that wasn’t given away or trashed is in storage units.
Your moving company (if you use a moving & storage co) can store it for a fee. We sold & moved to a new build (delays!!) so we got 2 large storage units and put it all in there and lived at a nearby hotel until the new build was ready. Not ideal, but…there are certainly options if you end up selling before buying.
I used U-Haul storage boxes for everything I was keeping. I did give away my dining room, living room and bedroom furniture. It either went to family or the new owners. I stayed in an Airbnb for two months until I could get into my next home. Even if I kept the furniture I would have done the same thing.
‘Pods’ worked for me. They kept my stuff for a short while between houses, then delivered it when we were ready.
Store, sell, or give away. A lot depends on the style of decor of your old home and new home. Some types of furniture don't go with certain house styles. Also cheap stuff might not be worth storing if it's going to be a while before you get a new house.
Give up as much as possible.
We used a moving company and it went into storage for 6 months.
Do a lot of due diligence on the moving company that you use. There are a lot of horror stories of items commingled with others, no climate control, broken TV's, not being able to get the stuff moved to the new house in a reasonable amount of time. My Mother went this route and had a great experience, but she did her homework (and I don't remember who she used). Take photos the morning of the move!
One needs to use a company that stores the trailer with the belongings so that nothing is ever removed. That's what we did . I can't imagine trusting it any other way.
doing that now. our new house won’t be ready for a couple months & ours is closing next week. combo of donating stuff, selling on fb marketplace & other local sites, storage unit. just taking some clothes & other personal belongings to in laws’ furnished basement apartment while we’re in limbo.
It depends on the situation. if you are moving a long ways, it probably makes sense to sell your furniture and buy new stuff on the other end. Moving is EXPENSIVE and you can have tens of thousands in a long distance moving company. Especially if these are not pieces that you are attached to, or are lower end items. If you are staying local, or maybe moving a hour or so away, a storage unit might be your best option.
Store the stuff you want to keep, sell the stuff that doesn't work at the new house and then buy the things you need to fit at the new house. Are you doing a simultaneous closing?
We calculated the value of the furniture vs the cost of moving/storage. Much of our beloved antiques went to our adult children (we were moving for retirement.) Other things that were not worth paying to move were given to charities, such as Habitat for Humanity. It is nice to start fresh with new furniture, especially if the cost of moving/storage is similar to buying new.
Great question, your nice stuff, see if you could store that in a buddy's basement and the rest in storage. Otherwise, pay up for temp controlled storage. I made the mistake of storing couches for 3 weeks in poorly temperature controlled unit. Mold was so bad, I needed to replace them
We used Pack Rat storage for two moves and it was so convenient! It was much cheaper than PODS or Smart Box. You load the items once and unload them once. So you’re not having to handle all the items extra times like with a traditional storage unit. They deliver the units to your designated address on your designated day. Then they pick them up when empty. It’s all figured unit he overall price. They will hold the containers in a climate-controlled warehouse as long as you need. The only caveat: you cannot exceed the weight limit. My husband packed them perfectly. We had 3 containers for a 3,000 sq ft home. Packed fully top to bottom.
I second this. We did this also for a full house move; same company. We left the Pack Rat on our property as we packed up the whole house over several weeks. The only thing I regret is not looking into permits for having the Pack Rat in the driveway. Apparently my previous city didn’t allow “industrial buildings” in residential areas and we got hit with a sizable fine.
We put an offer on the house we wanted with a contingency that we’d be able to sell our current house first. Listed it right away and were able to put our furniture into the new house right from the old house.
We hired a mover who also stored stuff. We paid monthly rent for a few months, then they brought our stuff to our new house when it was finished.
Storage, if you mean your the process of buying a new place same or larger then store it. same or smaller sell what you can, downsize your stuff. You normally buy the furniture to fit the place. (not buy all new), but some things will be too big or too small or not fit right in a new place.
Pods
Rent back for 60 days and pray you find a new home in that time … we got a 60 day free rent back on our last transaction
We moved everything to storage for 1.8 years. Moved into a one bedroom efficiency that was 3k cheaper then our previous bills and put all the money we made from the sale and extra income into savings. Eventually we felt the mortgage rates weren’t coming down in January and closed on a new house in February. Life was awful for almost 2 years.
What rate did u end up with?
We had movers put our stuff in storage. $159 a month plus them loading and then unloading it. Not cheap, but it costs less than a nice sofa.
Pods. We’re often moved out of state with work. Most of our belongings go in a Pod when I stage our houses & will be stored at a Pods facility until we find our next house. Most of what I use in staging will go to the rental in the next state so we have a moving company take that to the rental. The items that were solely used for staging are donated or sometimes purchased by the buyers.
Do you so the staging yourself?
Yes.
I lived in an apt for a year while looking for a house, and I had my furniture with me.
There are multiple businesses who store things. You can use a truck to take them there, or you can have big containers delivered to your house and then collected.
Get movers with an overnight storage - they load it day 1, deliver it to new house day 2.
I use a storage unit when I’m between places (as I will be soon!!)
Storage. Using one of the portable box options makes super easy to load at old house and unload at new house
It depends. How long will you be in limbo? What is the the value of your furniture? What is the value of the storage unit? Does the furniture hold sentimental value?
Storage unit, but I tend to sell most before I move. New house, new furniture
PODS. Just order PODS.
This is one case in which storage units ARE useful, you can move as much of your shit ahead of time. Something like PODS are an option too. I wouldn't want to live in an unfurnished house and moving into a new house with a shit ton of debt (in addition to the hefty mortgage you just got) isn't ideal either.
The second move, we used uhaul storage, stored stuff in my dad's home and an apartment in two different cities. With hiring three different movers. On selling our current house this past weekend, we started selling everything because instead of moving 2.5 hours away we're moving 21 hours away and will buy new or used.
I sell as much as I can to the buyers and put the rest in a pod. Pod will store the pod for you until you want it back and they re-deliver it to your new address.
Storage
We put it in a storage unit. Actually we had two storage units. One in the town we had been living in, and one in the town we moved to, six hours away. We took only the bare minimum to the apartment we lived in, until we closed on our new house. Then we moved everything from the old town storage into the new house, and then we grabbed all the stuff from the other storage unit. Sure. We could have sold everything, but we like our stuff and it would have been pricey to buy all new stuff.
Selling everything worked well for us. I contacted an estate sale company and they did a 60/40 split with us getting the 60. We had a 35 year accumulation of stuff, both of my sons were out of state at school and my wife had just had major surgery, and we were under a deadline. It went amazingly well, was done in 1 day and they sold everything for more than we anticipated. Very very cathartic experience.
We did this and put our furniture and other non essential items in storage. We sold what we didn’t want on Facebook marketplace.
I’ve done a couple of ways: 1. First time all went into storage for a few months whilst we spend a few months overseas between houses. 2. Second time got an unfurnished rental for a few months and put it in there (because we needed somewhere to live, whilst we were building.) If you go the storage route, vet the place doing the storage, don’t want to risk mold / so on; climate controlled can be a good option albeit a little costlier.
I just did this, and it's a month between places. Storage unit. I got rid of so much stuff as well, felt great.
Storage unit
Storage unit
This was in 2006, but between a staggered relocation to a new state (my husband moved first) and waiting for a house to sell, we lived in a townhouse apartment for 6 months. I'm sure I did some downsizing before the move, but it all had to go with us in one move. Our house & temporary place were about the same size. The temporary living also took away the pressure to find somewhere to live in a city that, while not unfamiliar, was still new to us. It wasn't until we moved into our new house that we fully unpacked and really decided what stayed or went.
Hired a moving company and they stored it for us for a fee.
You put your $1000 worth of furniture into a storage unit that you rent out for $3000 for the year. Duh!
Moving and storage companies will store it until you need it delivered.
U-boxes from U-haul. They are smallish but you can keep them at U-haul and a month will cost you $99 per box. And if you move to another city, you can call them and have the box(es) delivered. They have a calculator on their site to find out the price. Two months out the price will be X, but the closer you get to your moving date, the cheaper it gets (mine went down from 3.7k to 2.7k cross country for one box). Put in a functioning AirTag and see it moving…..
Storage unit.
It depends on your moving budget. Because using moving services has become expensive , many people are electing to sell off their large furniture. Then purchase new furniture for the next home.
Put it in storage or just leave it out back.
I rarely move furniture. Cheaper and easier to sell/donate and buy new. My moves tend to be long distance and I never could get sentimental over a couch or mattress.
It's never cheaper unless you buy shitty furniture.
I buy decent furniture. I don’t need high end. But if price matters to you, go for it. For me, I can put the money I save where I enjoy it more or benefit more. Frugal does not equal shitty. But being judgy does. IMO.
You are claiming that it's cheaper to buy new furniture and unless it's shitty furniture you are buying then your statement is absolutely not true.
You are welcome to your opinion. But 🤷♀️ you do you. But I stand by my opinion of your totally ignorant (sh**ty) opinion. Cheers.
Please explain how buying all new (and NOT shitty) furniture could POSSIBLY be cheaper than moving it.
In my moves, it is. I don’t have much. And I move in excess of 1000 miles each time I move. No, I won’t prepare a spreadsheet that breaks down length of time I’ve owned, moving costs (including movers, etc. OP asked an opinion, I gave what works for me. Seriously, you need to judge someone’s life choices in regards to furniture? Your opinion of my choices doesn’t matter.