<p>There have been many posts on what to move or not move, how to move (Pods, moving companies, etc.) how to pack light, how to buy online & pick up in the new location, etc. My biggest question is which is better for a graduate student? D. is going to grad. school cross country, but also intending on a permanent move to that part of the world. ;-(
To fully set up a new small household ( bedroom & stuff, kitchen & stuff, a small table, desk space or file cabinet, etc.) will cost a fortune – even with the bare minimum. She has accumulated all that already over time from garage sales, purchases, etc. and had a shared apartment as an undergrad. To move it will cost a small fortune as well (estimating $1000 - 1200 using a company like ABF or Pods). None of it is very valuable, but to replace it all can add up quickly. Any thoughts on which is cheaper or better in the long run?</p>
<p>I know someone who bought a trailer on craig’s list, attached it to the car, moved cross country, then sold the trailer on craig’s list.</p>
<p>How much will $1,000 buy when it comes to refurnishing an apartment with more garage sales stuff? If the answer is “a lot,” I’d be inclined not to take her old furnishings. Otherwise, I’d pay to move her stuff–unfortunately, because the move is across country, it may not make much sense to rent a Uhaul and take it yourselves.</p>
<p>Unload it where she is and check out craigslist free stuff where she is moving to for replacements.</p>
<p>Remember, she can sell what she has now for at least part of what it will cost to replace it. And she can probably get by for quite a while without a “fully set up” small household. She doesn’t have to replace everything at once, and in some ways it’s probably more fun not to, to wait until you see the perfect thing, etc. So unless something has real sentimental value, or would be hard to sell but horribly expensive to replace, and it can be packed in a suitcase or shipped UPS efficiently . . . sell it, don’t move it.</p>
<p>Of course, if you do decide to move stuff, moving the marginal thing doesn’t cost so much, so the whole calculation changes.</p>
<p>Buying things at the destination may be cheaper than shipping existing stuff.</p>
<p>Also, is your daughter sure that she will be living in unfurnished housing at her destination? Sometimes, in university communities, many of the graduate students – as well as the undergrads – live in furnished apartments. My son went across the country to graduate school with a laptop bag and two suitcases. He lived in a shared furnished apartment for three years and only had to buy electronics and kitchen stuff.</p>
<p>If your daughter does have to buy furniture, she may want to consider IKEA – at least for things that can be assembled easily, like tables and shelving systems. Some of their least expensive stuff is very inexpensive indeed. However, do not buy the tables with the Vika Curry legs. Even the display models in the store wobble.</p>
<p>I moved cross-country a few years ago for grad school. She should definitely investigate USPS Media Mail if she’s a textbook hoarder like I am, since that will be a ton of weight to either lug in a trailer or send UPS. Media Mail is pretty darned cheap, just be sure to insure each box for a few hundred dollars. I sent a few boxes and didn’t insure one of them, and by the time it arrived it was only held together by the extra tape I wrapped around the box (my other media mail boxes arrived a day earlier and in near spotless condition).</p>
<p>I actually made the move by packing up my car (Ford Focus hatchback), stowing enough clothes to last the season, my computer/monitor, and things that had a high price to volume ratio. It worked out great since I had a car in grad school (making the move to Los Angeles, so a bit of a necessity) and didn’t have to try to refurnish my entire life off of things from yard sales.</p>
<p>My dad went with me on the trip and we had a ton of fun during the drive. Visited a bunch of national parks, had dinner with a few of his former co-workers as we drove by the various cities they were now living in, and got to see a lot of beautiful scenery. Gas is a bit more expensive now, but if you don’t mind staying in Days Inns you can still get by for pretty inexpensive (probably about what you’d pay just to have her stuff moved by another company). If you want any suggestions on routes to take or anything let me know since I’ve made the ride a number of times now. :)</p>
<p>S had to decide what to keep & what to sell when he got his job across the country. Originally, he had thought to move everything, because his employer was paying for the move. He found that he had too many bulky possessions to hassle with, so he sold/tossed/gave away a lot via Craigslist & other sources, to winnow down to what he really wanted. He figures he can easily get more/newer things when he moves into his new place and not have the movers have to handle so many items. He & D are now driving across the country to get his car from CA to VA. We believe they are having a pretty good trip & the car has been behaving itself. 
They are spending two nights in Chicago, to our surprise. Hopefully, they will do some fun things along the way.</p>
<p>There is a lot to be said for getting rid of larger, bulkier things at one destination & consider getting replacements at new destination.</p>
<p>My S had been living off-campus for three years and had accumulated plenty of household stuff when he graduated and moved 1000 away. He also sold or gave away everything he could locally, including his bed, washer & dryer, sm refrigerator, board games, kitchen stuff, etc. He also sold his car before moving. I have no idea exactly how much and how he moved the balance; I do know that he flew to his new city. Since he had found his new apartment and roommate on Craig’s List, he was uncertain exactly how much and what furniture he would need and so planned to buy stuff over time once settled. I’m pretty sure he bought a bed the first day. His friends also recommended IKEA for the low cost and short-term use.</p>
<p>Yes, IKEA does have great things that are low cost (but some are also fairly low quality, like the mattress S tossed after two years because he said it was so junk). It is good to see what space the person will be living in BEFORE it gets full of “stuff” from the move, in deciding what is worth moving.</p>
<p>The best thing is really to just unload as much of her current stuff as possible where she is, and get new things gradually in her new place. You would be surprised how affordable it can be to get new stuff when she arrives. </p>
<p>If she’s going as a grad student, is she going to live in grad student housing at first? That will probably come with furniture. If not, it would be very smart to try to find a furnished place she can rent for 3-6 months (easy to do on craigslist) while she gets sorted, gets to know the area she’s living in, and plans for a permanent place. If she’s getting an apartmetn and not living in university housing, she will probably have to live with a roommate at first (unless you plan to supplement her) and whatever roomate situaution she moves in to, the roommate will likely have at least some things, so she won’t need to completely outfit a house at once. The roommate may also be willing to split the cost of anything new they do need to buy. </p>
<p>You would be surprised how affordable it is to get set up in the age of IKEA, craigslist, and zipcar. Also freecycle. If she can get into even a partially furnished place, she can easily buy items like couches, and bed frames at a fraction of the retail cost (often from people looking to unload items before their own moves). She can enroll in zipcar and then rent a truck as needed to pick up the bigger things. You can get kitchen sets at IKEA with starter pots and pans for cheap. Ditto for dishes and glasses. You can get a lot of good stuff from Macy’s during their regular sales as well. </p>
<p>If she drives from home, she’s in even better shape, as you can probably outfit her with quite a lot from the family attic. Old sets of dishes for example. </p>
<p>And for stuff youd ont’ want to buy at IKEA or on craigslist or at garage sales, you can always save up over time to get them. Keep in mind that unless she’s buying property, she’s going to be moving a lot in the first few years. From the starter apartment, to something nicer, maybe in and out of student housing, so weighing yourself down with a complete household worth of stuff from the start is a bad long term investment.</p>
<p>My son (not one to save money, but he doesn’t spend much either) :rolleyes: gave away his furniture from his undergrad apartment except what we could stuff into the car. (I now own his bedside table and a nice office chair.) He then went to Ikea and bought new stuff in his new location. He doesn’t drive which makes it all a lot more difficult. We mailed his books (don’t use liquor boxes the USPS won’t take them), and a couple of other boxes of stuff via FedEx Ground. He took a big suitcase on the plane.</p>
<p>Since he was an intern last summer where he’s working now, he made arrangements to stay in the same apartment complex he did then.</p>
<p>Our S tended to sell what textbooks he had as the term ended so when he graduated, he had very few. USPS flat rate boxes have worked GREAT for us in shipping things from HI & generally are the lowest price for us, especially for heavy and/or bulky items. Whatever we can squash into the box & seal nicely will ship for the same flat rate!</p>
<p>I pretty much would agree with everything already posted on here. My D went to school on the other side of the country, then moved back here for the job she got post-grad. What we did was pick a few things that she either wanted or that had come from our house (we drove cross country to move her in freshman year but couldn’t do it again this time around) and shipped those things for less than 1,000. She sold/gave away/threw away the rest and then used some of the money (and a little help from us) to furnish her new apartment here. </p>
<p>Good luck figuring this out! The key is just picking what makes the most sense to you financially and logically.</p>
<p>If you are able to drive there with her and drive back then renting a uhaul trailer to pull behind your car is a fairly cheap option - a recent 4 day rental was under $100. Of course you have to factor in the cost of gas and whether you were going with her to help her move in anyway…</p>
<p>This is the situation with my D as well. She is moving from the East Coast to CA for two years for grad school. She has a car and already will be taking that anyway. But she already invested in furnishing an apartment three years ago when she got out of college and started her former grad school. She paid for all of that herself with graduation gift money. A lot of it is from IKEA and some other places. She likes her stuff and it is currently stored in our basement. It would be too hard to sell it all here where we live (rural VT). She, nor we, have money to furnish another apartment all over again and she really likes everything she already has anyway. I looked into the Pod things I read about here on CC and that is cost prohibitive. We have decided to rent a UHaul trailer. I am going to drive across the country with her and we’ll be pulling all her stuff in the trailer. That was the cheapest option (and she was gonna be driving anyway with the car) in terms of a way to move her stuff or compared to outfitting a new apartment from scratch. She just signed a lease long distance on a one bedroom apartment for herself in CA. The idea is that after two years, when she leaves that area, she can then sell her furnishings as it is an area with many young people and she will have by then used it all for a total of four years and not have to bring it all back East again, assuming she is coming back East. We’ll cross that bridge then. We are going to drive straight out without sightseeing as we both have seen the country on such trips in the past, and the idea is to get there and there is a limit to how much time I can take off between the drive and helping her to get moved in.</p>