I like the new technology bed in a box mattresses. Makes buying a mattress easy. There are now probably a dozen companies that offer similar compressed mattresses in a box, delivered to your home, that you open, unroll and voila, you have a bed.
You might find some stuff on overstock.
We have moved a couple of kids around.
Kid one moved 1200 miles away to grad school and an apartment. We loaded up our van with the kitchen stuff, and his personal belongings. We chose to stay in a hotel the first night…but we were there when they unlocked the mattress store door in the morning…same day delivery.
We crunched the numbers on renting a UHaul…and schlepping furniture vs buying there. We bought there. Nothing fancy…but Target, Walmart and BBB had just about everything he needed. We made a stop at Big Lots too.
I will say when this same kid moved 2500 miles away, he took his personal belongings in a Honda Accord…and filled in the blanks all by himself at his new home. He stays with a friend for a couple of weeks until he and another friend found a house to share.
Two years ago, we moved DD about 1200 miles away. We had some furniture to take so we rented a large van. She drove her car. In that move, the only things we bought locally were her bed, a microwave, and some deck chairs. She did go to Ikea months later to get a chair.
I honestly felt that buying things at the new location was a LOT smarter than renting the van.
Mine is moving this summer, only about 2 hours from her school but 2000 miles from me. I’m recommending she get a furnished short term unit for 2 months. Her boyfriend might move down at the end of the summer and then they could pick a place they both like. The benefit for the short term place is that she wouldn’t have to pay to set up utilities or internet for a short term stay.
She thought she had a room with a friend but I guess that fell through. It’s all quite casual as she doesn’t even know when she’s starting the job.
I drove D2 cross country to grad school and helped her get moved into her unfurnished apartment bedroom last year. It is a lot easier to find an apartment when you are in town, although she took one on Craigslist from afar. It was okay for a year, and now she has a new lease at a better place for next fall. She has apartment-mates who had some common furniture (couch, TV, etc).
I stayed in town in a hotel with her for a few days. We were able to squeeze her double bed frame in the car, and bought a mattress when we got there. Someone had to be home for mattress delivery, so I was able to do that while she was registering for classes, etc. We made a trip to Ikea a couple hours from her apartment over the following weekend. Got a dresser, bedside table, lamp, bookcase, hangers, kitchen stuff, linens. It all fit in the back of her Subaru wagon with seats folded down. She dropped me at the airport on the way home. She had to assemble, but succeeded.
My son slept on an air mattress the first night in his apartment - he rented from the same complex where he’d rented the previous summer as an intern. I assume the intern apartment was furnished, but this one wasn’t. He ordered the basics from Ikea and had them deliver it.
Younger son lives about four hours from us now. His mattress comes from Brooklyn Bedding on Amazon - they mail them in relatively small boxes and they take about 12 hours to reinflate. It’s kind of amazing. He drives so he’s been moving stuff in stages from our house and buying stuff at the local Goodwill.
Goodwill can also have great things like sofa’s,chairs and small decorative things.
Yeah. But you have to watch for bedbugs from any used source.
I’d concentrate on helping her find a place to live first, whether it be temporary or permanent. That’s what I did when S needed housing for grad school in NYC while living out of the country and housing for first job in V/NH when living in NYC with no car. Much depends on the availability of various kinds of housing. Furniture and so forth can be acquired or moved later.
Thrift stores are great for wooden/metal furniture and kitchen items. I would stay away from buying used upholstered furniture because of the potential of getting bedbugs. Those are a pain to get rid of.
IKEA furniture has horrible off-gasses. We have a Malm dresser that we bought last summer that is so toxic, we could never put it in DD’s room. It’s in our basement now, waiting for me to figure out a way to dispose of it.
@NJres Wow. I never knew those existed.
@kiddie She’ll be completely in her own to find an apartment. It’s a very small town with little around so it would be very hard to find a roommate though it would be nice way to start out in a new place.
Look on Craigslist for options is she wants a roommate. And we’ve never had any trouble with Ikea furniture except the assembly part.
When we moved we slept on a double high air mattress for about two weeks until our furniture et al arrived. We brought tv’s, computers, some pots and pans, bedding, clothing et al. I recommend using the air mattress (queen) and then purchasing a good quality mattress there. A cheap mattress will not work well for long- the one I got for residency eons ago. Other furniture can be cheap but do not compromise on the mattress like I did eons ago (a sleeper sofa is not great).
Thank goodness for the internet. She should contact her job for advice on neighborhoods to live in. She likely can find a place online or at least line up some possibilities for a scouting trip. The trip will provide her with knowledge about what’s available in her new location. I wonder if she could stay with a future coworker for this?
She will have an income and should plan her purchases accordingly. Instead of being fully furnished from the start she may want to budget for some not as cheap items in months to come. The overall costs can be lower if some things are actively liked and won’t need replacing in a few months/years.
@wis75 Thanks for the suggestions.
@intparent Craigslist has no roomate options, nor do the other sites we’ve looked at. It’s a town of a few thousand people.
Her place of employment made a suggestion of a place in town. It turns out she’s probably not eligible for other places due to income, since apartments in the area serve low income folks. All other better options are about 40 minutes away. I think she’s going to apply to the one place she can get into since it looks good. We can go look at it and hope for the best since some future coworkers live there.
Here is a tip when shopping for housing long distance. Google maps is your friend - look at street views to see what a neighborhood is like. Travel the route you will use to commute or to get groceries, etc.
Sounds good. Remember this is just a rental- she may have a lease but is not stuck there forever. She only twenty something and doesn’t need to be where she will be in a few years, or even next year. This is a stage of life with a lot of impermanence. Brings back so many memories of my and our son’s apartments at that stage. I think son will finally give up his studio of a few years and go back to having a separate bedroom. He can afford it.
@wis75 You’re right. I told D that there likely isn’t a better place without a long commute, so she should look at it like she would a college dorm: that’s what’s available so make the most of it for however long you need to.
Her college had older dorms and she lived in a dump during her internship. So this is very definitely a step up.
It’s remote, but it’s a cute, little town and everyone has been so friendly and helpful. She won’t have to travel more than a couple of miles to work with a population she has always had an interest in, the very thing that started her on this career path.
It does sort of remind me of a kid going off to a small LAC next to a small town in a rural area.
Is she concerned about social life at all given the lack of population?
There can be a poor social life even in big cities…