Emily's question is what she should do about moving to Arizona. She is relocating from DC and is not sure whether she should move her stuff by driving (estimated cost: $1200), flying and then hiring someone to move her stuff (estimate flight cost: $500, plus cost of people shipping things), or perhaps whether she should sell her things and buy new ones or just rent furnished.
My advice is to sell things on this end either to an incoming tenant, via craigslist, or via yard sale. You can also try selling things on facebook to friends who are coming to the area. You can use that money to buy things on the other end, but your goal should be to craigslist surf for the first two or so weeks you are there-- it should be pretty easy to get a free bed, couch, and some other key thing (though no foosball tables are ever available on craigslist- we know from frequent searching) and you can use the money you made selling things in DC to cover the cost of a zip car or uHaul for moving your free things around.
caitlin update: kind emily, first consider: do you really need to move to arizona? it seems like a pain in the ass. if you insist, i also advocate selling any furniture that is not dear to you. i suggest that you patrol the rideshare section of craigslist. sometimes people need their cars to be driven places, and arizona is a place. a preliminary search for "arizona" reveals no hits, sadly. additionally, isn't it hot in arizona? if so, you certainly won't need furniture, especially wood furniture, which may burn. this is my advice.
Having had the unfortunate experience of dealing with bed bugs, I think some words of caution are in order. Free is not always the best option. sometimes free leaves you scared to go in your living room for an entire year, until you move out.
ReplyDeleteBeware free couch and free bed. If you insist on free...thorough searches are necessary. remember to check in the folds and look for little red bites on the individual kind of enough to give you what may be an infested piece of furniture.
happy travels!
$1200 is like three times what it could cost to do that move by car/truck like a cheapion.
ReplyDeleteBut my solution, which my GF and I are actually doing this summer before she moves to Mexico, is to do some sort of project along the way to pay for it. Cross country road trips have a way of financing themselves, cause so few people regularly do them.
pray tell what KIND of project could finance this glorious road trip?
ReplyDeleteUPDATE: i'm now examining the possibility of using a pick-up to make this move, how do i get me one of those? i'll start with the usual suspects, avis and wheels when i want them.
~Cousin Emily
I would like to note that had you not highjacked MY foosball table and given it to THE Wesleyan frat, then there would be no need to search for a new one. Just saying.
ReplyDeleteWe're gonna visit physics labs around the country (past, present and abandoned before completion) and do an article and/or multimedia piece for Symmetry Magazine. She's a science writer and I'm a photographer, so it just fits our skill set well. I dunno what sorts of things you do, but I'm sure there's something.
ReplyDeleteThat said, while it would probably be the cheapest option, it is a huge pain to move stuff yourself. I did it just from DC to NY in a rented truck, which was exhilarating but also definitely sucked at times. My cousin did LA to Philly a few years back, more like what you'd be doing, and thought it a huge mistake by the end. (I don't think she really likes driving, though, and this is totally the sort of thing that'd come down to your own preferences).
Anyway, good luck!
Also, try "freecycle" when you get to arizona. I know that they have a site for DC, in Yahoo Groups and its basically a site where people who believe in recycling and can afford to just give stuff away post pictures or messages about what is available and you can go pick it up for free. I have found numerous wonderful (NEW) things there.
ReplyDelete~N.