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.
