I know many advocate getting rid of everything and buying new, and that villagers who brought furniture with them regret it. With that in mind, we downsized our house by half. We got rid of so, so much!! But we still kept enough furniture to get our house started. Keep in mind that there is a wait for furniture. Plus, if you have good quality furniture you won’t be able to replace it with similar quality for what you would save in closing costs.

Finally, as others suggested, try getting a POD and doing the move yourself. Hire movers on both ends to pack/unpack. I am a fan of Village Mover. (Villagemover.con). They were awesome.

Good luck!