I furnished 2 complete homes using
www.Craigslist.com in Virginia. On the weekend there are 100 new ads an hour for furniture. So over a couple months, bought all very high end stuff at a very low cost and stored it in my garage. Then used a U-haul truck to move everything to TV. Had free help loading on the VA end and used Arthur Martin on TV end. I found a rental truck to be much cheaper then PODs. There is something about the U-haul web site they do based on where they are trying to move trucks that causes price to vary greatly. By checking regularly, adjusting dates, I got a 17 foot truck for $415 one way. Gas was another $200 and help was $200. So each move was about $800 total with help on TV end. I made two trips with a 17 foot truck and one trip with a trailer to furnish 2 2000 sq foot homes. Yes it cost me my time, and yes I am sure there was cost getting the furniture in VA as I had to look at an average of 3 before buying 1 of almost everything. And I had to move it from where I bought it to my home. But I bought all of it including new mattresses for the beds for about 5K each home. Then another 1K to get it all to my VA home and then to TV. PODs would have added another 2K to each home. I do understand why you might use PODs as they seem very convenient. For me this way worked out better.
And as an aside, I also highly recommend Arthur Martin. He did a great job at a reasonable price.