What do you wish you had not brought and what do you wish had brought down?

[Rainger99]

We moved in about six months ago and we are still trying to get organized. I am currently going through boxes and finding out what we kept and what we sold.

I was wondering what other people think - what do you wish that you had brought with you but didn't - and what do you regret bringing with you but wish you hadn't?

[ThirdOfFive]

We moved in about six months ago and we are still trying to get organized. I am currently going through boxes and finding out what we kept and what we sold.

I was wondering what other people think - what do you wish that you had brought with you but didn't - and what do you regret bringing with you but wish you hadn't?
Great topic. Let's see....

STUFF I WISH WE HAD BROUGHT WITH US...

1. Pressure canner.
2. Boat.
3. More hand tools (Irritates me when I have to go to Lowe's to by a tool when I sold one or more before we left).

STUFF I WISH WE HADN'T BROUGHT DOWN...

1. Pictures (A lot of the ones we brought we had to toss or give away because "they don't go with the decor".
2. Kitchen utensils--or most of 'em, anyway.
3. Blankets. We have about twice as many as we need.

[VApeople]

what do you wish that you had brought with you but didn't

We regret leaving behind a plastic sled we used when we played in the snow in Virginia.

Actually, we did not use it much for sledding after we bought a larger sled with metal runners, but we used it a lot to drag heavy (for us) bags of mulch from our driveway to the back of our house.

After six years of living in TV, we bought a nice plastic snow sled on Amazon, so now it is much easier for us move heavy bags around our yard.

[rustyp]

Wish I had not brought down with me
- my golf clubs
Wish I had brought down with me
- more golf balls

[retiredguy123]

My wife (just kidding, not married).

I came here with nothing but my SUV, my clothes, and a few electronic items. I lived in a hotel for about 5 weeks. I was amazed how inexpensive it was to start over and replace everything in a new house. It was also very stress reducing to not worry about what to bring.

[Michael G.]

So many newcomers heired these big moving vans that haul their personal tools and household items to Florida, all stored
in the basements up north.
Buys a house down here with less storage, it all wines up in the in garage with the car outside.
After time they have a hard time getting rude of it all.

All that's after they paid to move it down here.

[Bitsee]

Great topic !

I would bring my most valuable antiques and jewelry.
A second car if you have one.
The pressure washer.
My favorite cleaning utensils.
My most used hand tools - A must !
My favorite bicycle .
Our small freezer for the garage.
Our underground dog fencing unit with the collars.
An 8ft. Jon boat.

[Garywt]

So we have 2 houses and a camper. When we bought our house we bought most everything new. When we sell our house we will bring our bedroom set with our sleep number mattress and put our current set in Florida in the guest room. We will bring about 4-5 wall hanging, about 1/3 of our clothes, a couple favorite tools, some photo books, jewelry, a couple small appliances and probably not much else. We don’t want clutter. Everything else we have will be sold or put in a dumpster.

[Stu from NYC]

Should have brought more tools including clamps.
More winter clothing.
Less pictures but my wife won that discussion and still waiting on her to organize them and get rid of duplicates.

[CoachKandSportsguy]

Since we haven't officially left NE,
and TV house is already furnished:

remaining to be brought down:
1 chair, the kind with the College graduated seal :ohdear:
2 piece of furniture family inherited :ohdear:
1 tool chest full of assorted tools.
all pictures to be decided down there, haning and otherwise.
large laptop monitors
1 sextant from my first career, which was a graduation gift and used in the old days.
1 dining room set, the current is for renters. .
assorted kitchen devices which are used daily which are nicer than the rental equipment
Golf tournament purchased wine glasses
College and post college competition trophies (memories from days gone by) :ohdear:
golf clubs
all the balls i can find
a roman chair for back strengthening after herniated disc, twice
battery operated leaf blower and lawn mower

now ask the wife :ohdear:

sportsguy

[BigSteph]

Shouldn't have brought;

as many cold weather jackets -- one thin and one medium is enough
as many blankets -- thin-as-sheets blankets are enough for here
so many Christmas decorations -- it takes up too much room in garage

Should have brought;

pickup truck
more garage shelving -- let it at my last house

[asianthree]

Our 5 bedroom going on the market this summer, Packing personal items, sleep number, bedroom set, dining set, rest of the kitchen items. Any leftover furniture going to the Lake house, and grandkids condo.

What I should have brought
More winter clothes, warm boots for those 2am volunteer mornings at Disney.
Outdoor planters, garden tools, more slat wall for garage walls.
Telescope

What I should have left or sold.

Nothing, I am the most organized list person there is. I know what is in every drawer, closet, in every room, at every house we own. If one of t he family can’t find something I have a picture with the list

[kayak]

The one I like best...
someone had listed a snowblower on Craigslist.
This was from a few years back and I'm sure he had good reason to bring it to Florida.

[jimbomaybe]

We moved in about six months ago and we are still trying to get organized. I am currently going through boxes and finding out what we kept and what we sold.

I was wondering what other people think - what do you wish that you had brought with you but didn't - and what do you regret bringing with you but wish you hadn't?

Girlfriend-- wife ,, decisions,,decisions,,, decisions

[thevillages2013]

We regret leaving behind a plastic sled we used when we played in the snow in Virginia.

Actually, we did not use it much for sledding after we bought a larger sled with metal runners, but we used it a lot to drag heavy (for us) bags of mulch from our driveway to the back of our house.

After six years of living in TV, we bought a nice plastic snow sled on Amazon, so now it is much easier for us move heavy bags around our yard.
I just use a tarp. Plastic, slides easily on the grass and folds up to almost nothing for storage

[Jerry F2]

I can see many homes in Citrus Grove are struggling with all the stuff they brought down. They either thought they needed or could not get rid of. Now they have a home or garage (or both) full of boxes and tubs. Luckily, we learned our lesson and sold everything we had before we moved here. 18 years earlier we had built a new home in Cincinnati and before we moved in sold everything. New home, new stuff felt like a long vacation for a while. Took longer than planned to get our new furniture delivered here, but it all worked out. Even though there is not much storage here (Charlotte) we have plenty of room in house and garage. A house or garage full of boxes is a house soon to be full of bugs. Sell it, give it away, you don't need it. JUST PULL THE BAND-AID OFF! The pain will quickly be over.

[thevillages2013]

Girlfriend-- wife ,, decisions,,decisions,,, decisions

You have a SITUATION!

[GOLFER54]

I sold lots of my tools before coming here, figuring I wouldn’t need them. Little did I know I did need them and replaced almost all of them.

[La lamy]

The one thing I wish I'd brought is more of my garden shovels, picks, pots. Otherwise I brought very little and it's all been useful, except a dressy long sleeve black dress. Who knows if I'll ever go to a dressed-up winter event again...

[Luggage]

Not kidding......

[Luggage]

We used to have a Little tikes plastic wagon with wheels, that my wife used all the time in the garden hauling around the mulch.

[Gymfly1]

I wish I brought down my golf cart heater. It gets very cold mornings out on the courses in Jan-Feb

[MandoMan]

We moved in about six months ago and we are still trying to get organized. I am currently going through boxes and finding out what we kept and what we sold.

I was wondering what other people think - what do you wish that you had brought with you but didn't - and what do you regret bringing with you but wish you hadn't?

I brought one small chair, two bookcases I’d made, a couple hundred books, a couple hundred CDs, a couple hundred DVDs, some of my tools, some kitchen stuff, and a LOT of paintings (some seen below. That filled a ten foot truck and filled the Prius twice.

[SusanStCatherine]

We paid movers to move down about half of our household. They nicked up most of our furniture, which we plan on replacing or painting. We filed a claim and wound up with a profit of $1600 so they paid us money to move our stuff (and damage it).

It's best to purge as much as possible before coming here. But make sure you bring what you personally need. There is a long wait time on ordered furniture.

[Stu from NYC]

We paid movers to move down about half of our household. They nicked up most of our furniture, which we plan on replacing or painting. We filed a claim and wound up with a profit of $1600 so they paid us money to move our stuff (and damage it).

It's best to purge as much as possible before coming here. But make sure you bring what you personally need. There is a long wait time on ordered furniture.

Surprised your mover did not make you depreciate the stuff they damaged/ What they asked us to do on the small amount damaged made us decide to not bother. Which of course is their aim from the getgo.

[DonnaNi4os]

Wall art. My daughter insisted that I needed to bring it despite me knowing that only a few would actually work in my new home.

[LianneMigiano]

Brought way TOO MUCH. Was giving it away for YEARS after moving here!

[Rich42]

Who cares? Water over the dam either way.

[Barborv]

I'm in the process right now. Started going through all the old photo albums. Pulled out the pictures and put them in those nice boxes. My kids will take some of my furniture. The rest I'll donate. My place in TV was bought fully furnished which worked out great for when I came on visits. I have to admit, I'm having a hard time with my collectables. Nobody wants them, it kills me to get rid of. I'm assuming that when my neighborhood has their annual garage sale, that I can sell a lot of the stuff. Also, I have stuff from my grandmother that the dishes have gold trim, and I don't know if they're worth anything. I will get rid of a lot of clothes and other decor. I'm getting overwhelmed. I'm still working full time till the end of June and then put my house up for sale. That's when it will probably get easier to purge stuff. We are bringing our back yard furniture, televisions, computers, both our cars and all our household items and sundries and kitchen small appliances.

[Papa_lecki]

When we sold the house we raised the kids in, we found out most of the stuff isn’t worth much. We did an estate sale.

People don’t want dining room sets, unless a bedroom set is pottery barn or something comparable, forget about getting anything
Landscapers/contractors will buy the stuff in the garage.

[davem4616]

perhaps should have kept the lovely cherry dining room set

but you do want the home to have the look and feel of Florida....not a northern home

[JMintzer]

We brought our bedroom set, as it fits much better in FL than it did up north. We also brought a futon for a guest room and a leather easy chair. IN the garage, we brought my Craftsman workbench and some heavy duty wire shelving on wheels that we had in the basement.

We also brought a huge armoire that fits in the living room and will be my wife's "craft center".

93186

93187

We also brought down wicker furniture for the lanai, dishes, silverware and glassware for 12, assorted platters and cooking stuff... An antique sideboard (that was my wife's grandmother's), her mom's make-up table and two curio cabinets. We still have plenty up north that'll be sold when we move down permanently.

Still to come are pictures for the walls (now that we know where everything will go) and other objects d'art...

Each time we come down, we fill the back of my wife's MDX. Last year we made 5 trips down. This year, we'll try to do the same...

[davem4616]

actually not much....we knew there was no basement and this was our second move from our traditional home

maybe some of the plants that we had in Ft Lauderdale, but it's colder up her

[banjobob]

Next move a few personal items maybe a favorite piece of furniture , sell the rest or donate , give it to charity. Not worth trying to #1 pay to move all that stuff #2 figuring out where to put it here #3 having all that packed stuff in the garage for months after coming here.

[thelegges]

When we bought our third house here I needed a dinning set. Not sure why everyone says get rid if you go north furniture, it doesn't fit. We have white cabinets, and bought at southern lifestyle, a dark wood table with glass top (darker than anything I have north). Decor wise nice contrast. We entertain so 14 chair Scandinavia. dining set coming down soon

[Laurawilcox]

We just purchased a lot in DeLuna. Have been trying to purge things from our 4200, 4 car garage home. I can’t even say the “hundreds” of pounds that we have donated to schools and charities or sold so far.

However, we have custom furniture built years ago and other items that we love so I started pricing from Denver.

Everyone that I reached out to was incredibly responsive, I was surprised.

For the equivalent of a large truck equivalent to the largest UHaul, operated by local movers who drive with your stuff and then fly home you are about $15k. I didn’t trust the big carriers with the staffing issues many are having. Up to 1,200 per month storage which I thought was crazy.

For pod style we learned Pods is the most expensive, stores outside and has minimal hooks inside. We are looking at Zippy Shell a sister of Rat Pack, they have AAA and ARP discounts. With loading and unloading of two pods we would be at around 9.5k. I believe we will end up subtracting their labor and booking my own (see below). They send an agreement that locks down the estimate with no down payment and can be cancelled up to 10 days in advance at no penalty. Storage of pods if you need is 256 each and you don’t have to pay an addition labor cost because stuff is not removed from the pods.

UHaul for the 26 foot truck and car trailer we could be at 4K. Storage 125-200 per month and you need extra labor to unload the truck.

Also there are great loading and unloading companies on the websites of many of the pod delivery services. We also looked at Yelp and reached out to only teams with hundreds of positive ratings. Big difference in service levels. Ask them how they will treat your favorite piece, whatever that is, and if they will break down things like your bed frame if needed, and you will quickly see the difference. They average from 65-160 per hour for two men. Most say 4 hours on average for Pod, if you are ready to go. That is true on both ends. In our mind that price is well worth us not packing the pod for the space they know how to optimize that we do not.

[DeborahK]

We regret leaving behind a plastic sled we used when we played in the snow in Virginia.

Actually, we did not use it much for sledding after we bought a larger sled with metal runners, but we used it a lot to drag heavy (for us) bags of mulch from our driveway to the back of our house.

After six years of living in TV, we bought a nice plastic snow sled on Amazon, so now it is much easier for us move heavy bags around our yard.

Lol, would not have ever thought of this use for a sled. Now I'm wondering if I need a sled!!

[Prism]

Sand blower ?

[tophcfa]

Wish we brought down everything, then we wouldn’t have a place up north to go back to and we could stay in Florida. Unfortunately, the wife can’t let go of having a place near the kids : (

[PugMom]

i wish we left the furniture behind & got new stuff, which we did anyways. the large moving costs were a waste of $$ imo

[JSR22]

Should not of brought the formal dining room set, china, crystal, 35 Lladro. the dog figurine collection and Beatrix Potter figurines.

[JMintzer]

Our mover told us that if we wanted to move furniture to make sure the replacement cost was more than the move.

Our bedroom set alone (which my wife insisted on keeping) would cost more to replace than the entire move...

[Stu from NYC]

We just purchased a lot in DeLuna. Have been trying to purge things from our 4200, 4 car garage home. I can’t even say the “hundreds” of pounds that we have donated to schools and charities or sold so far.

However, we have custom furniture built years ago and other items that we love so I started pricing from Denver.

Everyone that I reached out to was incredibly responsive, I was surprised.

For the equivalent of a large truck equivalent to the largest UHaul, operated by local movers who drive with your stuff and then fly home you are about $15k. I didn’t trust the big carriers with the staffing issues many are having. Up to 1,200 per month storage which I thought was crazy.

For pod style we learned Pods is the most expensive, stores outside and has minimal hooks inside. We are looking at Zippy Shell a sister of Rat Pack, they have AAA and ARP discounts. With loading and unloading of two pods we would be at around 9.5k. I believe we will end up subtracting their labor and booking my own (see below). They send an agreement that locks down the estimate with no down payment and can be cancelled up to 10 days in advance at no penalty. Storage of pods if you need is 256 each and you don’t have to pay an addition labor cost because stuff is not removed from the pods.

UHaul for the 26 foot truck and car trailer we could be at 4K. Storage 125-200 per month and you need extra labor to unload the truck.

Also there are great loading and unloading companies on the websites of many of the pod delivery services. We also looked at Yelp and reached out to only teams with hundreds of positive ratings. Big difference in service levels. Ask them how they will treat your favorite piece, whatever that is, and if they will break down things like your bed frame if needed, and you will quickly see the difference. They average from 65-160 per hour for two men. Most say 4 hours on average for Pod, if you are ready to go. That is true on both ends. In our mind that price is well worth us not packing the pod for the space they know how to optimize that we do not.
expensive.

Our move was 800 miles from Va and less than half the cost.

[mamabird12]

My honeys Marilyn posters..lol

[Happydaz]

We brought all our favorite furniture down from New Hampshire. We have antique and colonial pieces that we have grown very fond of over the years. My wife has her dresser from when she was a teenager. These pieces of furniture have a lot of memories for us. We did not consider replacing them with beige Florida furniture. We have light colored walls and dark wood floors. The furniture goes well and has kind of an old Key West look. Some people may prefer getting rid of everything before coming down to The Villages and that is certainly a popular option, but we preferred keeping our favorite items. Bring down what you treasure and add some new pieces, if you wish, after you move down here. Be selective though, you can’t fit everything! We did get rid of a lot of excess furniture, tools, mowers, junk, etc., etc.. We made a plan of our house and only brought down what would look best and fit in our new Villages home.

[Rainger99]

expensive.

Our move was 800 miles from Va and less than half the cost.

Denver is about 1800 miles away. Although I would have thought that most of the cost would be in the labor and not in the additional 1000 miles.

[Rainger99]

[QUOTE=Our bedroom set alone (which my wife insisted on keeping) would cost more to replace than the entire move...[/QUOTE]

You either have a very expensive bedroom set or else got a great price on the move!!

[JMintzer]

You either have a very expensive bedroom set or else got a great price on the move!!

A bit of both... :icon_wink:

[OrangeBlossomBaby]

I wish I had brought:

A few more sweatshirts and/or long sleeved shirts.
A favorite pillow, a particular brand of thermopedic that was the #1 most comfortable pillow I've ever had. Hubby thought I meant the /other/ pillow and packed that one instead. Heartbroken :(
A huge painting of a stylistic mermaid lounging on a dune, on a dark red background, painted by an artist friend of mine. We sold it at a tag sale. I should've kept it. I love that painting.

I wish I had left behind:
One of my guitars that I haven't used in 20 years and keep for sentimental reasons.
A couple dozen pairs of old socks that I replace with new ones every year and just never get around to discarding.
Some of the crappier framed prints that we've collected over the years.