Suggestions on moving to the Villages
 

Hi. Have a house in Santo Domingo already for move in. Will be moving at the end of September from the Baltimore area. Have a moving company lined up to bring our stuff into the house once in Fla. Need some advice on what/who you all used since no one here is from Fla, right
After some calculations I would need about a 22' truck or at least 1200sq ft.
Hire a moving company to do entire job. Less packing boxes.
Hire movers to stuff a truck or Pod with our belongings and movers then in Floridas to off load
Just go the Pod route. Bud

A lot of people regret bringing a lot of belongings. The atmosphere is different here, so your tastes will change. We brought one piece of furniture (because of nostalgic reasons), and our bed. It's cheaper to re-buy everything. If you're handy, you can order furniture on Amazon and put it together with a powered screwdriver. Avoid used furniture shops here - in many cases their prices are way higher than buying new.

Our last move, We used a pod and packed ourselves. First in everything we absolutely needed, then what we wanted, then CMD (can’t make a decision) pod warned us to pack completely, not leaving any space, even if it was empty boxes to keep shifting to a minimum.

So last was our Christmas stuff to fill in. Not one item was scratched or broken, (my grandma china in perfect condition) and of course everything was accounted for. Deliver on the window and day we requested, after being stored in Ocala until house was built.

Our oldest who has moved from Mi-IN-NC-FL-Fairbanks to UK, then St Paul, either with self uhaul, (everything arrived safe, but driving isn’t fun) moving companies (lost stuff damaged furniture and outrageous prices) or container ship (no choice and the smell was overwhelming) overseas.

He was so impressed with our pod he is now loading one to move from ST Paul to SC. If you are Military nice discount.

We used a full service mover fom Baltimore called Perry's. They damaged everything that wasn't in a box, which included our furniture. They even chipped a piece of crystal they handpacked and boxed. We filed a claim and were paid such that we profited $1600 above and beyond our fee. We had full coverage insurance which was mandatory. Good luck!

For furniture, bring the essentials (bed(s), sofa, TV stand, table/chairs), with the plan to replace them.
Otherwise you will put yourself under pressure to buy something, plus delivery could be a few weeks/months out.

Furniture
 

We replaced almost everything after moving here within a year’s time frame. You may likely find the “Northern” stuff isn’t needed or wanted after moving into a new home here in Florida or it just doesn’t match the newer decor. We gave away, burned or donated a lot of things before moving and still got rid of most things we thought we would need. Remember, living spaces are perhaps a bit smaller than what you may be used to and things you didn’t use up north, perhaps will just be taking up valuable storage space here.

We went the PODs route but we didn't bring much. We only used the small (8') POD.

Move as little as possible
 

Move as little as possible. You'll just get rid of it once you get here. Now is the time to purge. Look at it as a new start. It's a new house, none of your old furniture will fit, the cost to move it isn't worth it. I know too many people that moved it down, only to give it away.

Save yourself a lot of work and expense.
As others have said, if you can wrap your head around minimizing, by bringing only your furniture essentials, you'll be so happy in the long run.

TRULY, if you consider bringing only the necessary other "stuff", you can get by and explore what will fit in and feel wonderful in your new home. Otherwise, you're going to be looking for storage of junk you'll never use.

If you do not believe us, I suggest that you open the T. V. App and look at the interiors of people's homes that are currently Up for Sale! Sadly, you'll see exactly what we mean by furniture NOT fitting into rooms.

Two things you will notice is massive overcrowding on huge furniture as well as what should be light, bright and airy rooms never set up nicely... and now they're going to try to sell their homes and cart this stuff off again.
As far as folks not being able to afford new furniture, if you mindfully take account of the moving expenses, you'll see the offset.

My advice is to save the expense, and labor and be very patient with setting up your new home, you'll be so much happier.

Most of my friends follow the norm of wanting everything, absolutely EVERYTHING to be completely set up IMMEDIATELY the day after arrival.
Some actually begin ripping out plants and begin gardening to perfect their yard on day 2.

WHY? Be mindful, please only yourself and forget about trying to get your home set up for real or imaginary visitors. Let them sleep on the sofa if they must visit immediately.

Enjoy your Epic Journey! This IS one very strong instance where IT'S ABOUT YOU!

May your travels and new life be light and fun!
See you when you get here!

We had a house that we had bought here a few years earlier and had used for rental for a couple of years. So when we finally decided to move here permanently, the only big items we brought with us were mattress sets from 2 bedrooms and a bedroom suite that had belonged to my husband’s parents (he had refinished it——sentimental value). We sold or gave to our children furniture that we knew we would not use here. It didn't look like furniture we would use in Florida. Since our house here was already furnished, we slowly replaced the appliances and furniture with new items. It was so worth it to not to have to bring it all with us and much easier to pick out items that worked and looked better in our Florida home.

Use blue painters tape and lay out deminsions of new rooms. Make sure furniture will fit.don’t forget to do it for garage too as garages here much smaller. Get rid of all unusable furniture up north. No one buys northern style furniture here and everyone is retired and downsizing too. Rethink all you walk hangings too. No wall space and again style probably won’t go with Florida theme. Look at closet if you haven’t worn it in last year get rid of it. Safe just 3-5 cold outfits and two coats one lighter weight for 30 degrees here and one heavy weight for going home at Christmas. Think bare minimum because a packed house with heavy furnishings makes homes here feel crowded and dark.

Sell it. Save thousands of dollars on moving and buy new in FL.

The Villages has a relocation service -- they have three moving companies make an appointment and review items to be moved to The Villages. Each moving company provides you with an estimate for the move and you select the mover. I used the service and had the movers pack the dishes. They arrived on time and furniture was delivered to my home in The Villages on the day that the mover specified. There was no damage to the furniture and not one item was broken in the move. I highly recommend the relocation service!

Pretty broad brush you got there...

We brought our entire BR set. It fits better in or home in TV that it did our home outside of DC.

The decor is perfect for us. Not dark wood, but not that damn fake antiqued, white chalk painted stuff you see everywhere, either...

Or mover (a close friend) told us to figure out what it would cost to replace the pieces we really wanted. If it was more than the move, it's worth moving it.

Our BR set alone would cost more to replace than our entire move cost...

We Just bought a house in Newell a few months ago. We are not full time yet but plan to be by the end of the year. We just left after a 10 day visit. We visited a local furniture store on a Monday. We bought a Living room set, Dining room set, Stools for the counter. Also a chair and couch with two rugs. They delivered almost all of it the following Friday. We very surprised it all came so quickly. We spent 10k so a mover would be similar cost I Think

We are planning a second trip in August and we are using UPack to bring things we consider essential. Garage stuff, Nice outdoor furniture we have etc..

We sold our home over a year ago and downsized to an Apartment/Townhome so we purged a lot of the junk already.

RCJ