Yes. I have a friend who buys and sells furniture almost every month. She shops at the thrift stores and other places. When you go to their house, you never know what to expect because they always have different furniture. It must be a hobby or a business or both.

Interstate moving costs are all about the same from every mover. Their rates are regulated by the government so everybody tends to be about the same. In 2020 I rented a small 7 foot POD to move a few things from a house in NC and that cost about 1600. The bigger the POD and the longer the distance, the more it will cost.

I recently got a POD’s quote from WA to TV. 8 ft container was just shy of $8,000 and a 16 footer was right at $11,000. 15 ft rental truck through Penske is $2200 so looks like we are going to take a nice leisurely trip across the states.

Call ABF, we used them in 2010 and I see their trucks on the highway a lot here in FL. You rent space on a trailer that is coming to FL with other stuff on it and lock your section. You rent by the foot. You have 3 days to load it, they will hold it until you are here and ready to unload it ( you have 3 days to unload it). We're from Mass also and it was thousands cheaper than anyone else we called. We got relatives, nieces and nephew and their friends and neighbors to help load and when we got here we called the Charter School here and hired a couple of football players to unload it.

U haul “ pods”
 

Moved from Westborough to TV 8/2020. No appliances no beds very little furniture. Quoted $20k. PODS brand name had been used by family and worked fine. At that time U haul had a similar option and we used that. The further ahead you booked the lower the price.

We bought a used enclosed trailer, had a friend haul it here for the cost of gas both ways plus some extra $ and sold it for what we paid for it. It was about $1500 all told and they spent a week with us in the Villages.

1. get rid of as much as possible.
2. PODS was great with great flexibility.
3. Our experience was 3 hours of hired labor to load the POD.
4. Didn't get the emails and phone calls you anticipate.

Moving costs
 

We had a rather big house and a huge garage in MN. We sold just about every stick of furniture we had. My buddy who I will call Thor had a 22ft enclosed trailer. Helped us load everything in MN(took up every bit of room floor to ceiling). Most of the stuff was my tools and hoists.jacks,with the exception of our big screen TVs and bedroom furniture. He then stayed at Tyndall AFB and waited for us to arrive(wife driving new Honda and me driving Denalli with my Honda on the trailer). Called him after our closing and he came over and helped us unload everything, total cost was $5000,that included his meals and Hotel stays. The next day he helped me go pick up my new Corvette toy in Largo FL!

Pods has people that will pack and load/unload containers. Was great and a lot less then moving company

I have done alot of research also 7,000 is NOT a bad price as I have received quotes more than that. With pods etc for me it is hard to say which size I need and you have to hire loaders and unloaders and expect it to take about 2 hours or more........I am figuring 500 at least on both ends if you do pods.........my pod prices ranged from 3700 (uhaul) flimsy cubes to 5100 (shipts says from AARP) but not a bargain I think with shipt.........do it all movers ranged form 8,000 and up but it was only my stuff.........the big movers wont even give aprice unless they come and do a wlak thru or a video.........hope that helps

To you both it doesnt matter if you give it away etc. They all have a base weight depending on who you use so it maybe worth it to take it. I for one dont want to spend my time shopping all over to get settled and not have any fun! also some items are still taking weeks to arrive also inconvenient also I have gotten quotes from things i liked at Almost perfect furniture WAAAyyy costly......you may save on the move but in the end you pay more for the furniture...........

Moved from S. Florida 3 years ago and PODs was more expensive than most of the mover estimates. As another poster said, consider buying new especially if you are downsizing.

We have $7,000 worth of furniture. If we replace it with $7,000 of Florida bought furniture- that is the cost of the price quote for our move. On top of that we will still have the cost to get all of our boxes moved down here. The only alternative I see is a cheaper moving service

Are you considering the extra money you will get by selling your furniture before you move?

For me, the feeling of freedom was well worth getting rid of everything I owned and starting over. It wasn't about the money. It's amazing how much stuff you may not need anymore.

How about 2 men driving to your Mass home. renting a U-hall and bringing it to the Villages. $5000