[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".





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]

Originally Posted by VApeople

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]

Originally Posted by 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.

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.