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Eggplant Wizard posted:Another good idea is to go around yard sales and see if you find anything you like. Most stuff is going to be hideous, but you can find some fun knick knacks or paintings. Discount stores like Marshall's or TJ Maxx have home sections, too. Thrift stores can also be good places to find furniture and artwork.It might take some hunting to find a decent thrift store; some of 'em have almost nothing but clothes and some charge really ridiculous prices for stuff. I found the most awesome junk shop once, only to find that they had everything priced like it was brand new; they even had a beat-up dining room table/chair set that was identical to one the cheap new furniture place next door was selling, but the junk store was asking $50 more for theirs.  If you find a good one, though, you can find some pretty cool stuff cheap. I've gotten things like oil paintings, interesting lamps, and other decorative stuff for a few bucks. Used furniture stores are also good places to find bargains, and even discount new furniture places can have good deals. Go down to your local discount furniture warehouse and ask 'em if they have any leftover pieces from broken-up furniture sets; a lot of times they'll let those go cheap, since most of their customers are looking for matching stuff. Got a nice brand-new easy chair for fifty bucks that way. Look out for places that are closing down or moving as well and you can sometimes score some good deals. I once got a bunch of nice silk plants for almost nothing (a buck each for some little ones and a few bucks each for some big trees and such) from a shop that was going out of business. Finally, don't be afraid to ask family and friends if they have any furniture or appliances they want to get rid of. They might be happy to sell their old stuff to you cheap or even give it to you for free rather than trying to sell it to some stranger or leaving it to collect dust in the garage or attic. Hell, half my furniture is still hand-me-down stuff from family and friends. Rockzilla posted:Hiring movers is definitely the way to go. I just moved 4,500km and paid $3,900 to have our stuff moved. A 14' U-Haul would've cost me about $2900 plus god knows how much in gas and I would've had to do all the loading and I would have had to drive a drat truck through the rocky mountains, and that wouldn't have been fun. In the end it was a little more expensive than doing it all myself but it's worth it for the peace of mind. You did something terribly wrong if you were quoted $3K for a 14' U-Haul one-way. (Well, you also did something wrong by considering renting a U-Haul in the first place; U-Haul is poo poo. Go with Penske or Budget; they don't cost much more, if at all, and have far better equipment and are easier to deal with.) A coast-to-coast one-way rental should run about a grand, plus or minus a couple hundred depending on insurance. Not having to drive the truck yourself is something to take into consideration, though, especially if you also need to move your own car and don't have anyone else along to drive one or the other. The best approach to moving depends on how much crap you have, how far you're moving, and how much time you have. If you can rent your own truck and load/unload it yourself, that's the cheapest option, of course. Another alternative is to handle the truck yourself, but pay someone to load/unload; it'd probably cost a few hundred bucks to hire a few guys on each end to do it for you. That's assuming you've packed up all of your poo poo yourself, of course, and you just want someone to pick it up and put it on the truck. If you want someone to do the actual packing for you as well, you're going to pay out the rear end for that. Try to pack your own stuff if you can; not only is it cheaper, but you'll know it's done right. DO NOT BUY MOVING BOXES. They are ridiculously expensive. Free boxes are pretty easy to come by; save the boxes from anything shipped to you or any big stuff you buy, and ask friends and family to give you theirs instead of throwing them out. You can also go to big stores like Wal-Mart during stocking hours and ask the stockers for empty boxes; they'll usually be happy to give 'em to ya. If you need to buy something to supplement your free boxes, those Rubbermaid-type plastic bins are pretty handy; unlike boxes, they last forever, they're strong enough to stack as high as you need without collapsing, and there's no danger of them coming apart and dropping your
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Jun 25, 2011 15:32
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