We’re moving to our retirement home from Pennsylvania to Arizona at the end of the year. When we moved here from Illinois in 2010, we came with 22,000 lbs of furnishings!! Most of it stayed boxed up in the basement all this time, literally! We just had an estate sale a couple weeks ago, and what didn’t sell, we gave away. We’re taking very little furniture—two beds, one dresser, two buffets, one antique dresser, one dining table and chairs and a few side tables and chairs. I kept my China because it was special to me but got rid of everything else kitchen-wise. I’m looking forward to finding things to fit the new house (which isn’t anything like what we have now).

Greetings from an OG follower of CLJ! I must admit that I couldn’t believe you guys sold everything in the house (I was missing your stuff for you!), and kept thinking how I could not imagine doing that. BUT, it has now been 1.5 years since we packed up our 33 years in Virginia and drove to a new life in California… and our closets are still un-usable because they are just boxes of items that won’t fit or work in our now much smaller home.

Even moving our enormous smoker/grill across the country, paying for movers, and selling it for $10 upon arrival just for more breathing room feels like we truly wasted so much money on movers because I was attached to things. What an expensive lesson. I hope your wisdom on this one informs more of your readers so they can avoid this costly lesson in their own moves. Thank you for your continued inspiration and honesty!!

Very interesting – really great idea and I like how you set it up

I’m moving only 15 minutes away so I don’t feel so much need to start fresh, but it is definitely true that not all furnishings translate to the new place. We have higher ceilings in our current home, so we’re selling all the stuff meant to emphasize those (really tall hutch, hanging chair attached to ceiling) to the new buyer. We also decided to sell them our TV and sound system because it was all set up for this specific house. They then asked if they could buy two of my accent chairs. One is vintage that I had reupholstered, so I’m attached because it’s one of a kind and customized to us. We kept that one. The other was a Craigslist find with wear and tear so we happily gave it to them for free. It’s been nice to pick and choose but I honestly can’t imagine moving in with nothing because the furniture and decor is a big part of feeling settled for me. I like to decorate right away!

I’ve never moved cross country, but I just moved 90 miles and brought almost everything that I used regularly. It makes a difference that this was a relocation paid for by my new job, so the cost of moving was irrelevant. I sold or donated a few items that I’d never really loved (goodbye hand-me-down kitchen table), since I now had an excuse to replace them. Generally, I have trouble replacing something that works fine, only because I’d like a different one. If someone else can use it, great, but I will probably have my huge old television for another decade because it just keeps working and I doubt anyone would want it. So it doesn’t go into a landfill, but I also don’t get to have a nice modern wall-mounted flat panel.

Other than my vintage finds- gorgeous and huge brass pendants, an acrylic and brass lamp, and twin rattan headboards (the sweetest pair), I’d leave it all! Nothing is irreplaceable…

I just moved from Seattle to Michigan last month. This is our 4th cross country move. We sold nearly all our furniture. As some others mentioned our stuff has got beat up, or doesn’t fit the space at all. We moved from a mid century rambler to a historic Tudor that’s currently undergoing a total renovation. Most of our stuff wouldn’t fit the style of our new home anyways. I will say I have all higher end things so my stuff sold at prices 1/3-3/4 what I paid depending on wear. Offer up is wonderful there for both buying and selling. You can score amazing items! So no matter what she does selling it might be easier out there plus she may earn more. Or if she needs things in a pinch have her check it out. Just using key words or search brand names and a huge amount comes up. I actually purchased things to move to my new house because they were on my wish list and brand new! I felt so lucky. Hoping she doesn’t stress and I’m hoping she likes it there (we absolutely hated it the past 2 years, I couldn’t move quick enough) I will keep good thoughts for her❤️.

At our last move we sold about half of our furniture. We’ve lived in our new house (that’s 2x the size) for two years and are just finishing our renovations to the main living areas. I’m so glad I got rid of our old furniture for ease of moving stuff around but also my style has changed and the style of our new house dictates very different choices. But it is awkward when we have people over and they ask if we just moved in :)

Getting rid of “stuff” is so freeing!

We sold our house with a lot of the furnishings in it. We downsized to a much smaller apartment. Then we moved up to Vancouver, BC and took about a 3rd of what we had from the apartment. We only brought what we really loved. It cost less to bring it than to buy new at .50 a pound. So it all depends on what have, how much it would cost to replace and what it’s worth to you.

We made a big move last summer across states and for my kids especially, I feel like keeping furnishings was an important part of helping them feel settled. The transition was so hard on two of my kids in particular, that having some familiar surroundings, their bedrooms in particular, was important. The month of the move is just so much for kids, house on the market, packing up, driving to a new house and staying in hotels. They need some normalcy and now they are in a strange place with no friends. One of my daughters even remarked when I hung a particular piece of artwork that this was finally starting to feel like home. I guess this probably looks a lot different for in town moves with family nearby like you had though.

When my husband and I bought our first house, the sellers were moving to Sweden. Since we had similar tastes, we asked if they were willing to sell their furniture. They post-it noted everything they were willing to sell with their price written on it. It was a great way to furnish our new house and so affordable! It was a win-win for both of the parties!

My family moved from Wisconsin to Anchorage, Alaska 13 years ago. At the time our world was changing so drastically that I don’t think that we had it in us to part with anything. Everything felt sentimental. I don’t know if it was the 7 day drive up here that gave us clarity but during the unpacking process, we all said way to often “Why’d did we bring this?” I can’t speak for my parents but I know if I ever move back to the “Lower 48” there’s a very short list of items that will be coming with me.

Also- when we bought our house the seller asked what furniture we wanted because he didn’t need it anymore (he had already moved and they just left some stuff for staging. We were going from a 500sq ft apartment to a 2800 square ft home so we listed what we would be interested in. He came back telling us he’d sell us the furniture (not give it, as had been communicated) for some astronomical number (I’m talking like thousands of dollars for a very generic, not expensive breakfast table). We said thanks but no thanks. And then when we closed and we took possession – they left everything (and then some!) anyway! It was a HUGE nightmare because they had to sign something saying they were forfeiting it and blah blah blah. Plus they left some things (two motorcycles in the garage!) that they wanted. We had to get attorneys involved and it was a whole thing. We were fortunately able to sell and/or donate a lot of the furniture.

I’ve moved across the country twice, but both times were early in my relationship so we didn’t have much! Some furniture we “invested” in has been moved with us (our first real grown up couch our first coffee table that we saved up for to buy from west elm when we were making pennies) and some things we sold or gave away (old futon from college? Hand me down end tables? Ikea tv stand? Not worth the move). I haven’t regretted a thing. In fact, everything that we moved cross country and back now has a place in our home in the city we never want to leave.

Military wife here, so we have moved all over the country and world every other year. We have moved a lot of our stuff with us, because we don’t want to invest in final furniture until we are able to settle down. After so many moves, furniture is bound to get beat up. It helps that the military pays for moving our stuff though. Each move, I make my husband go through things to get rid of though because I am tired of moving random boxes from place to place when we never open them. We are soon going to be settling down and I know a lot of the stuff we have won’t transfer to a final home, but I also know that we will need to save before we can fully furnish a home, so we may take some and get rid of others.

We ARE moving across the country (in two days, actually) and I’d planned to bring much less of the furniture than we ended up loading into the U-Haul. But in the end, our new house is 2x the size of the old one and my practical side kicked in: if it’s horrible in the new space I can either practice my reupholstering skills on that piece, or it can live in the basement rec area! ???? We’re moving to an area with a much higher cost of living, so I’ll make things work for a while until I know how much we can spare for new furniture.

We live in Seattle and moved from a Tudor style home to a downsized condo two and a half years ago. In our case, we were just moving across town. I was able to cherry pick our house to furnish the new home. As soon as the bookshelves were up and paintings on the wall, it felt like home.
I just moved furniture in scale with the new condo and swapped out our large dining table for a round oak table I bought at Goodwill. I had time to refinish it in our old basement. I bought a new sofa to fit a bump out. I also bought a trundle from Ikea for the second bedroom/ office.
Houses are expensive in Seattle so your sis may be in a much smaller space. I had the opportunity to pour over floor plans and create a pinterest board specifically for our future downsized home. I love our new home but I sure miss that basement workshop and craft space!

I’ve never moved across the country, but I think it’s great that you get to start with a clean slate. It’s like painting a brand new picture with a clean canvas.

We’ve moved across the country 3 times now. (From Alaska to NC) And this last time we sold most everything except some antiques. It was kinda liberating!

We have some items that hold a special value that I can’t picture us selling. A chair from my husband’s grandma, some art my sister-in-law painted, and some custom wood shelves that we made ourselves. I hear you about other items not translating or needing to move- a lot of our other items I’m not emotionally attached to or I know it would be difficult to make work in a new house. For example, we made our dining table out of some live edge slabs at precisely the right size for our small room. As much as I love it, I don’t think I could take it and plop our down in a new room and expect it to work since it was made for this space.