When I got a job with a nice signing bonus, I didn’t think twice before hiring movers. After all, I finally had adult furniture.
In retrospect, that was a huge mistake.
My move from Denver to NYC was a $5,000 cross-country crash course on how a full-service move can be far too expensive financially, practically, and mentally.
Now I approach moving as an exercise in decluttering and a chance to customize my new space to fit my needs.
The cost of a full-service move isn’t just about money
When I got stranded in my first New York snowstorm while apartment hunting, the cost of unexpected hotel nights, combined with extra free time, led to second thoughts.
As my anxiety rose with every surprise expense and item on my to-do list, I had to acknowledge that while I had graduated from Ikea furnishings, I certainly could have replaced the items I had transported for less than the $5,000 I spent on movers.
Though the most obvious cost was monetary, a few weeks into the move, I began to see the practical downsides of the decision. My new apartment was smaller than my Denver home, and I couldn’t keep everything I had brought.
I now see that the full-service move allowed me to procrastinate in deciding what to keep and what to purge. Ultimately, I paid to move items only to donate them a month later in a city with more complicated logistics. It would have been less exhausting to sell most of my things and refurbish the new place with items that maximized its space.
Expectations vs. reality
Years before, while packing my Wisconsin-bound POD in the Virginia heat, I fantasized about the luxury of a full-service move after grad school. It seemed like a shortcut through the painful process of relocating far away.
Years later, I learned that the reality did not live up to my expectations. Though I hired a moving company to make the painful process easier, the full-service option actually complicated my move and added stress.
The one benefit of the full-service move is that it forced me to question why I was holding on to so much stuff only to lug it across the country at significant personal and financial expense. When I re-examined it from this angle, even the POD option I once used didn’t make sense.
The only way I move these days
When I left NYC for Kentucky a few years later, I took a completely different approach. I sold anything that wouldn’t fit into a $500 rented minivan. It cost a tenth of my full-service move, and I came away with greater appreciation for the items I chose to keep.
With fewer things, I had the flexibility to move in with my sister for a few years and a clean slate to decorate when I eventually bought my own home.
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