Furniture is very expensive, with some of the biggest pieces costing thousands of dollars. Nevertheless, they’re a massive pain to move. When you move to a new home, you have to deal with these heavy objects that may struggle to make it through doorways and cause all sorts of commotion.
It makes you wonder…is it worth buying new furniture when you move? Let’s look at a few obvious things to consider.
How old is your furniture?
Did you recently buy your furniture or is it very old? Different items have different life expectancies but there’s a great article by The Spruce that offers a rough guideline on when furniture should be replaced.
Generally, if an item is getting close to 7-10 years, it may be worth upgrading.
There are lots of people that live in a house for over 10 years and never swap out the main furniture pieces. In this case, it is definitely worth buying new furniture when you move to a new house. It lets you have a fresh start with some brand-new items that won’t need to be replaced within a couple of years anyway.
What condition is your furniture in?
The age of your furniture is only part of the story. You could have a sofa that’s two years old but in awful condition. Maybe it was in direct sunlight the whole time and the color has faded? Or, someone accidentally scratched it and there are spillages all over it.
Firstly – take better care of your furniture folks! It’s not hard to maintain furniture and it can save a fortune in the long run.
Secondly, if your furniture items are really grubby and bad, is it worth bringing them to a new house? You’re better off cutting your losses and buying something new. Just be sure to take extra good care of it this time!
How hard will moving your furniture be?
Here, you have two main things to think about:
- The overall cost of moving your furniture items
- The difficulty in terms of space when moving into your new home
To start, find AFRA accredited removalists and get quotes from multiple companies. This will help you see how costly the move is – ask them for a quote with and without the furniture. If you take them to your new home, they can also measure doorways and see how challenging it is to get your furniture out of the old house and into the new one. Sometimes, it’s so hard they have to take pieces apart.
Generally, if it’s too much faff and becomes way too costly or there’s a high risk of damaging the furniture, you shouldn’t bother moving it. Get new stuff instead as it’ll make your life easier – and you can either sell or donate the old stuff anyway.
Ask yourself these questions when you’re preparing to move into a new house. If your furniture is new, in excellent condition, and isn’t too hard to move, then keeping it is a smart move. But, if it’s old, not in good nick, and will cost a fortune to get from A to B, buy some new items instead.
Some of what we bought was new, some we got from the local FB page and other things we built ourselves. Honestly, we’ve got some great stuff from charity shops and local exchanges, and it was helpful because, after buying a house, you’re skint for the most part!