Just something to consider — some info I always took into account during the period when I lived in 8 U.S. states in 8 years, not because I’m financially virtuous, or dedicated to tax avoidance, but because I’m weirdly fascinated with the U.S. tax code.
Moving expenses are tax deductible, even if you don’t itemize or do anything else complicated. This includes not only all the obvious costs, even paying movers to pack your stuff for you, but also hotel stays and meals during your move (say you’re driving a long way in a rental truck, or you need to stay in a hotel the night before your long-distance truck arrives).
[BTW, rent from Penske: unlike U-Haul, their equipment is in good shape, and their prices are comparable.]
To take the deduction you need to be relocating for work and moving 50 miles or more. (I assume, but don’t know for certain, that this includes moving while continuing to work for the same employer, e.g. if you are transferred by a large company.)
Buying new stuff, obviously, is not deductible.
I don’t have any strong reaction to the experience described in the OP, except that it was interesting and well-written. People are different, and I relished this writer’s recounting of how she dealt with, and came to understand, an experience rather like my own.
But I’ll add, partly for practical purposes, but also because it all felt so different for me, that when I was moving so much, I did exactly the opposite (not just for the tax deduction) and it made the experience quite a bit more bearable. (It was still horrible.)
Instead of getting rid of / never acquiring any furniture, I gradually assembled enough stuff to fill a medium-sized one-bedroom, and kept it for about five years. I found that being surrounded by much of the same furniture I’d lived with for years made a new apartment feel more like home. It also saved a lot of time when I had to set up a new place.
None of my stuff was expensive. In fact, most of it I’d gotten for free (admittedly, street-scores look a little different now in the bedbug age). The first pieces actually came from my grandmother’s house when she died. The one piece of furniture I paid retail for, in 1999, is still mysteriously going strong (mysteriously because it’s a futon, not something with a reputation for durability).
Now I’ve lived in the same apartment for nine years — and I still have the blue ceramic table lamp I picked up for $3 on Avenue C back in the late nineties.
Admittedly, when I had to move to Frankfurt for 14 months a few years ago, I furnished my entire 45 sq meter 1-bedroom in two trips to IKEA.
(The first delivery weighed 300 kilos: the delivery guys tried to refuse to carry it up the five flights of stairs to my apartment.)
When I left, I had figured out where Germans post items for local sale (not Craigslist), so I was able to get back about two-thirds of what I’d spent. I’d probably do the same thing again in a similar situation, even now that I know where to find used furniture in Germany.
