Rent furnished or ship furniture?

This wouldn't even be a question if I hadn't bought $1500 worth of new furniture just 6 months ago.  (Looking to move in about a year, BTW.)

SO, do I just rent a furnished flat, assuming that I won't need to buy new furniture for a couple of years or rent an unfurnished place and ship everything over?

Is it possible to find decently furnished places? I'm pretty picky about my home environment and could NOT live in a place with nubby plaid couches and the like.

If you shipped furniture, was it worth it? If not, are you glad you didn't?

Thanks,
Katryn

We have a part furnished rental and to be honest the furniture that came with the house is slowly moving up to the loft because it's just too ugly for words. I've been hoping for nearly 4 years to figure out where to get the money to ship my furniture over. I'm very attached to the stuff I have in the US. I'd say if you can afford it and you're enamoured with it, ship it. If it's not your dream furniture, start building up a new collection over here and rent part-furnished or furnished in the meantime....

If you think you're going to be over here long term, then I say ship it. Nice, quality furniture is expensive here. I didn't ship my stuff over because I'm a student on a 1 year program, so it wasn't worth it. But trust me, I often look at pictures of my house and long for my nice furniture again. However, if I end up getting a job and it looks like I'll be staying long term (i.e. longer than 1 year), I'll arrange to have it shipped. My stuff is in storage in the US, and I'm sick of paying the storage fee!

I think it depends on how you feel about your furniture. Is it replaceable? I brought everything I owned over with me, and haven't regretted that decision for a second. It was pricey, but once you decide you've got enough stuff to fill a container (or a half-container), adding other things to the list doesn't make much difference. A lot of my furniture was old family stuff, antiques, etc., and I didn't feel I could part with any of it.

I recently moved into a fully furnished apartment which is very tastefully done, so I know they are out there.

I agree that it depends on how long you plan to be here.  If it is a long term move, then consider shipping.  Short term - not worth it.

Vicky

One con of owning your own furniture is being more tied down to your rented flat.  It's much more hassle/cost to move when you've got a sofa and dinning room set to worry about!

Also, your furniture is great for your current house but will it fit in with your new flat?  You probably wont know until you've rented something out.

All good points -- thanks everyone!

I don't have that much stuff, but it's mostly pretty new and would cost more to replace than to ship, so I think shipping seems like the better choice at this point.