Hello! I'm @Ryo54388667! ☺️

I work as an engineer in Tokyo.

This April, I moved from a small 1K apartment to a 2LDK, both in Tokyo.

In this post I'll go through everything that was worth buying for the move and the services that were worth hiring, tracing back my actual card statements and order history!

If you're wondering "what do I even need for a new place?" or "how much does moving really cost?", this should help.

This article contains affiliate links (PR) for products and services I actually used. Everything featured here was paid for out of my own pocket.

First, the basic setup.

• When: late April 2026
• Move: a 1K in Tokyo → a 2LDK in Tokyo
• Stuff: the only big item was a drum-type washing machine. Almost all furniture was bought new for the new place

The old place was tiny, so for most things "buying new" beat "hauling it over," and the shopping list got out of hand..

Adding up the statements, the move cost me roughly 450,000 yen in total. Here's the breakdown.

All prices are what I actually paid at the time. They move with sales, so check the links for current prices 🙏

Furniture and appliances dominate.. Flip that around, and the moving work itself (mover + assembly + disposal) stayed at just over 30,000 yen.

That allocation - keep the labor cheap and put the savings into things you'll use for years - turned out to be the right call, so let me walk through it!

I used KA Hikkoshi Center, a Tokyo budget mover. It was a short-distance move with little luggage, so a mover that finalizes everything by email and phone - no in-home estimate - was a good fit.

Here's how it went.

• Late March: a rough quote by email. At that point, 11,600 yen on the light-truck plan
• Sent in the item list, got the formal quote: the plan moved up to the "standard 2-ton truck (1.5t long)" plan at 22,110 yen (tax included)
• Moved on a weekday in late April, second slot of the day (10:00-12:00 start)

Getting through peak moving season in the 20,000-yen range was the cheapest option I could find.

The base fee also covered a futon bag, two rental hanger boxes, and a basic washing machine hookup, which was a nice touch.

A couple of caveats:

• Cash only. Prepare the exact amount
• No free cardboard boxes. Buying them costs 180-220 yen per box plus shipping, and it adds up

If you can live with those, it's a strong option for short-distance moves.

This was the single best discovery of the move.

I bought a 90cm-wide kitchen cupboard on Amazon - "customer assembly required." One look at the manual and I went "no way I can do this.." 😇

So I found a furniture assembly pro on Kurashi no Market and outsourced it for 9,000 yen.

Money well spent.

• Done in about two hours
• Beautiful finish. It would have taken me twice as long, easily

Buy the furniture itself cheap online, then pay a pro just for the assembly - for a move, I think this combo is unbeatable. It came out much cheaper than buying pre-assembled furniture at a store.

Prices vary by vendor and season, so check reviews and rates before booking.

By the way, the cupboard itself is reviewed in detail at #4 in my top 10 purchases of the first half of 2026.

For the new place I went with GMO Tokutoku BB Hikari.

Internet is the thing people forget to arrange when moving. If construction work is needed, it can take weeks from application to activation, so I applied in early April - three weeks before move-in.

Thanks to that, remote work at the new place never skipped a beat. For an engineer this is life-or-death, so err on the side of early.

For electricity and gas I signed up with CD Energy Direct.

A move is one of the few moments you'll actually sit down and reconsider your utility providers. You have to cancel the old contracts and open new ones anyway, so you might as well compare plans while you're at it.

I picked this one because bundling electricity and gas made the rates make sense, plus you earn points as a small bonus.

I'll get to the big furniture and appliances later - this section is about things that were worth buying precisely because of the move.

Setting off a Varsan fogger in the completely empty room before any furniture arrives changes your encounter rate with bugs afterward (or so I believe lol).

You can only do this in the brief window before move-in, which makes it a mover's privilege.

At the same time I set up anti-mold agents (Power Bio) for the air conditioner and the bath. If you're going to prevent something, doing it "before the stuff arrives" is overwhelmingly easier.

These pads let one person slide heavyweight furniture like a fridge or a cupboard without scratching the floor.

Every new place goes through a layout trial-and-error phase, so putting these on early lowers the barrier to rearranging. Also great floor protection in a rental.

The first thing you actually need in a new place is curtains. On night one, a curtainless room is in full view from outside..

Made-to-order curtains can take weeks, so I went with ready-made ones from Nitori - 22,980 yen for the living room and bedroom. As long as the size fits, ready-made was perfectly fine in both looks and function.

One more thing: in a new place, outlet positions and appliance placement never quite line up. A power strip with magnets that sticks onto the side of the fridge or washing machine was far more useful than I expected, especially around the kitchen.

I bought a 2022-model Toshiba VEGETA fridge at a big-box electronics store for 64,180 yen.

If you don't care about having the latest model, clearance stock of previous-year models is a sweet spot. For a mature appliance like a fridge, a model from a few years back leaves almost nothing to complain about.

All you have to do is ask at the store: "Do you have anything cheap - an older model is fine." Give it a try.

The big items - the 55-inch Hisense TV, the WALL V3 TV stand, the Hitachi cordless vacuum, the LOWYA dining table and the sofa - were all bought in one go for this move. Their detailed reviews, ranked by how much they changed daily life, are all in my top 10 purchases of the first half of 2026, so head over there!

Some honest lessons learned.

• Don't trust the rough quote. My initial 11,600 yen estimate became 22,110 yen once the item list was fixed and the plan changed. If you're comparing movers, compare the post-item-list numbers
• My light bulb arrangements slipped to after move-in. Looking back at the statements, I ordered downlight bulbs and sockets more than a week after moving in.. Get curtains and lighting sorted "by move-in day"
• Bulky garbage pickup at the old place is reservation-based. Disposal itself cost me only 1,300 yen, but slots fill up fast. Book it the moment your moving date is set

Moving is a relentless stream of expenses, but looking back at the statements, almost everything felt worth paying for.

Keep the labor and services cheap, and put the difference into furniture and appliances you'll use for years. I can recommend this allocation.

I hope this helps anyone about to move or setting up a new place!

Thank you for reading to the end!

I tweet casually, so feel free to follow me! 🥺