Dreamerman

Hello there. My family obtained our PRs, did our initial entries and will be moving to
Sydney pretty soon. We have decided to rent a 2-bedroom unit in around
Meadowbank/Denistone/Eastwood/Marsfield/East Ryde/West Ryde area. We have seen a couple of
such units and the fact is, they are pretty small.

We are undecided of what household items to ship over. We are living in a 4 bedroom double
storey house and have a LOT of things. I hope anyone who has recently migrated to
Australia can give me some advise.

Thanks a lot in advance.

Dreamerman

Squeezle

Hi Dreamerman,

BTW, congrats on your PRs! I remember you posting to the group with your periodic
progress.

It's not easy to decide what to move, especially if you've been in one place and
established for a while. I have moved internationally over 8 times in 20 years, always
feeling as though I was starting over. I find it very cathartic, although it can be
stressful depending on your personality.

I suggest you look at it this way.....if you suffered a natural disaster - tornado, fire,
mad loon with a water cannon - and lost EVERYTHING, what would you REALLY miss??? Make a
list. For me, the top of this list would be some artwork, photos and personal memories, a
few special books, some antique furniture with sentimental value, my stamp collection and
that's about it. The rest is replaceable. Make a second list of apartment BASICS (think
small!!) - furniture (not EVERYTHING - just couch, a few chairs, dining table, etc),
kitchen basics, beds (if you want to bother moving beds), small chests of drawers, linen,
basic clothing, etc etc. Forget any and all appliances unless you are coming from
someplace with 240v (you can change the plugs easy enough) and forget the tv/vcr unless
they are PAL. This goes for computers too - bring your HDDs with the data on them and
stick them in an Australian-compatible system. Be ruthless! There's no way you will get a
huge house full of STUFF into a 2bedrm apartment no matter how hard you squeeze. It will
reduce the stress to have less to deal with in my experience. You will feel ultimately
more "portable".

Think of it as starting over, starting fresh. You don't need to destroy your "extras"
which you leave behind - have a huge garage sale (I made over $4000 US excluding the cars
when I left!) and your goods will go to good homes! Or, store some items with friends or
family for a time and in a year or so, decide if you want to bring those things over then.
I find the "if everything were destroyed, what would I miss" exercise to be very useful.
It puts things in perspective.

My parents put a lot of furniture, etc in storage the first time we moved (when I was 9
yrs old...I'm significantly older now!) It's still there. I can only GUESS at the *tens of
thousands of dollars* they have paid in storage fees over those years........They didn't
intend to leave it there longer than 6 months...

Good luck!! And have a safe journey over the pond

Lori

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Dreamerman

Thanks so much for your comments. I am thinking of shipping the following , among others

- Fridge, washing machine, micro and other small electrical kitchen equipment (all 240v)
- Audio visual equipment (PAL and 240v)
- Several small furniture like coffee tables, side tables and such
- Hardware tools
- Mattresses minus beds

I will buy stuff like furniture there. I don't mind second hand ones, initially. Until I
have my own home, I won't be buying much. Units are so small in Sydney, much like 600 sf
or so. Can't really have much furniture.

Thanks again.

Dreamerman

susi & kev

Hi Dreamerman,

oh yes, I remember when I was standing in my 5 bedroom flat before I moved to Melbourne. I
could not decide what to take with me, what to sell and what to throw away. But I had only
1 week time from when I've got my visa to the day the plane took off!!! So I decided to
make my neighbours happy (a single woman with 9 children - none of them under 15) and gave
almost everything to them. The only things I could sell in this short time was my huge
bedroom-mirror-cupboard, fridge/freezer combi (both just 1 year old) and the 3 complete
kids furniture (beds, desks, shelves, chests of drawers, cupboards). The TV I just bought
not long before I left, is still with my parents, together with some boxes, prepared to
take with me when I fly there on holidays (telescope, LPs, cooking books, photo albums,
dishes, etc.).

I brought my VCR and stereo with me - the VCR died 3 weeks ago when the lightning of a
thunderstorm killed some more electrical stuff here in the house (.

I thought like Squeezle: "what about all those refugees?" and "what would I really need to
survive". Not easy with 3 kids, but I made the right decision. All I took with me was
clothes and shoes linen (needed to put in the box with the stereo so it can't get damaged
in the plane) harddisc printer (small and light - HP400) floppies and CDs a handfull of
books the kids' Lego Video Camera and some tapes Photo Camera

What I really miss is my furniture. I had almost only IKEA furniture and they are very
expensive here in Australia. My husband had an extremely frugal life (didn't change), so
we had to buy some things, as he didn't even have a table, but 2nd hand is ok here. In the
meantime we even have got some IKEA things (hehe).

Anyway, I wish you good luck and do the right thing!

Susi

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