To bring or not to bring that is the question?
 

Hi just spoke to my sister in Australia.
she has told me to bring everything down to the rugs and cushions.

How much does one of the containers cost please? and is it worth starting over again with new stuff or cheaper to bring your own?

Cheers for any answers

Lace xxx

Re: To bring or not to bring that is the question?
 

Yep your sister is right, bring everything, wish i did ;)

Re: To bring or not to bring that is the question?
 

Do you miss it all now?

She says there is nothing familiar around her so it is harder for her to adjust.

I am lookinf for some prices of containers then if anyone knows

thnak
hugs
LAce x

Re: To bring or not to bring that is the question?
 

Hi Lacey
Don't know if it helps you but a 20ft from Birmingham to Adelaide is £3500.00
door to door incl customs clearance
Carole :)

Re: To bring or not to bring that is the question?
 

Cheers Carole, thats what I was looking for if it would be better for us to bring our stuff or just sell it and leave it here. I have a nice kitchen table and settee but I don't know if it would be worht that much lol.

Is it cheap to buy furniture in Australia?


cheers

Lace x

Re: To bring or not to bring that is the question?
 

we're having a part container (672 cu ft to be exact!) and it's £3115 to Bunbury via John Masons.

We are taking most things but not everything as our shipment wont arrive til February time and I cant imagine being without some things for all those months...

Re: To bring or not to bring that is the question?
 

Oh thanks B,
it's a lot of money that, oh, and congrats on the visa honey
cheers
lace x

Re: To bring or not to bring that is the question?
 

I guess it seems a lot but we worked out the cost of replacing our items for the insurance and it was over £12,000. :scared:

Re: To bring or not to bring that is the question?
 

Thanks bridiej,
I am looking at all the furniture now just seeing if it is worth taking over I think I might get some quote's from some companies

hugs Lace x

Re: To bring or not to bring that is the question?
 

We had 5 quotes, bit of a pain , but you get lots of advice from them. We are going with PSS, £2039, for 560 cubic feet, shared container, from London to Perth, that for a two house 2 adults and one child. That was our cheapest quote and they come highly recommended on this forum.
Hi, Bridie, how you doing?
Nicola

Re: To bring or not to bring that is the question?
 

PSS must have been having a bad day when I contacted them then, they quoted us loads more than JM!!!

Nicola, will send you an email :)

Re: To bring or not to bring that is the question?
 

Take as much as you can, its not as cheap as you think over here, especially when you have stuff in the uk that will do you perfectly well in Aus, just make sure its clean!!!

Get the jeyes fluid going!! ;)

Re: To bring or not to bring that is the question?
 

I was gonna sell as much as I can, but I like the idea of fimiliar things around me, so maybe will revaulate the situation.

Good thread,, :)

Re: To bring or not to bring that is the question?
 

I THOUGHT ABOUT SELLING THE LOT ALSO, NEW LIFE NEW START AND ALL THAT, but glad the wife talked me out of it.

It is good to have familliar stuff around you, its a good feeling when it arrives, but honestly why waste money, you dont get the money back when you sell at the garage/car boot sale, have a clear out but do take the good stuff.

Good luck

Re: To bring or not to bring that is the question?
 

Thanks Bill, much appreciated, your words of wisdom... :)

Re: To bring or not to bring that is the question?
 

Got the sensible head on tonight :confused:

Re: To bring or not to bring that is the question?
 

I agree with all these folk-Bring as much as you can. We left so much behind and I regret it now. I was so keen to get new stuff but the replacement cost soon adds up. You see we have a much bigger house and visitors coming soon. WE have 2 empty rooms and nowhere for anyone to sleep

Things I wish I wish I'd brought-
the kitchen and bathroom bins
the washing baskets
the laundry basket
a foldaway foam bed
a pine bed
garden tools
bedside cabinets

They seemed trivial at the time but they would be sooo useful right now.

I AM glad we left our wardrobes behind- most houses here have walk in or built in robes. (WIRs and BIRs)

I would also say to bring fluffy UK towels (much better than those here).

ALi

Re: To bring or not to bring that is the question?
 

My husband is convinced that it would be cheaper to furnish a house in Oz than pay 3,500-4,000 pounds to ship stuff over. Where do you buy things like beds, sofas etc from over there? Do you know of any web sites we could look at ?
Thanks,
Ang

Re: To bring or not to bring that is the question?
 

this was a search and i put in tea chest and this is part of 1 of the threads
may be worth having a look at this ifyou aint got aload of Huge things to take!

We are only taking similar to yourselves and are using www.sevenseas.co.uk. Sending stuff by ship so as to make the price cheaper though.

You pack the stuff yourselves, but I prefer that anyway - means we can gradually decide what we want to take and dont want. They send you boxes, tape, bubble wrap etc to pack your stuff - when you have done it you ring them and they collect the next day, to go out on the ship that week (one per week). Stuff gets delivered to your door at the far end.

£85 for first t-chest and £45 for each tea chest after that. I am surprised how much seems to fit into the T-chests!!


just a thought! :rolleyes:

Re: To bring or not to bring that is the question?
 

I have found that you mostly have to go to the shops (in Perth). They advertise heavily in local newspapers. I certainly tried web searches for electrical goods initially but it wasn't like the UK where Currys and Comet have sites detailing the prices. It took me a wee while to realise that the shops here operate quite differently.
I assumed Harvey Norman was equivalent to say John Lewis (sells electricals, furnishing etc) but it turns out that each dept of the shop is run as a separate franchise. You also have to haggle a little to get the best price.

I personally don't like a lot of the cheaper Aussie made stuff here (clothes and furnishings). It s just not on a par with equivalent UK stuff. I think if you have half decent stuff bring it.

There's IKEA here so you can get some cheap household stuff- there is less stock here though.

I have picked up some lovely second hand furniture and enjoy scouring the ads in the paper. I bought a beautiful pine table for 90 dollars. If you have the time you can get good stuff cheaply. I have also delighted in buying beautiful recycled wooden tables and chairs- the wood is just lovely-but they should have left it in the forests.

Good luck
Ali

Re: To bring or not to bring that is the question?
 

[Thanks guys for the info, I was looking at our stuff today and was thinking could we bring over the wooden table and chairs (because they are wood) probably a stupid question but.........................

We would have a 45 inch telly to bring
the sofa and chairs (but these are leather can we bring them)
a computer
xbox
play stations

just photos and stuff, we have no carpets or anything (wooden floors)

just wondering if it is worth it

cheers lace x

Re: To bring or not to bring that is the question?
 

How many cubic feet is half a container?

Also, do you fit much into half a one?

Re: To bring or not to bring that is the question?
 

Thanks for all your information. Most of our stuff is due for replacement so I think it will be the T chest route for us.

Re: To bring or not to bring that is the question?
 

The wooden stuff is fine, they are only looking for stuff that may be infested with beasties, and coming from the uk i dont think you will have a problem, its too bloody cold for the beasties they are looking for!!

All electrical stuff is fine, it just takes ages to get all the plugs changed over, we took our tv and it works fine.

it will save you an arm and a table leg :rolleyes:

Re: To bring or not to bring that is the question?
 

Re: To bring or not to bring that is the question?
 

hi there gail,nice to see you again
i dont think furniture here is any cheaper or more exoensive,it really depends on where yo shop and what you want,but we bought most things with us and im glad we did,when you first get here most of your time will be taken up with touring round areas trying to find out where you want to live and then once you ve found an area looking for a decent rental, you ll need to buy a car and find your way around,this isnt easy when everything is new to you,it s took us weeks to find out what shop to go for what and its very time consuming,im so glad i didnt have to go and but all our furniture as well :eek:
not only that your belongings are what makes your home, your home,i think having familiar stuff around you will help you settle in :D

tracey

Re: To bring or not to bring that is the question?
 

Hi there, well you are going to think we are MAD! we came with 5 suitcases and 5 t chest. We got to Bunbury 17 th Dec, not a bloody t spoon did we have , no xmas pressy for kids, new life new strt thats what we thought.
Went to Macro and got pots and pans etc.
Our tchest did not get here til Feb, so we got what we needed. I had older kids coming over on 21st so i could not get kids pressys til then as i had no one to babysit. Any way we was all sorted for xmas eve, now as for bringing your stuff over, i do regret not bringing some things, but we had had beds for years, we was ready for a new suite, most of our bed room furniture was built in. The nicest stuff we had was dining furniture [limed oak] and i wish we had brought that with us. But anyway i dont think the furniture here was too expensive, it depends what you want, some examples :
table and8 chairs 8 [ harvey norman] 1600 dollars
corner cream leather suite seats 10 [harvey norman] 3,900 dollars
Fridge Freezer harvey norman 2000 dollars
washer front loader [harvey norman] 500 dollars
It really is a personal thing. Denise

Re: To bring or not to bring that is the question?
 

Your husband is wrong. If you want anything resembling quality you have to pay big dollars here in Australia. Everything else is "made in China crap" and will fall apart within days.

Re: To bring or not to bring that is the question?
 

I've always been told, and goin with it too, that if it's of decent quality and condition, take it!

Re: To bring or not to bring that is the question?
 

Bring it all! We crammed as much as we could into a 20 foot container, but still are short of things here. You can spend a lot in the first few months buying stuff and if you can avoid it, do. I regret getting rid of our old dining room chairs - can't find anything I like here thats old and cheap! Couldn't have fitted in the washing machine and tumble drier - but wish I could have. Arriving in winter time has meant I ended up renting a tumble drier anyway.

My advice would be go for a 20 foot container and stuff it to the brim. We were adding stuff right to the end as they packed us up, we had some "see if it fits and we'll take it" stuff and most of that came.

Re: To bring or not to bring that is the question?
 

I best replace the misses then :p

Re: To bring or not to bring that is the question?
 

We brought everything with us - even cutlery ! Just thought it would be so much easier to settle quickly with familiar stuff around us and not have to worry about where to shop for replacements. There are enough problems with getting a car, getting rego's, learning where the best food shops are, how to get to them etc.etc. At least after a frustrating day you can have that familiarity. There are certain things that cannot be replaced with the same quality over here - as some-one has already mentioned some things are cheap and shoddy and will not last any length of time so will you be saving any money by not bringing your own bits ?

Liz