Please help. We are a bit sad on the old decision making process.

Can't decide what to do with our stuff - dump it or lump it with us.

Is anyone leaving their stuff???

Hellllpppp.

Pott.

Please.

Unless it's really good stuff, dump it.

we dumped a lot of furniture, beds etc....

"Lump it" with you.
I left the Uk 11 years ago with just a suitcase of clothes to Singapore. I sold most of my stuff and stashed the rest with parents etc.
I had to start from scratch - ooow the money! And not to mention the time building up a home from scratch again!
Think about it - most people just think about the big things such as furniture, when if you add up the other stuff - it probably comes to more expense than the "big things" . Add all those other things up which you'll need to buy - cutlery, crockery, towels, sheets , quilts, pans and pots , kettles, toasters, even small things such as T-towels, the list goes on and on , and on . It adds up to thousands for just the non furniture items . .

When I came to Aus I did not make that same mistake again, I brought most of my stuff with me from Sing, bar a couple of things like beds and fridge, and "odds and sods" .

write a list of everything you need in a house, starting at the most basic things, even if it doesn't sound like much - like towels. work your way up to the big things, then calculate the cost of replacing all these items, and if you are prepared to fork out again to replace all these things - you'll probably be very surprised at how much you'll need to fork out again to replace everything.

I've done it both ways and I would advise people to bring some of their stuff with them because of the time and expense replacing everything. But if you don't mind spending thousands and starting from scratch again - dump them, but personally speaking I would never do that again.

cheers

If, like us you have to wait over 3 months for your stuff to arrive you'll find you'll have to buy toasters, cutlery, pots and pans and manchester anyway.

we were lucky and managed to borrow a washing machine, my wife wasn't looking forward to washing 5 peoples stuff by hand for 12 weeks.

The stuff we dumped was crap though as we have 3 young kids and we knew we were going to migrate.

bring it if it's decent dump it if it isn't

I was without stuff for just over a month, we ate off cheap plates that we picked up in the supermarket, ate out a lot in local cafe's , and we didn't have a washing machine - just remembered about the washing machine (the one in Singapore was not mine to bring - it was the landlords) , I actually did the washing by hand for two weeks, until we bought one here - not a nice job I can tell you that, stinging hands from the powder and scrubbing - how they managed in the old days I never know.

I did not buy bed sheets - I packed them in my suitcase. But basically we "slummed it" for about a month (I think my stuff took 4 to 8 weeks to arrive - can't remember the exact time it took) - Had to buy beds on our first day in a house (we were in a motel for two weeks) - borrowed an old bar fridge off a kind bloke in work until we bought our own fridge.

cheers

Bring everything with you, less to buy when you are here. As for having to wait for your stuff to arrive, you could stay in a caravan park until then, they are fully furnished and there are a few around.

Caravan park.....what a great idea!!! hadn't thought of that (yes i know- i'm a bit thick!!)

We to plan on taking as much stuff with us as we can. I have been told that furniture is quite expensive in Oz and we feel it will be cheaper to ship it out than start from scratch...

Cabins in caravan parks are great. At £3-4000 for a container UK-Aus it depends on how much life your stuff has left. I believe UK fridge/freezers aren't man enough for Aus. My furniture is old so we're not taking it (it's due for a change out), but all cutlery/crockery/kitchen utensils are coming, including the electrical stuff. I believe £10 a cubic foot is the rate, so work out the cost to replace versus the cost to ship.

I would agree with the other posts...

Virtually all househeold furniture/white-goods - take with you (ie cooker, washing machine, tumble dryer, beds, chairs, stereo systems, bicycles, etc.). Basically we've found that the average quality of goods here is inferior to the average' quality in the UK. You can buy decent furniture, electrical goods but they are relatively more expensive and I'm guessing you'll be wanting to use as much as UK money on a deposit for a house.

But a couple of items should probably be left behind such as...

Television, video - uses a different PAL system. Though you could buy Aussie video and continue to watch the UK TV connected through the video.

DVD player - make sure its multi-Region or can be recoded to use Region 4 instead of Region 2. Otherwise you'll be forced to buy all your DVDs from the UK.

Fridge - most UK fridges are smaller and you'll need to store more stuff (ie virtuall all veggies and fruits) in the fridge because of the heat (that will even include chocolate in summer!).

Spring/autumn clothes - unless you intend to live in Darwin you'll need these in winter here (light sweaters, jeans, thicker socks, etc - if you intend to go skiing in Aus/NZ in winter, bring everything inlcuding winter clothes).

All personal/priceless items - your call (this include pictures, memorabilia, old toys, etc, etc, etc). Best to bring as much as you can - if you have kids this helps them settle in quicker.

Your family - your call!

Good luck,
AndyH

A good question. The simple answer is to bring everything. It may sound tempting to dump stuff but most people regret it.

Throw away stuff that you are not allowed to bring (food and anything liquid like paint, cleaning products etc). You could also throw away anything that you haven't used for 10 years and anything you would have replaced within 6 months if you hadn't been moving. Bring everything else.

Leave the mother-in-law in the UK!

Would you recommend bringing the wife or get a new one when I arrive ?

We are planning to just take what we can fit in our suitcases, the money we save on shipping everything over there can be used towards getting new stuff.
wombat

That is the way I think we are going to do it. Most of our stuff isn't worth taking and we can alway sit on bean bags for a coupe of weeks until the new sofa arrives. We will probably pay excess baggage on things like photographs and other bits like that.

I have also heard that UK fridges do not work too well in Oz because they do not have enough ooomfff to keep it cool.

We're taking the 'expensive' stuff - and will then make up a container load with what's left. Anything else will get given away, sold or junked.

If you take what the shipping people say as an indicator, they work on the basis that its approx 5 times cheaper to ship than to buy new in Australia - but then there's nothing stopping you buying 'like for like' when you arrive.

We'll look to replace one or two items with brand new (we would have to have replaced them soon in any case), the rest we'll pick up second hand (including cars, bikes, etc).

Kev