Nerine

Yes, always ask for a discount for cash, although they're quite happy to accept your credit card as 'cash' so you can claim the points for whatever scheme you're registered with.

jwood

Hi, we moved here at the end of November and moved into a tempory property, we went to Radio Rentals and asked about renting stuff for when we moved into unfurnished property till container arrived. We were informed that you have to agree to rent their stuff for a minium of 12 months.

Urno

We did similar to you (we rented a holiday unit first), and found that it was easiest to just get what we needed.

We got all of our electrical/kitchen stuff from Harvey Norman, who seemed to give us a reasonable discount for buying in bulk (and if they had it in, they offered to deliver it the next day). Had we been a little bit more savvy we'd have played them off against The Good Guys (their tag line is something like "cheaper for cash").

We found that Retravision weren't as cheap as HN.

It's also worth noting that there's an IKEA about 30-40 mins south of Brisbane, which we used for all of our soft furnishings/utensils/etc (although a lot of that stuff you can indeed get from Crazy Clark's or The Warehouse).

Finally, we got our furniture from Super A-Mart. They don't really do deals there (because they're cheap in the first place....unless it's damaged in any way). Their delivery dates can be longer, but eg. we got a good sofa quickly for a good discount as it was the only one left in their warehouse.

Oops, better go to work

Good luck.

comet555

We did exactly the same thing. The day we got our rental we made a trip to K-Mart, Big W or Target (can't remember which) and bought a few air mattresses (and pump) and a couple of camping chairs and a couple packages of disposable dinnerware for the short term. We didn't bother we a camping table because we knew we wouldn't need it afterwards.

The day we moved in we called up a rental place and had a fridge, washer, dryer delivered the next day. We were only going to be there for 4 months before we moved into our new house so we didn't want to have to buy stuff and then move it. For reference when we did buy our fridge it took about a week to be delivered, but that's only because I asked for it like that. I'm not sure how fast they could have done it. You could also purchase a camping cooler (eskie) and get some ice to keep things like milk, eggs, drinks for the first week.

During the first week we did a lot of shopping. Most of our furniture was delivered within 3 days of picking it out, although there were some stores that would have taken a lot longer (Super A Mart). Most of our supplies (kitchen, bathroom things) were bought at K-Mart and we just got the basics initially. It's amazing how fast it all comes together. They were big trips though and we left with 2 carts each time we went.

After the first week our place was fully furnished and we were able to cook all of our meals at home. So it was a bit crazy but not too bad. We also did all this with a 3.5 year old and 9 month old.

Good luck with the move.

comet555

Oh I forgot to add that for entertainment we just used our latop to play dvd's for the first couple of weeks. We just went out to Blockbuster and got a membership. It worked well because you could rent tv shows and kids stuff too.

When we rented all our appliances they threw in a tv for free so we used that for the kids room. When I called I told them we only needed it for 4 months and they didn't have a problem with that. I even returned everything after 3 because we had bought a house and they refunded my money on the last month. So no issues with them.

I think it was Mr.Rental although I'd have to check to be sure. We were in Wellington Point so I'm sure they'd handle most of the bayside area.

obiwan

thanks MrsJTL, hantsfamily1, and seasider for the wonderful advice and the great links, i will be staying at wynnum since i have a friend there. with all the advice here i now know where to head straight to.....

1 more week to go...

cheers

obiwan

thanks jwood, i have found that this company does shorter term leases...http://www.mrrental.com.au/home/

obiwan

thanks Urno, good to know there is an IKEA in brisbane, i remember them having some pretty cheap utensils which i found to actually nice.... will really need to get that GPS since my OH isnt too good at maps (and neither am I) ...

obiwan

thanks Comet555, i think i will buying the exact same stuff you bought! good idea on the cooler and disposable dinnerware, lucky there is a coles nearby and it will be easy to some cooked food initially.

i admire that you were also able to do this considering you had kids even younger than ours!! ours a 7,5, and 3 already!! and i thought that that was going to be a real challenge!!

btw, fantastic blogsite you have there!

comet555

It wasn't so hard with the little kids really. We had spent a month travelling around in hotels with the kids and that was a lot harder. We had an inflatable toddler bed for the 3 year, we had brought it with us from Canada. We had also brought a port a cot for the baby so we didn't need any beds initially for the kids.

It's not so bad really. The first week is a little rough but we found that we spent a good portion of the day out shopping so we really didn't mind that the place had no furniture!

You'll need some sort of entertainment though for the evenings. We brought our laptop with us so we watched movies on that. I suggest finding a good video rental store to get some things to watch. We went to our local Blockbuster in Capalaba that has $1 Tuesdays (like most places do on Tuesday) and we would stop up on tv shows, movies, kids stuff. It helped pass the time in the evenings.

As people mentioned IKEA is great, we made a few trips there and got some of our beds there. We got all of our living room furniture at Eureka Furniture. We liked their stuff and found it reasonable priced. We got our leather set (3 seater & 2 seater) for $1600. So not too bad. We've ordered there several times and it was usually only a 2-3 day wait to get items delivered.

Super A Mart was nice and cheap but as people mentioned it can take a while to get stuff from there. They always quote a couple of weeks. Once we got settled a bit we got a futon (way cheaper than IKEA) and a few other small things.

Anyway, good luck with the move. I'd expect one crazy week of shopping and getting things, but it's exciting too so you won't mind. After that you'll settle in pretty quick because you'll have everything you need and won't need to wait for a container as lots of people do.

What I would do before you arrive is make a few lists of things you'll need for the first day, first week, and so on.

For example, first day:
Air mattresses
Bedding & towels
Camping chairs and small folding table
Cooler & ice
A few groceries (milk eggs, cereal, bread, snacks)
Plastic dinnerware & cutlery

First week:
Pots & pans, cooking items
Pick out beds
Pick out couches if possible
Dining table

For later:
Coffee tables, end tables
Chairs
Misc furniture
More bedding, towels, etc
More kitchen supplies

My only other word of advice is about cooking. Everytime you cook something for the first little bit make sure you have all the right tools and dishes to do it. There were a few times when I was about to cook things but didn't realize I was missing a pan or dish, etc. So just make sure to think things out in advance!

Anyway... I'm done now! I swear it's not that hard. Good luck and hope you enjoy!

P.S. Thanks about the blog. I try and keep it up for our family back home, they're really good about reading it too.

Kooky.

My husband's off down to Sydney tonight for a conference. The poor man is being dispatched with a suitcase full of bedding and towels (thankfully he gets double allowance for being a FF) and a google map of Sydney with Myer, David Jones, Harvey Norman and Ikea marked on it.

Hope he gets a good sleep on the plane as he's going sussing out white goods tomorrow. And maybe cars.

(He's getting the keys to the house on Wednesday, just before he comes home.)

obiwan

Thank you so much again Comet555 these tips are really helpful, yes i think it should be pretty fun doing all the shopping all day, i am pretty much used to roughing things up. and there is a blockbuster very near the unit so will be visiting them on Tuesday

lucky there is an ALDI nearby as well....

thanks for the list you summarized as well and the advice about thinking thing s through before cooking it ....i can see how that can easily happen

btw, lived in vancouver when I was toddler, dont really remember much though....interesting how you decided to move to OZ considering Canada is ranked just as high as Oz as far as best countries to live in is concerned....

i remember seeing a 2005 U.N. list on CNN saying #1 was Norway, #2 Canada, #Australia..............

obiwan

this really made me laugh!

comet555

We've always looked at Oz as being a temporary move, but we do have PR so we can make the important decisions later. So, hard to say how long we'll be here exactly. We could happily live in both although I think my husband will want to go back to Canada in a couple of years. I could stay forever though!

Kooky.

Glad to hear it. I've got to keep laughing, mate, otherwise I'd be like a chicken running around looking for my head.