snoo

ok...I'm SURE this has been raised before...but I can't seem to find any threads! So I'll ask again! Please excuse the repeat...

We've been offered shipping at 'cost' by a business associate! GREAT!! But there's a BUT!! Will we be able to wrap and pack the crate sufficiently ourselves??

Any help or advice could save us a lot of heartache!

Thanks everybody........Lisa,x

CDM

Crate? Do you mean container?

We're wrapping & packing ourselves too. There's no reason why you can't. Get your packing materials from the web (source them individually) as this will be MUCH cheaper than buying from a removal company or storage company.

Are you going to insure the container for shipping? You can get total-loss insurance for around 0.25% of total consignment value. This does NOT conver for any breakages - just total loss, such as fire, loss at sea or stolen. If you are packing yourself, you probably won't get contents insurance. On the plus side, if you pack yourself, at least you'll know it's done correctly.

- CDM

slipshot

Quite a few people do this and I'm sure you'll be fine. General consensus seems to be that you need to be prepared for how long it will take, you need to understand how things will work the other end, and what you will need to do, and be prepared that it would seem customs look into self-packed containers in far more detail and thus a far longer wait. If you can do all of these, you'll certainly save money...

Burkins

Hi

We packed our container ourselves and everything was fine.

I would suggest reading every thread on here about it as it helped me.

With regards to Customs, they only opened boxes that were labelled with shoes and tools, I had read this on here so those boxes were perfect and the shoes spotless etc. We have 50 boxes and customs only opened 5.

Everything arrived in perfect condition, apart from one cheap wine glass so I think we did really well.

The container company provided the boxes and tape for free and we brought bubble wrap from ebay.

On the day the container arrived everything was ready to go in, we had 3 hours to load but as we were so organised it only took just over an hour to load a 3 bedroom house (2adults and 2 kids).

We used an agent at the Oz end to get the stuff through Customs as we were so far from Adelaide we couldn't do it ourselves and they brought it to us.

If you have any more questions or need numbers for insurance etc please let me know.

Sonya

sj oldfield

We did it all ourselves, quite staight
forward and saved a fortune.

lapin_windstar

If you're taking a whole container, and they can dump it outside your house for you to pack and unpack yourself, I'd do it. But in my case, I had less than a container, and the cost for self-packed was very similar to them-packed, plus insurance was more tricky (IME). If the only risk had been the container falling off the ship, I would have accepted that - but with our stuff passing through at least four sets of hands as a part load, I would have preferred them-packed with their insurance in the end (and I am saying that as a notorious cheapskate).

Also, don't buy bubblewrap except over eBay or wholesale. It's expensive and you will need tons of it!

snoo

I've just typed a long winded 'thank you' reply to everybody for their advice and asked for packing tips!! THEN along comes The Spaniel From Hell with shovels for paws.....and in the blink of an eye all of my work is undone!! And does he care? Not a jot!!!!!
So thanks....and any more tips will be greatfully received!!!!!!!!!!!

Lisa,x
Thanks Winstar...just looking at ebay now! How would you pack the suite?

snoo

so did everybody have a container to themselves? Who shared?
x

Irish Gal

We had a container to ourselves (and packed ourselves) but there were 5 of us to pack for and the contents of a 3 bedroomed home! You'll be surprised how much stuff you really have.

I actually enjoyed the packing. Made it all seem so real!

snoo

Thanks for that...can I ask what the cost was?

x

Irish Gal

All in all, it cost about $6000 from start to being delivered!

catchmc

HIya,
Just read your thread,hoping to move to Aus this year??If we get VISA.
Im from Ireland too,Quick Question,If not too cheeky, Was it expensive to get a container??

lapin_windstar

Packing is a really good way to dump as much as possible of your old crap!

Irish Gal

No, it cost us €2700 for a 20ft container (including insurance) from our house to Melbourne Port. We had to arrange it to be collected at the other side when we got here. We were able to send our stuff out 5 weeks before we left so we were only waiting 2 weeks when we arrived.

Good Luck with the visa! Good job you've already applied as it looks like they'll be restricting the number of migrants due to the economy etc. The worst part is the waiting but once you get it, its all go!!!!

chelly77

Hi Guys,

We are only planning on taking a few box's as most of our stuff has been given to us and we figured we could replace things like bed and sofa pretty cheaply once we get to OZ?

We are not planning on taking any electrical goods with us, so its only really thing like DVD's CD's clothes, plates, etc.

Does anyone have any idea how much it would be just for a couple of box's so that I have a wrough idea of what we need to budjet

Ta
Chelly