Luma

This is the advice I give to people who don't like shopping or have little kids that are a nightmare in shopping centres.

We went looking at TVs this past weekend and it was a total nightmare with the kids. It got me thinking - THANK GOODNESS WE'VE SHIPPED MOST OF OUR STUFF.

So for any of you that are going through the dilemma of SHOULD WE SHIP or SHOULDN'T WE SHIP. Think about how much time and effort it will take to have to go and buy and replace all your items.

Issie

Hubby and i had a heated discussion about shipping the other night......i want everything new and he wants to ship the lot. We compromised on getting a new sofa and puter table and ship the rest. Now i just don't know whether to but the sofa here before we go or get it there Any idea what the choice and price is like ?

TeresaG

We were thinking about shipping everything but now we are not so sure. Alot of our stuff like our washing machine is quite old and we are not sure whether it is worth taking it or not. We may buy a new one before we leave or wait until we get there to get one.

I hate shopping though and would hate to have to buy everything again. We have quite a lot of cheapy ikea flat pack furniture and we aren't sure if its worth spending all that money to take it with us. We are only at the TRA stage so we've got a while to go yet.

Welshie

It does depend on what quality and condition your furniture is in though. Some of mine wasn't worth the cost it would take to ship. I found the furniture here around the same price range and besides I love shopping...

djfbug

For what its worth - I am currently out here on a reccie and if like me you hate shopping dont panic. Most of the stores here are so large and varied you can get all types of stuff in the same place. Also the assistants are extremely helpful and it is like having your very own personal shopper. Also you can always get a bigger discount the more you buy. Most of the electrical stuff here is very competitive compared to UK prices. So as far as washers, fridges, tv's etc go its not worth shipping. My wife reckons the other furnishings also are on a par with the UK and if IKEA rocks your boat, then thats here too.

selina

hi all, just thought i would put my two penny worth in too. have been in Oz for 4 weeks and moved into our long term rental last week. it is unfurnished so we have had to buy beds, fridge, washing machine, kitchen ware and sofa etc. there is no point shipping stuff you are going to need straight away as it would be a waste of money as you will have to buy stuff to tide you over anyway until your container arrives. our container is not due for another 4 weeks and we only have sofas and personal stuff like CD's, bikes, golf clubs and nick nacks in it. i'm glad that's all we shipped otherwise i would have been peed off about having to buy day to day stuff when i had it coming over anyway.
selina xx

woogle

Hi

We hardly shipped anything & were of the opinion we would need most stuff straight away,so we would have to buy a lot of things when we arrived anyway.
However, having a 2 year & a 3 year old in tow, it's Bloody hard work after about 10 minutes in any shop Can't blame the kids, it must be so boring for them, all they want to look at are the toys And when you've no family to leave them with, even a trip to the bank to open your account is a nightmare :scared:
We've got through most of it now, but for anyone who thinks it's going to be great fun to come & get all new stuff, I'd just say think again, especially if you have kids.
And it's hard not to over spend when you do get here, all that money sat in the bank, we set off with all the good intentions,but still ended up with a massive plasma TV,brand new car for me, new motor bike for hubby,biggest fridge in Harvey Normans etc..etc...Now we need our deposit for the house & we're wondering what on earth possessed us
Anyway, it's done now, I guess I wish we'd brought more of the extra stuff,like TV from bedrooms,stereo & stuff like that,even the suite. You can manage on garden furniture for a couple of months, when it's warmer you don't spend much time in doors anyway.

andrew63

We sold off most of our furniture and white goods but managed to fill a container with everything else. Absolutely everything else that we had.
biggest reason was we felt that uprooting the 3 kids was tough enough so we wanted to suround them with familar objects etc.
Our kids have settled brilliantly so we believe it was worth it

Andrew

Luma

We had 2 weeks paid for accommodation by sponsoring company and now we are renting a fully furnished 2-bed unit.

We decided not to go down the route of renting an unfurnished place as usually the rents are at least 6 month leases and we knew we would want to by a place ASAP. Within a week of landing we had already made an offer on a house.

I will depend on everyone specific set of circumstances.

Woogle has put it down perfectly what I wanted to say.

neil248

Bring as much as you can. The above is very true.

jothefw

All your points are really valid - we had our 4th removal company round yesterday and they reckon the size of a washing machine costs £50 to ship so if worth more than that then ship it basically! (So tall fridge would be £100 etc).

The problem we're having is 1) visa not through yet 2) we want to ship so stuff there as we land 3) most companies not keen to ship without visa, which I can understand ... however unlike most people going we can't just go into fully furnished rental accommodation, or pop out and buy a bed (it would be a 7 hr round trip).

Anyone else been in this situation? Thinking our sponsors might have to be power of attorney for our container but not sure how it all works????