steve & dee

No doubt this has been asked many times, but we are trying to decide which to do. Do we ship only a couple of boxes with a few household things or is it worth it to get a container & take the bulk of our stuff? We have some pieces of furniture we would like to bring, but money wise, are we just as well off to buy again in Oz. If anyone has done this recently I would really appreciate some feedback. Thanks Deirdre

hevs

Bring it all!
you don't realise how much it all costs to replace till you start doing it. We have bought a new fridge $2000 and a new washing machine$800 and various bits! i would dread to think how much it would cost to replace it all. Wooden furniture is expensive out here!

Amazulu

Ship

Sandra

Ship everything!

every the crappy bits - you can always throw away later, but I ended up using two crappy sofas for over 14 months until we could afford a 'decent' set. The crappy ones are now in the family room (there is usually more living space in aussie houses, with two living rooms and a rumpus sometimes). It is an awful bind buying again and very very costly.

Shipping costs can seem high - but say 7000 pounds converted to $16K will not buy you buggery bollocks in terms of decent stuff. If you are not wanting good stuff there are plenty of furnishing packages available out here - you know the thing sofa/bed/table chairs etc comes as a set. But you will be buying them all again in a couple of years - they are very very basic. (PS I bought a very very nice sofa and it set me back 8000 !!!!)

Have fun and pack it - it is like Christmas when it all arrives and you are glad of a familiar feeling - even if it is your tired old chair.

Cheers

ScuntoBris

Obviously you will do what you feel is right, but...

We sold the lot in the UK and just brought 3 suitcases, have spent the last 3 weeks scouring the shops for furniture, appliances and there are bargains to be had.

3 piece leather sofa - $1900
Whirlpool front loaded washing machine - $550
Whirlpool frost free Fridge/Freezer (391L) - $800
Sharp 32inch widescreen TV and DVD - $1550
Pine table with 6 chairs - $850
Wooden Queen bed and Furniture - $1000.

$6850(about 3000GBP) , admittedly there are only two of us, so it was reasonbly easy and exciting buying new stuff again, the Aussie shops love to give you a bargain if it means getting your custom.

Although it has taken us 3 weeks, we have been doing other things as well, Gold & Sunshine Coast, wild life parks, local lagoon etc, etc, actually quite like it here, still in the honeymoon period though.

Happy packing or selling whichever you choose.

Thomaz

Firstly, I do tend to agree with what most of the the others say… ship everything. However, we did it a little differently which worked out well for us in that we brought everything apart from what we considered essentials and thus saved a little on shipping costs and, more significantly, enabled us to move into unfurnished accommodation soon after arriving here (furnished costs a bomb!).

We did NOT bring, and bought (apart from wardrobes) soon after arrival, the following:

Washing machine
Patio table and chairs
Fridge Freezer
Beds (although maybe we should have)
TV and Video (decided it’s not worth the hassle of having them converted)
Wardrobes (most houses here have them built-in)

An alternative to buying would be to rent the things above but we found the rental option is not cheap – especially if you only want them for a month or two.

So, by buying the above once you get here you can just about get by until the rest of your things arrive (we waited a couple of months – even after it arrived here it was still three weeks before they managed to deliver it to us… that was not our introduction to Australian bureaucracy – we had already experienced that at the Medicare office and then at the Roads and Transport Authority. But that’s another story).

If you decide to ship your bed(s) then you will need to buy something here like a sofa bed – one of those cheap inflatables may do – as I mentioned, we didn’t bring beds so it was no problem although we had to sit on the floor when we watched TV (which was perched on the box it came it). Our new patio table was the dining table – still is as the dining table we shipped arrived here in bits and we are still waiting for the insurers to cough up.

The real bonus during those first couple of months was that the kids did not miss their toys as they had the Fridge/Freezer box to play with.

Thomaz

Just to add to the above…

the cost of buying a washer, fridge/freezer, patio set, 3*beds, TV and video when we got here came to just over $2500. I reckon I saved easily that amount by not paying for a full container (actually brought 52 items – mostly cartons – at a cost of GPD1500). Okay, so we also had to buy smaller items whilst waiting for the shipment to arrive – cutlery, crockery, kettle etc. And we did find ourselves eating out during those first couple of month but nevertheless it was still preferable to paying an extra +$200 per week for furnished accommodation.

steve & dee

Hmmm, what to do what to do, the thing is, it is only the 2 of us aswell, so that cuts down on alot I would imagine plus I can only assume that replacing every doll & teddy would cause chaos not to mention the expense. I suppose we just have to sit down & do our homework ( this is the bit I hate- facts & figures), but thanks for the guidance at least it gives us some insight into things. Cheers Deirdre

l_jg

John Masons have an online quotation system, where you can go through your house and choose what you want to take and the approximate cost of taking it versus replacing it. It's not exact figures as they estimate the costs of the replacement furniture, but it could give you more of an idea about what to take / leave.

www.johnmason.com

Good luck!

sj oldfield

Our furniture cost less than the cost of the shipping, so we will flog ot all before we go.
Will be bringing `the bits`, pictures, books, x-box all that sort of stuff.

Jacqui

We sold everything, and some of our stuff was still fairly new and in good condition, thinking we would buy all new here at reasonable prices. In hindsight, not such a good idea. Buying all this new stuff took a big chunk of dollars out of our savings, I think it would have cost less to have a bigger container. Appliances such as fridge/freezers and vacuum cleaners are really expensive here - relatives brought an Argos catalogue with them on a recent visit here, and I was shocked to see my Dyson was "only" £250 - we paid nearly $800, it would have been cheaper to buy a new one before we left!

Also it is soooo boring going shopping, traipsing from shop to shop trying to find the best price or the nicest sofa, or finding that everything you choose will take 2 months to arrive because it has to be shipped here from the Eastern states. And of course you first have to suss out where all the shops are, which shop sells what, in your mind you are thinking "what is the Oz equivalent of Comet" or whatever. And wishing they had an Argos here too, it would have been so easy to just go through all the pages picking out a nice matching kettle & toaster, silly little things like that.

michaela

[I have priced up moving everything and from uk to sydney is £1755. Is much cheaper than selling everything and buying new. You will only get a fraction of price when sold as its second hand. My advice is take it with you

Mummy

Who was that quot with Michaela? Seems a lot cheaper than most have been saying. Or do you not have that much stuff??

Mummy

Mummy

How much do fridge/freezers cost? Don't have one here as only renting, so may consider buying one beforehand and shipping it out.

Mummy

ginni

We are taking EVERYTHING.

Unfortunately (or fortunately depending on how you look at it) our house and complete contents burnt down 18 months ago. We have replaced everything brand new (if only we knew we would be going to oz then! Doh! timing is not our strong point!). Therefore we know that we cannot possibly replace everything for the £5K cost of shipping.

At least we got rid of all the rubbish you accumulate without having to go to the tip or car boot sales.