kentboy78

Hi Guys,

This is our first posting on this site. I've got to say this site seems to have some great advice.

My wife and I are leaving for Oz in June and we therefore need to organise shipping. I've read some threads on the site about this but I am just wondering if anyone packed their own house up and loaded it all into a container themselves?
It seems we can make a big saving by doing this but a little nervous on things breaking etc. Also where to get boxes etc.
Also whats the score with insurance...is it worth getting especially if we pack ourselves.

Has anyone got any advice or experiences to share?

Trying to save cash as we are letting our house instead of selling!

Chris & Sam

louise4

Hi chris and sam.
we got the bonners in to ship our and we did have them pack everything. i suppose the answer to your question is what are you taking and is it breakable. if you are taking mirrors pictures and a lot of glass wear then yes i suggest you get the team in, if not, if you are taking mostly big things like sofas and beds then maybe it is worth your while packing yourselves.

we had a whole container of stuff, basically everything from the home, and even though we had stuff which could break easily the only thing that broke was a blender jug and the front door to the washing machine. if you do pack yourselves then any old bedding you have you can cushion round things (like the front of the washing machine). you get the boxes from whomever you have chosen to ship the goods

as for insurance i would suggest marine insurance that insures against mildew and the change in temp on journey. as for the few things that might get broken they are realatively cheap to replace in oz.

hope this helped. this is only my opinion, when we return we shall not be taking so much stuff and may pack ourselves.

louise

kentboy78

Thanks for your advice Louise.

Theres only a few picture frames and 2 mirrors we are concerned about.
We'll take picture out of frames and pad everything well.
We are taking everything from our 3 bed house but we think it might be worth the risk for a difference of £1000!

£1000 buys new glass for frames & like you said, things can be easily replaced for a relatively small amount.

Chris & Sam

louise4

Glad i could helap, the only thing to really be careful of is the washing machine. make sure the last time u use it is about 4 days before packing open the door and draw and make sure the draw is clean, any dampness can cause meldew. this is a problem weather having others pack for you or doing it yourself.

where abouts in oz are you headed. we were in sydney 2 and half years ago. heading back next summer.

louise

kentboy78

Sam (the wife!) is originally from sydney so heading over there to be close to her family. Where in Sydney are you going?

Thanks for the advice on the washing machine but we have decided not to take the washing machine as they are mostly top loaders over in Oz and more effiecient than ours, so a new washer when we get there.

chris

louise4

No matter how hard i tried could get used to top loaders, maybe when ours breaks and we have to have one won't have any choice.

we settled in the north shore area when we went last time. a place called berrowra. lovely location but a bit far away for hubbies job, he was traveling to rosehill and beyond. this time we are looking at maybe carlingford or pymble. close enough to northern beaches (hopefully our last move) and close enough for work. seeing as your wife is an original auzzie maybe she could give the lowdown on these areas if she knows.


tanx louise

kentboy78

Sam says that Carlingford is nice, close to Pennant Hills which is close to where we are going. She is not too sure about Pymble though so cant say much about that.

Chris

louise4

tnax for that chris. maybe when we get over we can meet and have drinks . just wish this saving up for money didn't take so blasted long.
hope all the shipping goes well,


louise

Stormz

< agree with Louise.

Don`t take your fridge though... sell it. Aus customs won`t allow it in. Also don`t take any gardening tools or bicycles (or anything that may have had a trace of dirt on it)... chances are that customs will charge you an arm and a leg to steam-clean the lot.
I`d take your w/m though, if you can fit it in a 20ft container, as you may as well. Some ppl think top-loaders ruin clothes anyway.

Give these guys a call....

Onkar Sharma
Eagle Freight Terminal Ltd - Freight Forwarders Since 1990
Eagle Relocations Ltd - Worldwide Movers Since 1967
Direct Dial Tel: +44-870-4215634

We`re sending our stuff with them in a 20ft sole-use container for £2750 (them packing, us unpacking, door to door Maidstone - Perth). It depends what stuff you have to go as to the quote, how much of it, and where you are in the UK.

We`re off in June too. Which airline are you flying with... and are you having any stopovers? Malaysian are cheapest atm and have free flights for stopovers and hotel prices are REALLY cheap in Malaysia.

markeh

Hiya Chris,
there was alot of chatter a while ago about front loaders vrs toip loaders.

Then again as long as the wife is using it let her have what ever she wants

Bye
Mark

kentboy78

Hi Stormz,

Is that really true about the fridge? That has shocked us.
Sam loves her toploaders being an ozzie! We will consider taking the washing machine then. I suppose we will get nothing for it 2nd hand anyway.

We have had a quote from www.marco-services.co.uk for £1475 but for us to pack. They will drop a 20ft container at our home (sole use) and we have 3 hours to pack it and £40 per hr thereafter. this is from Manchester to sydney.

We think this is very cheap.... what do you think?

Just need to sort some insurance out.

We leave June 26th from Manchester flying Malaysian too. Stopover in KL and free internal flight to Penang to see some friends for a couple of days. This was only £550 and we can change the outbound date if we like for a charge but still cheaper than any others.


Cheers

Chris & Sam

Stormz

Afraid so. We`d love to take ours but Aus is VERY particular about all the gases in our fridges/freezers here. They`d scrap it and charge you for the priviledge.

Get a quote from at least 5 shippers. Try Eagle, PSS and Crown at least.

If you go with Marco I hope you have lot`s of friends to help you pack it properly in the 3 hours. You couldn`t do it with just 4 ppl.

It may seriously be worth your while to get a shipper to pack everything for you as a) it will be packed properly (like thick board around your furniture etc) and b) Aus customs will be less finicky having an itemised list of the goods from the shippers than yourselves.

kentboy78

Cheers to that Mark. the washer is the wifes territory!

68MEVY

Thanks for the advice on washers. Our relatives in Oz don't like there top loader so we are taking our front loader as it's fairly new. I'd not thought about mildew in it, will have to unplumb it week before we pack it so I'm not tempted to bung a load in.
We've had a few quotes for shipping but have lost them! They were wrote in yel pages and now I've lost it so I guess I'm starting again, unless I find it on Tues (day off). I will post my quotes for you all when I find them.
Marie

spalen

£1475 is very good price for 20ft sole use.

We used a shipping company and got internal discount ( family friend ) , I estimate they charge £1200 to ship the container and load it onto the ship and for rent of the container so £1475 is very good to include moving it from the port to your house. This was from our house in southampton ->container yard in brisbane. I think there are about 100-200£ of fees to move the container in brisbane to our final property.

3 hours is doable but you need to prep well put everything into boxes have tons of rope and I mean tons - we used something like 100 metres ! to tie stuff to the lanyard points in the container.

Boxes you can buy from normal removal companies they'll sell you it . We bought 'sofa sleeves' to cover our sofas like big open jiffy bags for £8 each , they slip over the top of the sofa providing air-inlet at bottom and stop them sweating and getting ruined.

The Aus Govt website on what is permitted to ship is a good reference I think its something like import/export rules

20ft is huge - we moved our 3 bed house and could have done it 3-4 times over before we'd have filled the container.

when the container arrives it might be head-height off the ground - it'll be on a trailer of a lorry so think about how you get heavy stuff off the groundand into the container - it might be in the 'middle' of a 40ft chassis if they havent got a 20ft chassis so again ask for it to be at the ened of the chassis or think about how you move stuff across a 'girder framework' of a lorry.

When the container arrives get the bloke to lock you inside it - if you can see ANY Daylight then its leaking reject it an dask him t ogo back and get a good one. It should be odor free , clean, and waterproof. Make sure the shipping company knows its for personal effects.

The Shippers will deal with customs - personal effects shoudl go through ok. Provide a full itinerary eg 20 boxes of personal effects , box1 general contents "toys" , box 2 contents " DVD's " , box 3 etc....

Read on here about cleaning bicycles make sure there are no garden tools hiddne in bxoes cos they'll want to see those - make sure there is nothing that can carry mud into the country - we jet washed our kids bikes.

Its not that difficult and it saves a ton of money. Just be ware that 3 hours is very hard to do - Why not get a rate for them to drop it off and collect 6 hrs later - the £40 / hr is to pay the lorry driver to sit in your kitchen drinking coffee - you might be able to get them to drop it off and pick it up a day later if you've got space to do that - they parked it on our front lawn, it was nearly as high as our house and great fun to see the neighbours as this 40ft articulated lorry reversed into our driveway!.

PM me with any q's but its entirely do-able. We didnt manage to get any insurance though but hey - like you said its ebay, ship yourself for £1400 or , ship with insurance for £3,500 - the odds dont stack up.

Remember - shipping companies are very used to doing this - if you were sending 3,000 cigarette tins instead of your house they'd do it for you - whats in the container doesnt really matter.