stressed out

Hi
Can anyone give us advise on shipping house/toys to oz.What has to be steamed cleaned (i know bikes do), is there any thing else that has to be cleaned
Does anyone know how much you can fit in a 20ft contanier? Any help on packing TV, mirrors, Pictures etc.We want to do it as cheap as poss,but we also want out things to arrive safe.Any advice would be great.

andrew63

Basically anything that is used in the garden and/or is dirty will need steam cleaning. Apart from bikes, customs also insisted on steam cleaning some garden toys and furniture eben though we had cleaned them thoroughly beforehand.
They also insisted on steam cleaning my tool box (the tools were fine)!
Vacuum cleaners are also a target for them.
Christmas decorations - especially pine cones!! Need to be treated by ETO - much more expensive than steam cleaning so don't bring!

Re: packing, we paid someone to do ours. We had a 20ft container about 80% full from a large 4 bed house with a ton of (three) kids toys etc. But, we bought no furniture as we sold all of that.
Maybe go to an electrical shop and ask for old TV boxes that will fit and cut styrofoam to pak comfortably. That is how they packed our TV. Pictures etc were just wrapped in tons of tissue paper.

Hope that helps.

There are tons of useful links that have been posted on this site before. Maybe this message was missed but I am sure others will help you.
You will also get people telling you not to bring anything and that you should "start" afresh. Must be nice to have their money but no sentimental objects or kids toys!

Good luck

Andrew

Muzzman

My single piece of advice I would give apart from coming to Oz with an open mind is if you are getting a container or part of is to bring most things that you use or that were expensive. We brought about 1/3 of a container. At the moment we are decorating. In the UK we generally bought good quality stuff. We had a really good quality roller which we sold on a car boot sale for approx 50p along with loads of other stuff. The equivalent one in Bunnings was $25 without sleeve! We constantly say to each other "why didn't we bring this or that".
Also as we had to buy lots of new stuff we got sick to the back teeth of shopping to the point were you just can't face it anymore. This would be horrendous for someone with toddlers, it was bad enough with children aged 8 and 9.
Karen

mlbonner

This might help you - AQIS - OZ Shipping Rules

Larissa

Hi stressed out
We shared a container with another site member from our area, packing ourselves and doing the paperwork. 20 ft would be more than enough, if you are really careful packing. I wouldn't recommend the actual shipper as he mucked us about and told us our stuff would arrive ages before it actually did.
You then need to employ a clearing agent at the dock to make sure your stuff goes through customs OK - I would recommend ours if you're interested.

I would take as much as possible; absolutely everything! Many things are more expensive here, plus you will have extras to buy anyway. I wish I'd brought the garden furniture and tools as we still don't have much here. Buy extras while you can - bedding and towels are usually quite expensive. Buy double thick export boxes, as much bubble wrap as possible and covers for your sofa and beds. Bring your white goods, except for fridge and freezer (unless they are new, since they are strict about the coolant gases used). Paint wicker. Clean shoes really well. Label and number your boxes and write an inventory, which you will need to provide to the shippers and customs. It takes ages, so start asap. Pack any items of quarantine concern in labelled "AQIS" boxes - this may divert them from searching every box; you have to pay them. I also put on the boxes how I had treated items of concern, e.g. "machine washed rugs", "Christmas decorations with no cones", "clean wood" etc. Although labelling takes ages, it's helpful when you arrive as you can look at your inventory and get things out quickly.

I also used vaccuum storage bags for clothes, bedding and children's stuffed toys. They are handy here too but you need to be careful not to pop them - but you can repair with sellotape. Our friend we shipped with had some damp on some pictures, you can buy silicate bags to reduce this. We shipped our computer and I packed it at the last minute in a box with our duvets. It arrived OK. I had some breakages with crockery - use small boxes; I think I overfilled. The furniture got quite scratched, but it's worth having.

Ask if you require any further advice.

sj oldfield

Quite agree with Larissa.
it is so much cheaper to pack all your stuff yourself, although it is bloody hard work. we bought loads of stuff with us, but wish that we hadnt flogged a lot of it at bootsales. Even things like our birdbath could have been shipped over.
Once you get into the flow of packinga nd listing it becomes much easier. however it was still a bloody nightmare, and the bloke we used in the uK to arrange our shipping was shite!!!!

stressed out

Thanks to everyone for their advice
We have three children aged 9 and 2 at 7 and they are finding it hard to decide what toys they want to take. at the moment i have a garage full of things they dont use but i also have a house full of things they do. Im sure their things would fill a container by themself. We are taking 5 sofas with us not a lot of anything else we are going to buy new fridge, washer ,and a new bed
(i have wanted a new bed for 5 years) but we are taking the kids beds . It is so hard to know the cut off point. i'm sure it i will get there.once again thank to all Rose and John

Rooksie

thanks for asking the question - these really helpful replies are a godsend

Geordie George

Thank you, thank you, thank you for the link! You've saved me from having to find this again! (PSS are coming on 31 Jan to clear all our stuff out and I really need to sort out what to keep and clean. )

Have an IOU karma - I have to spread it about a bit first. Apparently. (No comments, ta! )

GG

manxfamily

On the issue of steam cleaning bikes etc, do you need a certificate or something to prove they have been steam cleaned? Or do the authorities take your word that they have been done. (Surely a really good scrub will look the same as a steam clean!)

Pollyana

When it comes to toys - take the ones they love - anything to give them familiarity when they get here. It'll help them settle in - similar thing with adults and your own knick-knacks.

mlbonner

No probs at all... if you forget it again, just google 'australian quarantine' its usually in the top couple of entries....


.... I'll wait for my karma then

stressed out

Hi
When do you go to oz? Are pss packing your things? Is it very expenive? How much are you taking with you? sorry about all this but i,m not sure which way to go about sending our things.I was thinking of packing everything my self. Thank Rose

Muzzman

We didn't steam clean our bikes and they were ok! Karen

Geordie George

Hi Rose,

We have our one-way ticket booked for Feb 13, although we're having a few stopovers en route, so don't actually land in Sydney until Mar 13.

PSS are booked for Jan 31. As we're taking the entire contents of our one-bedroom flat (estimated cubic feet 390), we obviously didn't want to organise shipping ourselves, so they're packing everything for us. (My understanding of it is that you can pack yourself, but then everything is labelled 'owner packed' - or similar - and is pretty much guaranteed to be opened at the other end to be checked. Which costs. It also makes the insurance more expensive.)

The following thread (yeah, sorry to bang on about it again!) might help give you an idea about different companies quotes:

http://britishexpats.com/forum/showthread.php?t=268288

It's worth remembering that you can negotiate the price. Although PSS originally quoted £1,713.00, they knocked money off when we asked them to. The insurance does add to the quote though! In PSS's case, the insurance is based on 2.5% of goods' value, with an excess of 1% of goods' value (we're working on £10, 000 worth of goods). (There is an option for no excess, in which case the % increases to 3.4%)

All clear as mud, init?!

Good luck,
GG