swallowbride

hi everyone.we are in the early(very) stages of thinking about what to ship out to aus.although we have'nt got our PR through we dont want to be trying to get everything sorted last minute.we just wanted to know if it is cost effective to buy new sofa's and flat packed beds (one double and three kids). then ship them out or just buy when we land and find our place to live.
thanks all
us five

Cleopatra

depends on how much you have to ship over.

With us, because of all the tools and kitchen and garden stuff we know we will need a container and as a result we are bringing everything - including the sofas beds etc etcetc. Might leave the kids beds and buy over there-we havent decided yet.

swallowbride

we're not taking loads over so we wont need a whole container.dont think we will even fill a 20ft one.just trying to gauge if it worth buying here or there.

Fly Away

Have you seen this thread? It has a link to a website with a shipping calculator.

http://britishexpats.com/forum/showthread.php?t=538732

lesleys

Buy beds when you arrive and get OZ sizes. Probably more choice of beds here imho.

abertawe

Hi

We are in the process of moving out there.

We have 2 sofas and a couple of other items that are worth a lot more than the shipping cost. So we look at it from this angle: the cost to replace all that we have is a lot more than the shipping. Additionally don't want to waste time shopping for replacement items.

So it is easy for us, we are going to ship.

robos

hi

we didnt ship anything just 6 boxes of personal stuff(photos and things)
to buy everything for our new life it has cost us around £3000 and that is everything from cutlery and lamps to pictures and sofas and laundry equipment (and i mean absolutely everything)
when we were looking into shipping we were quoted £4500 + so for us its worked out cheaper to buy new plus the stuff we had we had it for a few years and were getting bored with it and ready for a change so take into consideration this when you make your decision

jan xx

Tiggs+Graz

you bought everything new for your house for $3K ???!!!! you have to tell me where you are shopping at those prices

our container insurance was based on value of £20,000 (we priced everything up ourselves) and even allowing for furniture prices over here being a bit cheaper i would estimate that replacing everything would have cost us at least $30,000
In our case our total shipping costs (inc insurance and customs) of approx £4K was a bargain

paddyo

www.fantasticfurniture.com.au do a 'kit your whole house out' deal for $3000. But, its great for setting up from scratch but you are getting what you pay for.
To the OP, bear in mind if your furniture is brand new then you could incur import taxation on it if customs suss it out!! My advice, buy when you get here.

robos

our large furniture (sofa, beds etc) from super a mart
washing machine from aldi
most of the rest (cutlery,electrical etc) from k mart

we have since seen that super a mart are also doin furniture packages a 72 piece set for $3000

if you shop around youll be amazed what you can get

jan xx

Kooky.

If you're thinking of buying new rather than shipping out existing furniture, I would say don't. You don't know where you'll end up and what will be suitable. (If you're moving to a city you might be shocked at the lack of space in newer places. And in my case, older places...)

For those with existing large items like sofas, who are booking containers, I would say - if your space is tight, unless they're top dollar I would sell the sofas or give them to a deserving cause. Again, you don't know what will fit in your new place, you might be moving around a bit, and the cost of the sofas may not justify the extra shipping costs.

In our case, we had 4 sofas, two of them huge, and they would have meant a 40ft container instead of 20ft. We've just shipped the smallest as it's a sofabed and will be handy in the short-term.

My bed, however, 6 ft wide and solid teak, custom-made, goes where I go.

edit: and tomorrow night I get to sleep in it.

Tiggs+Graz

actually fantastic furniture do some nice things - their bedroom and dining room furniture are pretty good although the sofas probably arnt the best quality ...


maybe it depends where you end up in oz then ... can someone please persuade aldi to come to SA ... we need cheaper shopping!

but remember it isnt just furniture that you are shipping - it probably would have cost me 3K to replace all the kids toys ... and there is not way you can explain to a 3 year old why he no longer has his favourite train set

robos

oh yeah sorry because my kids are 18 and 15 they didnt have toys just games consoles which we put in our 6 boxes

but yeah you made a valid point

jan xx

UK-2-OZ

I agree, Fantastic Furniture are definately the best there is around for great furniture packages

paddyo

Don't get me wrong, I wasn't knocking it, just stating the facts. We bought our sons bed and trundle from there. I think there is some nice stuff there.