Kingseat

and took your entire house with you costing between £3 and £6K was it worth it? I can't help thinking with the exception of some personal items we'd be cheaper buying new when we got there but I may be entirely wrong!

Kingseat

I think I have posted this in the wrong place. Sorry.

Pollyana

Its OK, I'll move it

Grayling

The contents of even an average size house would probably cost far more than that.

We estimated our house contents to be worth well over £20k

It only cost around £4000 to ship them.

G

iamthecreaturefromuranus

Its a personal choice but for my part I think if you plan to ship anything then ship the lot... It cost us about five grand, from what I remember, to ship everything and the sofa and beds between them would cost more than that to replace here.

carolinephillips

We had 50k of stuff and it cost 8k to ship it. Most of it survived, but some of it looks too small in the large living room of our rental. Take antiques and good stuff, but don't bother with chipboard- they have an Ikea in Sydney!

We will only think about getting new once we have bought somewhere.
Don't take white goods unless they are quite new, esp. fridges/freezers because of the coolant gases. Also if you are a coffee freak get your machine in the UK as they cost a lot out here!

Kingseat

OK. Thanks. Will remember to take my coffee maker then! Been round the house this afternoon and yes, we do have a lot of stuff!! I don't think you realise until you add it all up.

I'd like a new sofa when the time comes though.

Did you take all of your kitchen crockery, cuttlery, pots and pans etc?

Grayling

Most definitely

Take everything!

G

Kingseat

Thank you!

carolinephillips

Yes, and garden stuff too- though all painted and varnished so it looked like new. Get rid of untreated wood, wicker and rattan stuff and any seeds/pinecones. Clean anything that has been outside and douse it in Jeyes fluid. It is a good chance to get rid of clutter- though a lot of ours still seemed to come over.

Sammy T

Yep, I agree, take as much as you can, we shipped most of our stuff over but bought new white goods and beds over here. Generally speaking, furniture is more expensive here and from what I've seen not much cop either!

Sam

SunnyMD

I know it's all subjective, but we brought very little with us so that we could buy new when we got here - we spent a lot of money replacing "bits" you know, the silly things we all accumulate through the years and rely on every day without really thinking about them, but we found that it worked well for us as we bought the stuff we needed whilst we waited for the rest of our stuff to arrive

Probably the thing we found easiest was the fact that we didn't bring cutlery and crockery so we didn't have to wait for those to arrive, but we did bring pans and still had to buy new for those weeks of waiting in between us (November) and our stuff arriving (January) ! the same with beds - we bought our son a new bed as we hadn't brought his, but we had to buy ourselves an inflatable mattress until our awesome bed arrived from the UK, and of course we needed new bedding for both beds as we didn't have any in our suitcases

The same with towels, even some big comfy cushions to sit on for a couple of days until our new furniture was delivered - you can buy new, but you still have to wait for the shop to deliver that and we came unstuck there - you ever tried fitting a 4 piece garden furniture set in the back of a Toyota Corolla cos you know when you get home you have nothing to sit on for the next 3 days ????

There were lots of silly things like that

Hope that helps with your decision making

iamthecreaturefromuranus

As i said we brought the lot and it does mean waiting for stuff to arrive and then having to buy stuff to fill that gap.... Things like crockery/cutlery/pans... get yourself the cheapest you can find or even go to Salvo's and buy odds and sods. With the beds, we left all the mattresses in the UK as they were due for replacement anyway and just shipped the bed frames/bases and then bought new mattresses at this end and used them on the floor.

carolinephillips

We had to buy some stuff too, but don't get a cheap pan as it scorches easily!
We are lending our stuff to a soon-to-be expat who arrives on the 18th- trying to spread the kindness that was shown to us when we arrived. It will also come in useful for DD now she is a teenager and goes off to camp or wants her own space, or when people visit: spare kettle, toaster, iron, tabletop ironing board, cutlery, unbreakable crockery etc...we can put them in the annexe and if they get up in the middle of the night due to jet lag, they don't have to disturb us!!!

PaddyHaHa

If you like cooking then bring a free standing cooker with you. All rentals and house purchases, come with a cooker but it'll probally be cr*p. It's hard to get hold of a decent range with a double oven - I've been quoted $4000 for a belling that I could have got for £800 in the UK.

Mrs PHH