moneypenny20

Footloose and fancy free - blimey, how does that work. You mean you can go away when you like, do what you want, when you want and not have to worry about children, work etc. Wow ! Guess I might get there (again) in about 15 years - won't hold my breath

Australia Bound

Now i want to take all my stuff?

God i'm so confused.

Rooksie

LOL!!!!

as stated by fireeater, depends on your circs i guess:

if you are pretty undecided where you are going to settle and dont have kids in school etc etc then flog the lot but if like us, you are headed to a specific area and have children who will be in school and dont want to move around all over the place, then i would defo take it all with you. like i said, we have had to replace all of ours stuff and that was about 5 years ago and its amazing how much it all costs to replace. stuff like plates, saucepans, cooking utensils, sheets, blankets, blah blah blah

Greigrob

We decided that we just going to start from scratch (apart from my tools and a few personal/sentimental items which will be shipped) when we arrive.
We did get a quote for shipping all our gear but decided that since we will be renting for the first few months we would just spend a few extra quid on renting a furnished place or rent un-furinshed and rent furniture,white goods etc...

As the previous threads have mentioned it all depends on presonal choice and circumstances.

Greig

Rooksie

blimey yeas - tools!!! my husbands tools are worth a small fortune - specialist LPG equipment etc etc. yikes would hate to replace all that lot!! :scared:

vics

We were originally going to sell all our household stuff and just take a few boxes plus our cars (yes, I know, we will have the duty etc to pay on the cars, but the husband won't go without them - they are like his kids... ).

However, I have since discovered that there is not much difference between shipping 2 cars on their own in a 40ft with a specialist car shipper, and shipping 2 cars + most of our furniture etc in a 40ft with one of the removal companies (PSS etc etc).

So now everything (well almost everything) is coming with us!

alrobson

I've seen a few threads about this subject before and the advice was pretty split.

We will be taking all of our personal items but leaving the 'big' furniture behind (selling it). As an example, I bought a desk chair last year for a £100, and to ship it (in addition to my boxes) would cost £150. Well, I've sold it for £40 and instead of paying £150 to ship it I can buy a new one when I get there. It depends on how expensive some of your stuff is.

If you have a settee that cost £3000 then spending £300 shipping it isn't so bad, but if it cost £400 then it suddenly seems a bit expensive!

DagBoy

Shipping my be expensive, but so is replacing stuff . It depends on a number of factors and there is no right or wrong answer, but I brought everything (sole use of a 20 foot reefer container) and do not regret it.

I had some reasonable quality wooden furniture (wardrobes, tables etc.), quite a lot of cooking gear, a good quality sofa and sofabed as well as various smaller furniture and lots of bits and pieces. My workshop tools alone would have cost about $2,000 to replace here but would have only fetched a few hundred if I had sold them secondhand, not to mention the fact that a lot of them were my grandfathers' and have sentimental value to me. Then there were books, CDs, computer stuff, some nice china I inherited from my grandma - basically everything I owned. I did not have a lot of books or a lot of CDs, but at $20 a pop for a CD it does not need many for the replacement cost to add up.

My decision was helped somewhat by the fact that my company contributed towards the removal cost, but I would have shipped anyway.

The other thing to consider is if you have any good quality or antique furniture. There are a lot of things that you just do not see for sale here, or if you do they are extremely expensive. So much so that when we went back to visit last year I let MrsDagBoy loose in the antique fairs and auctions and we ended up shipping half a container's worth of stuff over. Even allowing for the cost of shipping we have furniture that we simply would not find here or if we did would not be able to afford.

What I have seen suggested on here before is to do this:
go round your house and work out what you would get for your stuff if you sell it
convert that money to Aus$
goto the shops here with online catalogues and work out what it will cost you to replace everything (or buy everything you would want)
you will be left with a figure (either an amount you will be left with or an amount you will have to spend)

Then get a quote (or make an educated guess) for shipping your stuff.

It should all then become clear.

Cheers,

DagBoy

DIMO8

Well we will be renting so the furniture will stay....except my new beautiful dinning room furniture which will go.......the majority of the stuff will be the kids. Hubby will want to take everything else...except i have a cunning plan to get rid of it on ebay.

of2oz

Hi

Everyones situation is different for us we sold everything we could and gave away the rest.

We arrived 6 weeks ago with 6 suitcases (hubby, me and two girls)

Before we left we sold all our large items, washing machine, sofa, wardrobes, to friends and work aquaintances ( I compiled a list and luckily had people waiting for things as they understood our situation and were not desperate for the items) and smaller items in car boot sales. We priced a container and decided for what we had, it just wasn't worth it.

When we arrived we had to find accomodation for long term rental and this took two weeks, once in the rental house it took us a week to replace large items, beds, sofa, tv, washing machine, bedding,etc. (Lots of shopping !!!)

Waiting two to three months for a container would have made it hard to settle as I had to start work pretty quickly. We have spent a fair bit (approx £5000) replacing furniture and household items but we compared the cost of shipping to selling and replacing at it was about the same, we are only sending two boxes of smaller personal items over, and that was a small cost (approx £200) Other personal items we have left with family in the UK.

There are expensive options for replacing items and there are the cheaper alternatives, we bought a huge frost free whirlpool fridge freezer in retrovision (factory outlet) for $700 and a washing machine for $600, new microwave $300.

Sofa/chairs were approx $1500 (nothing special but great for a start, the dinning table & chairs and 2 coffee tables $1500
TV silver 28" stereo (reconditioned - years warranty) $189, dvd the same place $30. Three Queen beds, single bed and some small side units - $2500
Luckily the house we rented has built in wardrobes, a cooker and a dishwasher so that saved some money.

Myers and DW are pretty good for household furnishings - quilts, bedding, plates, etc no expensive than in the uk. (spent about $2000 on smaller household items)

We still have things to get but we have more than enough to live comfortably.

Good luck with your decision and your relocation,

Paula & Steve

island.girl

[QUOTE=joveazey]We sold all the furniture except the bed and shipped all personal stuff and toys etc. ended up with 50 boxes + the bed and it cost £1276 inc.insurance. How I look at it is that we probably had more than 100 cd's and you couldn't even replace them for that price, without all the other 49 boxes and the bed !

Jo


do u mind me asking,did u share a container for this as it sounds about the same as what we have to take.

joveazey

[QUOTE=island.girl] Yes, the company I used was Baggage International and they have a dept. called Mini Moves. You can go on their website and estimate how many boxes you want and they give you a quote. Mine ended up doubling !! They were good, 2 blokes came and packed all afternoon and off it all went ! Good luck.

JO

traceyandian

Hi ya, whats the website address? can't seem to find it doing a search'
Many thanks

kath n kim

We brought nearly everything we owned.....even the stepladder! It worked out much cheaper and easier for us than trying to replace everything when we arrived (not being familiar with the shops here, trying to find the best deal, quality etc, for each item takes AGES!)
We sent most of it ahead of us, so it was already here when we arrived, although most companies will store it fairly reasonably for you, if you are not ready to pick it up as soon as it arrives this end.
We also have a lot of sentimental things that we just wouldn't part with and the children were SO happy to see their things arrive, it really did help them to settle.
In retrospect, the only things I would not have brought are our wooden wardrobes...They are huge, so took up lots or space in the container (you are charged by space not weight) and most houses here have "built in" wardrobes anyway!
Another thing to remember is that fridges from the U.K are pretty useless here anyway as they are too small and (in hotter areas) don't work very efficiently. Electrical goods are also quite reasonable to buy here.
Clothing....If you have children, don't bother putting any of their clothes in the container as they have grown out of them by the time they arrive, also the clothes which you will wear here will be quite different to your clothes there. (In our case anyway!)
Hope your move goes well
kath n kim

Muzzman

My advice would be to take everything you use. You will get sick of shopping which takes longer in stores your not familiar with.
Karen