lauralollipop

Hi

After speaking with my family who moved to Auz 15 years ago now, they sold everything and just went with cash and 2 suitcases each, they have advised me to take EVERYTHING!

What are others people veiws on this, as I was planning on selling everything here apart from a few clothes and sentementals such as photos, odd book, cd etc...... and just buying all new when i got there......

Is it really more cost effective to ship out everything you own than start a fresh there???

I was really looking forward to shopping for all new housey things


laura
xxx

CadburysFingers

Thats what we did, and havent regretted it one bit. Electrical stuff is cheaper here anyhow. You soon forget all your old stuff.

Sue2

Good one Laura I`m interested about what to take & what not to take myself?
Have some friends that have just moved to Perth, they`ve said that they went out to buy a standard wardrobe for there sons room and it was very expencive for what it was. So we are thinking of taking alot more than we first thought.

Would like to know if its worth taking things like kettles etc......

Thanks Sue2

Sue2

ABCDiamond

A few 4 or 6 gang Extension leads for the Electrics. And some fuses for the plugs

My old records (LP's) I should have had them copied to CD before giving them away.

lauralollipop

yes thats a point we have tons of CD's all of them i love, was thinking should i take them or just burn them all onto mp3 so i only need to take a few discs

So will the extension leads fit the plugs there, surely not?

But yeh things like cuttlery, bedding and everything my auntie told me to take, i was thinking that surely NOT worth it but what do people who have recently gone think?

And yeh dvd's, can you buy a multi regional dvd player there so we can take our films with us, r dvd's as cheap as are out here £30????
My auntie brought me a surfing dvd from Auz when she came to visit last month and it wont play on my dvd here, i'm gutted!!!

Any info about taking anything, no matter how daft let me know

thanks

laura

lauralollipop

thats what i thought cadburys fingers, all my stuff is crap anyways, its all old and would need replacing in a couple of years time if i kept it, so thats why i thought just car boot it all......

has anyone done that

and if so was it worth it or did you end up selling it all for a pitence?

laura

Fiona&malc

we've been advised to take as much of our own stuff as we can, as it all helps with the whole "familiarity" (is that how you spell it?) thing when the homesickness kicks in...we're not taking cutlery, cups saucepans etc, only bigish things like our beds, couches, kitchen tables etc, im leaving my fridge, washing machine etc with the house. the next thing we are going to have to do is hire a skip to through out all the rubbish weve collected over the years..the loft is just full of crap, so weve got a lot of sorting to do !!!!

Gjn200

I was thinking of putting all the crap in the loft and just leaving it there. A nice surprise for the new owners!! What could they do?

Sue2

Good idea save the cost of getting a skip



Sue2

kath n kim

We sold off loads of our stuff in car boot sales etc. before we came..(for pennies!) But still ended up shipping a whole container load of stuff with us! But I was so pleased to see all our familiar stuff when it did finally arrive i was really glad we did. Things not to bother bringing though would definately be..
Fridge...If you're thinking of moving to a warmer part, U.K fridges don't work very well!
Too many clothes.... By the time they arrive (if they're shipped) they're out of fashion/don't fit/unsuitable/you wonder what the hell possessed you to buy them in the first place.
Kids toys... bring anything expensive/sentimental/special, but ditch the rest, by the time they arrive the kids have forgotten what they had anyway, so it's like Christmas for them when they do get them!
Kids clothes....They've definately grown out of them by the time they arrive!
Washing machine/Tumble dryer..... We brought ours 'cos they were fairly new, (and I was glad we did, you DO sometimes need a tumble dryer over here, besides it's much easier to tumble clothes than iron them.........!!)
Christmas Decorations... Yep, we brought ours!! But if you do, make sure there's no pine-cones, dried leaves, flowers etc. We had to pay customs to destroy ours which contained these items. (even brought some spare lightbulbs for the Xmas lights..!)
Multiple plug bank extension leads.... For any electrical stuff you do bring. You only need one adapter plug then for four items. Also fuses, none of the plugs here are fused so they're really hard to buy. (bring plenty of fuses... you could probably sell them when you get here to all us ex-pats still struggling with our U.K plugs..!)
There's probably LOADS more I could add, but I'd probably just be repeating what everyone else will tell you. If anything else comes to mind, will post again!! Good Luck!!

JayDeee

I copied all my CD's onto my computer and sold them all at a car boot so didn't have to worry about sending them.

Another point to add to the powerboards. Try and buy some the with surge protectors. I think Polly posted it on here before because powercuts are more frequent in most parts of Australia and can kill your computer.

Cheers for the note about fuses, Hadn't thought of that.

I have only shipped my bed, bar and personal effects over and it has cost £1800. you'l be amazed at all the extra bits you want/need to take, if you are goin to half fill a container then I'd say you might aswell go the whole hog and get a complete container and fill it up with everything you can.

silly things like duvet (doona) covers etc are more expensive in Australia.

Cheers
Kala

ABCDiamond

With the 4/6 way extensions, you only need to change the one plug to an Australian plug, on that lead, and then you are able to use your existing electrical items until you eventually change them all over. Count how many plugged items you have, you may be suprised at how many plugs you will eventually need to change over. (I just counted mine - 58 !! )

There are some electrical goods that you CANNOT change the plugs on though, mainly those with built in transformers, so the extension becomes a converter for you.

I've seen DVD players selling from around $79.

If you have space in a container then bring anything you have.

With CD's (any other things) etc, consider any sentimental reasons for bringing them.

If money was no object, I would bring all the little things, and just buy new furniture etc. But having said that we did take our favourite settee/lounge all the way from Australia to UK when we went back, and then brought it back again !! as well as the big fridge


I will highlight from "kath n kim" Christmas Decorations... Yep, we brought ours!! But if you do, make sure there's no pine-cones, dried leaves, flowers etc. We had to pay customs to destroy ours which contained these items. (even brought some spare lightbulbs for the Xmas lights..!) I have read where it can cost $55 to have a $10 item destroyed by customs.

Spare xmas lightbulbs are useful I can't get the right ones for my UK set.

YogiDeb

We came to England from South Africa 10 years ago in our mid 20's and sold everything before we came (all our wedding presents too ) Came with only our suitcases and the money. The only things I have ever wished for have been things of mine that I had when I was a child. I've often thought I'd have loved to have given some of MY old toys to our children. Nostalgia eh?

But...children would probably not have appreciated them anyway

CadburysFingers

That whole familiarity thing is hogwash, if you are commited to the move, and do it wholeheartidly, then you wont need a few trinkets to make you feel at home. Once you have passed the one month mark, everything just falls into place. Believe me after a few months here, you will soon forget about England.

AngnPaul

We plan to leave in 2 weeks, we are taking almost everything now. A full container. Initially we were going to sell everything or just give it away - we don't have any heirlooms or expensive stuff. However when we worked out what we could expect to realistically sell the stuff for and how much it would cost to replace EVERYTHING we thought again. I feel, for me personally, i will be a bit less home sick with my familiar possesions around me and it may help the kids too. The chap from Pickfords told us that new legislation has come in so that fridges and freezers are no longer being allowed into the country - something to do with the gases I think
I think that you will know what is right for you when the time comes, even if you change your mind several times as we did
Good luck with it all,
Angie