debs1966

Hi Guys

I had the shipping agents round today who quoted me roughly £5,000 for a
20 ft container plus insurance is this about the going rate please?

Also, it wasn't until we started going round my property that I really thought what have I got worth to take out to Oz apart from personal items.

In your view is it worth taking as much as we can? Also, is it worth buying things like towels, bedding etc because I have heard they are expensive out there?

Any advise in this matter would be greatly appreciated.

Many thanks

Debbie

Scotty1

Take everything if you are taking a container and can fit it in (other than banned stuff )

£5k sounds a lot for a 20ft container so get a few quotes

While its tempting to "buy new" when you get here and save on shipping, when you add up the cost of replacing all your stuff it will very likely come to much more than the cost of shipping. And furniture is very expensive!

And don't get your insurance from the removal company - Letton Percival much cheaper for same cover

Scotty

Jon77

This comes up on here every week and every week I am alone is saying you can save money by shipping hardly anything depending on your circumstances and what you are attached to.

If you have a lot of old tatty furniture of little value (like us) then you can easily source old tatty furniture in Australia for next to nothing. I think I could replace all of our furniture in Australia for £200.00 rather than putting it in a container for £5,000.

Australia like the UK has auction houses and garage sales where bargains can be picked up. I know because I have lived in Australia for a period of 5 years previously. And I don't know where some people shop but I know that you can buy good new furniture for a reasonable price if you shop around, unless you are after specific things.

Now if you have very high spec bespoke furniture or things that have been passed down through the family for generations that you cannot stand selling then ship.

But please realise that shipping isn't the best option for everyone all the time. I wonder sometimes if people ship everything partly out of fear of leaving their home country and they want the comfort of things around them that they had in the UK, which is understandable I guess.

Steve2009

The formula we use:
Cost of Shipping + Realisable Value + a premium for risk that items will be broken = budget to buy new
I'd be interested to hear any suggested modifications to that formula.

wijay

Hi there
We arrived in Adelaide in September 2010. Our shipping cost was £ 2000 with PSS, for about 20 ft container. It took them around 12 weeks to arrive. We brought mostly our stuffs from London, but also bought new stuffs like bed, fridge, washing machine here in Adelaide. Before moving, in London we bought a new plasma 42 inch TV. I think as other says, if you have goods that still in reasonable conditions, bring them along. but buying new stuff here in Australia won't cost you a fortune. Some are more expensive, others less so.


regards
sw

Phlanger

Its never clear cut is it?

We did a half and half - brutal clear out of anything that didn't have at least three years left in it or had sentimental or high value attachements and got it down to a part load. It was a bumper year for the local Oxfam shop.

Even then, when we unpacked we looked at a couple of things and thought:

"What the f*** did we drag this shite halfway around the world for...?"

But to be fair there wasn't too much of that. We looked at mid range to cheap online stores in Australia to work out a value - Ikea, Freedom Furniture, Harvey Normans, etc to work out approximate replacement costs and make a call on whether it was worthwhile. A bit of a slog, but worth it.

Broadly it worked out - five years later we're still using the furniture we took - the Next sofa we shipped looks as least as good as the Dare Gallery (aussie) one that's less than half its age. The Dyson's still going strong, etc.

On the other hand, I'm perfectly happy to have ditched my Argos wardrobes, half knackered bikes, crappy garden furniture, etc. Kitchen appliances were all built in so went with the house sale and had to be replaced. White goods can be bought ex floor or on sale saving quite a bit on the list price - and besides, you're going to need a bigger fridge. When I bought an Aussie standard one, I thought it looked like a phone box but I'm used to it now.

Jon's right - its a judgement call on an item by item basis. Cut it back then get a new quote - or better yet two or three new quotes.

What I would buy and ship out are suits and shirts if you need them for work - can't buy a decent wool suit here for what you can on the UK high street and you pay a premium for well fitted cotton shirts. Stock up.

Steve2009

When looking at replacement cost I look at second hand too. It's unrealistic to compare our used furniture to new. It's entirely subjective but I bought cheap furniture once and I'll never do it again, I'd rather buy secondhand premium goods than new tat.

itxrd

Ship everything. Its a rip off here

And do a search - hundreds of posts on this

charlie brown

can you give me the phone number for pss 2000 is good thanks

northernbird

I am of the view that says ship everything. Once you get here you will have enough on your plate trying to rent a place, get your son in school and all the other administrative stuff without buying the contents of your house from scratch down to the last potato peeler!

Jon77

We have already shipped a few boxes full of some things such at kitchen items we want to keep. I think I can do everything I need to do in one afternoon regarding buying furniture and where to source it,

I know my view is a lone one here so I will let this go

northernbird

Each to their own and your view is equally a valid. I personally would not have wanted to furnish a whole house on top of everything else whilst dragging 2 kids around, my opinion only of course.

northernbird

Forgot to say, it took me 3 months and 5 shops to find an entertainment unit I liked when I replaced mine a few years back.

itxrd

Let us know how it goes ;-)

GoldCoastMag

I thought this too, but once you arrive it can mean a wait for your boxes so you still have to get the potato peeler and a number of other things to get you by.

I found I had enough in the kitchen (bought at reasonable prices) to wonder if it had been worth packing any of the kitchen stuff from our old home.

We factored in 3 months waiting for the shipping to arrive unfortunately it took 4 and now I am left trying to shoehorn everything in (or give stuff away yet again)

I havent found furniture to be exhorbitant and once you know the size of the place or rooms your choices may be different to the belongings you owned in your home country.

I wish you well, we have had many discussions about the pros and cons, and I now know that if I had to make the choice again I would start afresh.

YMMV

Good luck, its just one more of the stresses with international moves.