rivingtonpike

As far as I'm concerned this is crazy advice. Most of the stuff in our house is of no real value to anyone else. The bits and pieces that are of value would cost a fortune to replace. Our iron and ironing board, I wouldn't buy them for 10gbp the pair. But to replace them would cost at least $120. Same goes for almost everything in our house. Antiques and paintings, probably get a decent amount for the. But to replace them here? Forget it. We brought everything bar the kitchen sink and large white goods. I seem to remember the container cost us around 7k GBP. We'd struggle to furnish our living room and dining room for that amount. Add it up, 2 sofas, end tables, TV, lights, rugs, stereo and speakers, curtains, dining room table and chairs, sideboard, more occasional tables, cutlery, place mats,dinner service, napkins, serving dishes, wine glasses, vases, more lighting, more curtains,candelabras. The list goes on.
Bring it all!

DMajor

yes, wanna buy some chairs..?

Stinkypup

C.....H.....E....A....P. K....I....T...C...H...E.....N....S. C..A..L..L R...P. Mill Bay 248 657 7890

DMajor

I think the size of your move is IMPORTANT

I moved over here from a one bed apartment.

Paying £7k -£9k for a container is mental if you're only bringing over stuff that can be easily replaced

DMajor

Moving companies love people like you.

Look at all your stuff and ask yourself honestly - do you need it...?

I moved people around the UK for 30+ years, some people had stuff packed in boxes they hadn't looked at since their last move, all went in the garage or loft....ridiculous.

Look at all your stuff right now and ask yourself this question: If we got robbed tomorrow, how much of it would we really miss...?

dave_j

Hmmmm.....
Perhaps if you are young and haven't made an effort or had the time or treasure to acquire those items that make you feel comfortable, then paying 5+k to transport these to foreign parts might seem extravagant.
But there are some, who like me, value what we acquire and indeed, the services available filled a need for me at least.
Like most things in life, to transport or not to transport will be a judgement made to suit criteria important to each on its merits.
I do have a small issue with an attitude that seeks to judge those who use your services and probably pays your bills. I think I would be a little more sympathetic and appreciative.

DMajor

Also, the number of people who ship a container load over, don't settle and return, shipping it all back again is pretty high.

Not just to Canada. Australia, NZ, South Africa are also very high rate of returnees.

R I C H

So you're suggesting it's better value not to ship, buy new, then if you don't settle and move back not to ship again and buy new back in the UK? Shipping costs are high, but a fraction of that strategy.

DMajor

Yes, that's exactly what I'm saying if the goods you are shipping are just general household items like beds, chests, wardrobes, sofas etc.

These items fill up a container very quickly where they could be bought quite cheaply in your new country.

Of course if you have very expensive furniture and you are 100% sure it's all gonna work out fine, then ship. For a high proportion of people sadly, it doesn't.

rivingtonpike

What a weird logic. So, sell old, buy new, not work out, sell again, move back, buy new again? That's about the strangest chop logic I think I've heard on here. If you have only managed to accumulate a one bedroomed flat worth of stuff then I'm thinking you're either pretty young or possessions aren't a big deal for you. If however you have a family, 2 kids, 4 bikes, house full of stuff, garage full of stuff, shed full of stuff, loft full of stuff (yes some that doesn't see the light of day from one year to the next like Christmas decorations, Halloween stuff, kids old school reports etc etc) then to ditch it all so that it doesn't have to be shipped is frankly just nuts. Maybe if you are single and spent your life moving from one army camp to another then not having possessions is an option, but for me, no thank you. We love our life here and the furniture fixtures and fittings we've accumulated along the way. To have sold them all off before moving on the assumption immigrating wasn't going to work and we'd be moving back anyway is about as absurd as it gets. With that attitude, chances are, whatever you do is likely to fail.

DMajor

Well, we are never going to agree.

We have very different circumstances, you have 2 children and a wife and lots of clutter and you chose to ship it all over here. Fair play if that's what you wanted.

I lived in a one bed flat, had very little furniture, just the basics. I sold everything for about £1,000 and saved on the quoted £5,750 Removal costs.

I've been to IKEA and replaced everything for about 1,500 dollars

The rented apartment here includes appliances so no need to buy them new, all I'm missing is my bike. I'll pick one up on Kijjiji for around 75 bucks.

Oh, and the rate of return for ex pats from Oz to the UK is about 40% within 5 years. They've even got a new term for these people...Ping Pong Poms..

Shoshannah

We only booked a part of a container, which meant that the price was based on the amount of stuff we had and not on anything else. Basically they came to our house, had a look around and told us how much stuff we had (in cubic feet). Their quote was based on that and could change depending on how accurate their estimate was (it was spot on actually, so the price never changed).

As for insurance, we needed to save money and only insured the stuff that was worth something, so it is possible.

rivingtonpike

As has already been posted - everyone's circumstances are different. As Dmajor posted, he could refurnish his apartment for $1500 at IKEA (actually sounds pretty good fun). We are at the other end of the spectrum with accumulated antiques, paintings etc. Interestingly, we were quoted fo the 40ft container from UK to Vancouver Island. Our quote had nothing to do with what we put into it. It was the same price whether we only put an egg cup in it or filled it to the brim. Which I guess is why we decided on the latter. I imagine we'd have been rather more conservative with what we would have shipped if the cost was dependent on volume or weight.

oceaneoneill

Aha! Can you book part of a container?!???!!!?? I'd love to get a quote for that from someone as we have some heavy-ish (but not large) items to ship from W Wales to Vancouver. Who did you get quotes from & who did you go with?
Big thanks!!

Shoshannah

I can only tell you who we went with, because somehow I managed not to keep the names of all the companies that gave us quotes. We contacted a few - just to be on the safe side - and only one company actually sent somone over to our house to talk to us. Also, they were the cheapest. They're called Doree Bonner and we've used them twice for international shipping with no problems.

The only negative aspect of renting just a part of a container is the wait. We had to wait two months before the container was full and ready to ship. But they did tell us about it when they came over to our place, so it wasn't a surprise.

To get a quote from them you will have someone come over, see how much you have (in square feet) and charge you for that space only. Also, we only chose to insure things that were expensive or irreplacable as we were trying to save some money, and assumed that the ship wouldn't sink

That was my experience and it worked for me, personally. Others might prefer something else. But it's good to have options.