glendem4

We shipped 50 boxes with Britannia International Removals for £2200. Less than half a container took 12 weeks to arrive in Toronto from Bournemouth. The following I would not bring.
1 Any electrical devices
2. Wardrobes. Most houses have built in closets.
3. Beds. Canada has different sizes
4. Vehicles.

Things we bought when we arrived.
1. Sectional sofa from Leon
2. Futon mattress
3. Futon bedframe from Wayfair online.

crofty82

Worth noting that a Canadian double bed is the same size as a UK double, but all other sizes are different.

Hurlabrick

Yes, But UK 'King' is virtually the same as US / CDN 'Queen' (US Queen is 2" longer but same width, so most sheets / duvet sets will fit.

scilly

One other thing that you might want to consider is that rooms in houses here tend to be larger than in the UK ...................... I've seen comments on here that furniture brought from England did not "fit", and even looked very much out-of-place. So new furniture had to be bought sooner than planned.

In addition to wardrobes being unnecessary, I've also noticed that most of our friends (no matter their nationality originally) do not have dressing tables in the bedroom ......... we all seem to use the bathroom for putting on make-up, blow-drying hair, etc. Not a worry for us as we all seemed to have at least 2 bathrooms!

We'd only been married 10 days when we left the UK, so had only wedding presents (why on earth did so many people give us glasses and china???). We arrived with no furniture at all, and little money. We slept on air mattresses with sleeping bags borrowed a card table from a friend, and used camp chairs for the first week in Vancouver, Then we bought 2 tub chairs and a hide-a-bed from Sears, and slept on that for about 3 months until some money (wedding gift) arrived from the UK, and we managed to buy a bed, 2 dresser units, a coffee table and a standard lamp for a local Scandinavian furniture store.

We still have all those pieces that we bought over 50 years ago, except the hide-a-bed that went out years ago.

Danny B

One of my biggest regrets is paying for a UK > Canada shipping container instead of buying new when I got here. We didn't have any rare or expensive furniture, we could have easily sold it to friends in the UK and bought new in Canada.

Can you believe that I even packed my lawnmower and gardening tools?

BristolUK

Probably just filling a gap having already committed to it?

Most of what I brought over were VHS tapes along with two VCRs to play them - completely forgetting the TV wouldn't recognise it.
I added clothing, bedding a few books and LPs and 2 small drawer units.

I wasted £1400 doing that. I had a lovely IKEA convertible table but including that was more than double its cost.

I'd have been much better off not bothering and replacing the most important stuff. I was surprised how much I could replace by cheap/used DVDs and over the last few years, downloaded stuff.

Much of my VHS collection was treasured stuff like The Beiderbecke Trilogy but that's on a slim external hard drive with hundreds of other things. I didn't have I Clavdivs on tape, but I bought a VHS set here for a mere $20.

My Twin Peaks complete was replaced too.

dbd33

What a bother it must be to have so much money.

scilly

well, it certainly wasn't us!!!

We didn't have any money to spare when we first came here and had to somehow furnish a 1 bedroom apartment, nor 4+ years later when we bought a house ......... and the sellers took the range, fridge, washing machine and dryer with them so we were faced with how to cook, let alone do laundry.

We managed to find enough money to buy a Sears fridge for when we moved in so we had beer and cold drinks for the friends who helped us to move. Then we cooked by placing a board across the double kitchen sink and putting the camp stove on there. The window above the sink was always wide open when we were cooking, in March. We also had an old electric fry pan that someone gave us. We managed to buy a range several weeks later, using the Sears credit card again!

We used the local laundromat for several years before we bought a washer. Still don't have a dryer .......... hang the clothes to dry instead.

Siouxie

When I first came to Canada - as a visitor, no status - I rented a 1 bedroom apartment and bought a 3 seater high back sofa (long enough for my son to sleep on if he came over) for $299 including scotchguard spray and delivery and a bed base and mattress $220 from United Furniture Warehouse. I got a solid wood 7' long dresser (chest of drawers) and a bed frame (headboard and footboard and rails) for $70 including delivery from one of the local charity shops and 2 solid wood bedside cupboards from a charity shop for $30. I got a tv from Walmart; a kettle, a microwave, a toaster oven and a toaster from Canadian Tire and Walmart and a microwave 'cart' cupboard from Walmart. I bought sheets, pillows, duvet and cover, comforter, towels and a base set of plates, mugs, bowls and a bedside light (Walmart) then cutlery, a basic saucepan set and t.towels, kitchen tools, glasses etc., from the $ store. In total I think I spent around $800. Then I bought a computer I sat on the floor with the computer on the coffee table for the best part of 2 years - until I could afford to get a table! Beer glasses, other table lamps were obtained from items thrown out on moving day by tenants ( I still keep an eye open.. got a bakers stand a few weeks ago! )

In the summer I bought a 2nd hand air conditioner and a standing fan.

I've still got most of it (apart from the electric items and saucepans) almost 20 years later.

Also useful to know that Walmart also sell mattresses..
The OP will likely find our Wiki pages very useful https://britishexpats.com/wiki/Categ...gistics-Canada


Furniture stores:
https://www.leons.ca/

https://www.badboy.ca/
https://www.lowes.ca/furniture/
https://www.homestylefurniture.ca/
https://www.jysk.ca/
https://www.thebrick.com
https://www.bouclair.com/en/

https://www.parksfurniture.com/catalog/
https://www.homesense.ca/en
https://nakedfurniture.ca/

Oak
https://fineoakthings.com/
https://www.oakunlimited.ca/
https://www.kijiji.ca/b-canada/oak-f...e/page-16/k0l0


There's also a ton of 'used' furniture / consignment stores.

Winterdiva

Former Lancastrian

Check this link for Canadian mattress sizes

https://www.tmasc.ca/mattress-sizes.html

HGerchikov

I was in Fine Oak Things last week as we are finally about to replace the cheap dining table we bought as a stop gap when our son (who is just about to go into 4th year University) was born. They have lots of options, not just oak. You can get the same table made in Pine, Oak, Maple, Wormy Maple (appealing!) or Cherry for a range of prices. A good size table there to give you an idea is around the $2500-3500 range and chairs are $400+ each.
Other places of similar quality seem to be the same price.
Then there are places like Structube and Urban Barn that have nice looking wood tables for around $1300. Structube quality was recently described to my husband by the son of owner as 'better than IKEA' so make of that as you wish.

We brought everything with us, although it was a company move o someone else paid. Aside from the cost of replacing everything I found it was comforting to have familiar things around me.

Danny B

Good God that Super King mattress is huge. I have a Queen but my Wife is always telling me it would be nice to have an extra 5" of length.

Siouxie

Or look in the WIKI!

https://britishexpats.com/wiki/Bed_Sizes-Canada

zdenka

This made me laugh. Men and their lawnmowers, I am 100% sure my dad would do the same.