Hi Folks,
I am getting prepared for my journey to Calgary happening in just over 2 weeks and am busy trying to prepare goods to follow and goods accompanying lists!!!
Can anyone tell me exactly what items they have scrubbed clean to ensure there is no soil on them - i've read the wiki and it mentions items such as "garden furniture and tools, bikes, barbeques & lawnmowers" - what have other people done about footwear??
By all accounts there are over 40 pairs of shoes to ship over and i can't bear the thought of sitting with a scrubbing brush and disinfectant and cleaning the soles of all the shoes.
I always knew that having a shoe obsession was not good for you but now that thought is a true reality!!! I cannot bring myself to throw or give away my beloved footwear so if i have to commence scrubbing of the soles so be it!!

Thanks in advance,
Simone

Hi,
I dont think they are that fussy, if that were the case they would get every person who goes throught the airport to scrub their shoes!!! I ont blame you wanting to take them all, its a women thing!!. Good luck with the move hopefully we will be in the same position soon, plan to land in December.
Sally

Also, do you have to take batteries out of everything (kids toys etc)?

Hi,
Just ensure that everything is clean and that your shoes have no mud on them. I know that before we moved to Calgary in 2006 we were unsure about how clean and disinfected everything had to be. With Garden tools/ornaments etc, just ensure that they are clean and have been scrubbed with the likes of Jeyes Fluid.
We took the batteries out of kids toys, on the recommendation of our packers (Robinsons) I guess it was incase the batteries leaked?
Have a good think about exactly you want to take with you, because we did have some space left on the container and I sold all of our garage racking to a neighbour! So one of the first things that I had to do when we got into our new house in Okotoks was buy new garage shelving!
Good luck, Eddie & Julie.

Its funny we've been doing sorting this afternoon and my OH commented on my shoes....why do you need 4 pairs of sandals he says, so I've been binning quite a bit of stuff, did not think about checking them for cleaning, so thats another thing on my to do list. Its my wardrobe I've got to do the most sorting and wondering what to take with me and what to put in the shipping. We've been told the shipping could take up to 3mths, so that would make it around November when winter is starting to set in....
So do I put all my summer clothes in shipping stuff and take winter stuff in cases? My OH has said just get rid and buy new stuff when needed. He might have a point there.
19 days to go. Scary

I used Jeyes to clean my patio furniture and bikes - was told that if you dont clean them then if your container is opened then they could very well send the whole lot back if there was any dirt on it

Have to warn you that you will stink for days after using Jeyes

gaynor

Probably a bit late for me to be asking this, but how long does shipping take from UK to Canada? We were expecting 3 months, but Anglo Pacific told us roughly 2 weeks on the water, another week on road/rail, then 2 weeks ish in customs.
We've got our own container. Does that sound right?

Our shipping time was about 3 weeks, door to door, to Calgary.

Scrub your wellies clean, but don't worry about all the other millions of pairs of shoes Imelda.

Clean garden furniture and tools, scrub the wheelbarrow and empty the lawnmower of petrol and oil if you are bringing that.

Our goods are on their way as we speak. They were picked up from our house in Holland on the 25th July, and we received comformation from the shippers that it was expected to arrive in Calgary on the 28th Aug. As it sat in Rotterdam for over a week before leaving, 3 weeks in transit sounds about right. Didn't know about the 2 weeks in customs, though!

I think shipping times depend on what you've got, we are going under 'groupage' which means not a full container, so think they have to wait to fill up a container before our stuff gets shipped, so the estimate we had this week was approx 3mths.

We have been told 6-9wks from Reading to Edmonton. Due to be collected on 5th September so I am desperatly hopign it won't be too quick and get to Canada before we do on 24th September!

I hadn't considered cleaning the soles of my shoes - I have over 50 pairs! - but then they aren't muddy so I won't bother. We are only taking our bikes and a couple of sunloungers. DO the pakcers put on the llist that the items are clean? Otherwise will they not look at everybodies container if it has outdoor stuff on?

Oh Joy, another thing to add to my 'to do' list which is long enough already and is only me to sort out!

M x

I would strongly recommend not taking garden tools (garden furniture and other outdoor things should be okay). So you might have cleaned all your garden tools but how do customs officer know that you have? Its simple, they inspect your container! The moment they see garden tools on your manifest there is a good chance they will pull your container for an inspection and this is something you have to pay for. It happened to us and it cost us about $800 for the priveledge. I also know quite a few other people who had the same experience.

I personally would just sell garden tools and buy new when you get here - you can get some reall nice forks and shovels for a lot less than the $800 customs inspection fee.