Jingle

Morning all - we are in the process of sorting out our stuff for shipping. Just wondered if any of you have already gone through this had any thoughts on ....

What you wished you had taken?
What you wished you hadn't taken?

Or any other pearls of wisdom?

We are really pushed for space in a 20' container so have to make some choices ....... mainly between my things or his

J

steve of 5-0

Let me be the first to fight for the leave it behind corner!

If you are emotionally attached to an item - bring it!

Other wise , sell / boot it / give it away / skip it!

All products are at least as good as the UK - and cheaper!

You will only - yard sale - the crap you bring - a year after ya brought it a million miles around the world!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

TrishP

We brought more-or-less everything except most electricals (brought VCR and sewing maching as it was a good model) - really glad we did bring everything as it really helped us settle. IMHO when you are changing country, home, job you need some familiarity around you to help the settling in process. It was like 20 Christmases all rolled into one the day our stuff arrived!! Especially as we'd not seen it for nearly 3 months!!

MikeUK

And in the other corner..

Having come to Canada twice.

1st time I sold everything except a few personal things, even my computers were reduced to a single hard drive of data..

But building everything back up and counting the cost… when returning to the UK I took nearly everything back.

And on return to Canada took back every thing except the car… and that will follow when its old enough

So you could say I've done this move 'thing' three times?

cov-canuck

When my parents emigrated from Canada with 3 kids 16 years ago, my dad's company paid to ship whatever we wanted. The contents of a 4 bedroom house + basement came to England with us. I would say a good 30% of stuff was opened and binned within 3 years of arriving, and another 40% wasn't touched until they moved into a smaller house 8 years later (when all the kids had flown the coop) and were binned then. They then recondensed everything else into less than a container when they emigrated to the US a few years ago.

My brother emigrated back to Canada a couple of years ago, and managed by shipping half a dozen boxes.

We're planning to go even smaller and emigrate with 2 trunks of belongings. We've already started cutting down our belongings to get ready to sell the house...funny how relatives suddenly start dropping hints like "I've always liked that sofa...are you planning to move that?"...

MCC

[QUOTE=TrishB]We brought more-or-less everything except most electrical (brought VCR and sewing maching as it was a good model) - really glad we did bring everything as it really helped us settle. IMHO when you are changing country, home, job you need some familiarity around you to help the settling in process. It was like 20 Christmases all rolled into one the day our stuff arrived!! Especially as we'd not seen it for nearly 3 months!![/QUOTE]

I agree here. We took nearly everything except electrical too. We got rid of the stuff that we didn't use much and that you accumulate over the years, but most of what we've taken is being used.

Even if the majority of stuff is cheaper here than in the UK you will never get what you will sell it for. And I reckon that even with the cost of the move you still are better off with bringing your stuff than buying everything new. You will have days of shopping to do anyway when you arrive, from buying mop and bucket to curtains etc. You will go crazy if you also have to buy all furniture, linen, crockery, etc.

Definitely the familiarity helps especially for the kids. My daughter was so happy when she got back into her stuff. I've got to say that at the end of the day when the movers came, sitting on my comfy sofa was fantastic.

I think that once you decide to go for a container, pack it as much as you can in it. It's the same cost!

edgey

when you have to pay $800 for a new sofa to replace one you sold for 50 pounds you will regret it. We brought everything and are so pleased. I for one was happy i was not shopping every weekend to replace stuff we gave away. Generally we found things were similarly priced or more expensive.

Jingle

Thanks guys - not sure if I am more or less confused ... !!!!

J

steve of 5-0

One of the things to take into account is - will your UK furniture be useful in the majority - in what ever your new home will be.

For example - more then in the UK - Canadian homes have built in bedroom closets.
Lugging wardrobes - might be a wasted effort.

Helen Parnell

When we moved, we left all furnture behind (sofa was about to die) because we wanted to start a fresh and get the furniture which matched with our house, rather than having some thing that didn't go with the room or looked too small or too big. I am really glad we did this. We brough nothing electrical and I really wish we had brought our really good stereo and sewing machine and my Kenwood mixer (I still don't have as good here)

But we packed our 12 boxes sent them off and knew that what ever was in the house either went in a suitcase or got binned. Unfortunately we binned some stuff just because we couldn't get it in the suitcase. (Clothes, shoes and stamp collections!!) How I wish I had an extra box! Thats life.

Tidge

We are having a selling frenzy at the moment - the more I get rid of, the less I want to take! It's very liberating. I love a good chuck out.

Although I am looking forward to that shopping spree in Canada...

Jingle

You're absolutely right .... I am becoming addicted to our weekly visits to the tip!

J

Buchan6

Me too, you can't beat eBay. £300+ in my account for stuff I'd binned in the past !

Rachelmark

I thought electricals don't work over there? We were planning to leave ours (stereo, power tools, TV etc) as were under the impression that to buy adaptors for these would be too expensive, and would reduce the power output anyway????

Helen Parnell

We didn't bring anything electrical for the exact same reason as you have stated. But lots of people have and have brought adaptors which I don't think are over priced but could not give you a definite answer for price. I don't think I would trust an adapter on items I used everyday, especially computers etc. My Kenwood/sewing machine I would have risked. Hairdryers are not as powerful here, and as for kitchen items like kettles etc, do you really want to buy several adapters and have them all plugged in, in your kitchen. The stereo, we had was a really good one and even though we have better now, it did cost us quite a bit, (but we do like listening to music on quality machines)

We have one friend who brough everything including Christmas tree lights! Lights in Canada cost under $10 for a set, adapter possibly under $100.... was it worth shipping them over??? She seemed happy as they were the 'same lights she had in England' I don't know apparently they looked different than Canada ones.