chinnybloke

Hi,

I was thinking (long way off) if our application is successful, is it really worth shipping all of your furniture and going through the hassle of packing up here, arranging shipping and then having to get it to your house in Canada. Which must mean several weeks, either here or there, without your stuff.

I'm edging towards selling it all here and buying new there. Its not like we've got any antiques or anything of great value.

Any advice/experiences from people who have done the same (both options)?

Thanks,
CB

jakeyblokey72

In my opinion it is cheaper to sell off your larger items and then have the pleasure of buying new over there! we`ve had quotes of around £3900 +vat for a 20ft container and around £5500 for a 40FT container so if you have nothing of great sentimental value, then leave it here and travel light with a pocket full of cash! (like i say that is just my opinion!)

Almost Canadian

Very much a personal decision

We have quite a lot of furniture - which is expensive and, in my opinion, of dubious quality in Canada (Brick etc type stores).

That being the case, we simply could not afford to replace our stuff for the cost of shipping it - hence we will be shipping it !

£3500 (the quote most people obtain for a 20 ft container) does not buy an awful lot in Canada

Sarahad

We are thinking of selling and buying new over there too. We dont have anything of great value as most stuff in this house is built in... we just have couch, table and chairs and beds and of course elec stuff... so dont really think worth taking them and we have already had offers for most of it.
We will prob ship some boxes over you know like more clothes, cds and books and some of my daughters toys but think thats about it.

Almost Canadian

How do you intend to get your "smaller" stuff over ?

Have you considered how much "purchasing power" you will have once you have the difference in cost of shipping a container with all your stuff as opposed to the cost of shipping your smaller stuff + the proceeds of selling your "larger stuff" ?

We found the price of "standard" furniture in Canada expensive and of lower quality than in the UK. For example, try buying a fairly standard 3 pc suite for anything like the prices of, for example, DFS in Canada.

Each to their own I guess

chinnybloke

Thats not too bad a price I suppose and we'll need something going over just for my wifes clothes and shoes. Im not paying for that lot as excess baggage!

Almost Canadian

LOL

Sarahad

Well i have checked out some quotes on the internet for shipping something like 11 boxes... which dont even think we would need that and it was just over £200 which i dont think is bad. Obviously will have to look into it more. We have quite abit put aside apart from the money that will come from sale of house to buy new things when over there so think would be ok. As you say depends on what someone has we dont have alot of furniture here so wouldnt be worth it. And then its what you do whilst you are waiting for it to be shipped over.

silver birch

I think there was a post recently on this topic that I never got round to answering - have a search of the forum. We are in the same boat, so to speak! We have been thinking of moving for over two years so we have not really bought anything new in that time. The rest of our stuff was not expensive so the temptation of buying new is quite appealing. I just remember when I renewed the house insurance a few years back the insurance guy I spoke to saying that it costs something like £20-30k to replace the contents of the average house. Has anyone else heard this?

Almost Canadian

We have been busy recently compiling our "goods to follow" list - trying to keep all last minutes panics to a minimum.

We are not taking any white goods, we have no wardrobes (all built in). We are taking a TV (not plasma or LCD) and pretty much everything else in from a typical 4 bed house. Our goods to follow total ("worth" of goods not replacement cost) exceeds £25,000 or well over $50,000 :scared:

We will of course purchase Canadian items once we get over there but £4000 to ship as opposed to $50,000 to purchase new seems a bargain to me

But, as I have said, each to their own.

hudd

We moved to Canada and back again. We only took only 100 sq ft of goods at a cost of £2200 in 1997. Sold most things in the UK for about a grand or so. Spent initially $20K+ replacing beds, furniture and other household goods etc.

We moved back to UK last year, hired a 40 ft container, for $11k.
We brought back alot and estimated we brought back $50K+ goods. So in our mind its was worth it.

We noticed furniture is cheaper in the UK than Canada. High quality goods are more expensive in Canada we found. There is IKAEA which is similar priced to the UK 2.7 dollar(with tax) to a pound we worked out the difference between Ottawa and Bristol IKAEA.

Sarahad

I just worked out cost of movable furniture in house inc tv which wouldnt take anyway and come to just under £3000...!! hee hee! unless there is somat big im missing... got me thinking now!!

creamcrackered

we've decided to ship ours out, most of our furniture is laura ashley, multiyork and under 2 yrs old, the lcd tv just needs a new lead (phoned samsung for the info), we don't like a lot of clutter and bits but when we added it up it still made sense to us to ship it

Sarahad

Can I ask if you are shipping it out have you arranged somewhere to live in Canada prior to leaving the uk? I think we will need to find a rental when get there. How would you deal with that if shipping stuff out? Or does it just go into storage, and what are you going to do until the furniture gets there?

Almost Canadian

We are planning on buying before we go out so house will be ready to accept delivery upon arrival. If we weren't doing this we would still need furniture in a rental so same would apply.

We are planning on buying new 3 pc suite on arrival so will use that until our stuff arrives. We will probably use paper plates etc until our stuff arrives or may consider buying cheap Ikea type "start up" crockery to do us. Basically we are expecting live to be a little "uncomfortable" at first - we have taken the view of "so what" make the adventure more adventurous