jossie

Hi everyone

Feel really shallow sending this thread after so many people are on such a downer at the moment after receiving the dreaded letters from London, so sorry!!!. But I need a bit of advice and thought it was quicker asking you all than it would be to research it. I am currently preparing to put the house on the market after completing our medicals and in doing so I have started to de clutter, however I'm not quite sure what I can take with me and what I can't.
Want to take as much as possible as feel this will ease a little of the stress after relocating. I would be very grateful for any advice as my "to do list" will take as long as the whole PR process.

Thankyou jossie

stubby1974

we got our list from the movers...

no perishables

no electrics bar our dyson, tv, ps2 etc but we have to buy a convertor in canada (£100)

but everything else we're taking becuase we dont have the money to buy new.

Buchan6

Hello from a fellow PR holder

We are looking at moving in the summer and waiting for our house sale to complete.

In our situation we have known of our plans for a few years so most contents on the house are ageing and would've been replaced by now if we were staying. Have included major electrical appliances (fridge etc) in with the house sale and anything postable will be ebay-ed.

Have you viewed any houses in Canada ?
Reason I ask is we have and due to the room sizes a lot of UK furntiture will "go missing" in them.
Beds - Is there any point shipping a large item and paying the cost it will incur. Also Canadian beds are larger so you will have difficulty replacing duvets, covers etc.

When / Where you planning to move to ?

kbryant

We brought everything apart from elec. items. Glad we did as from what I have seen the furniture here is rather old fashioned looking.

jossie

Hi What about soft furnishing such as sofas, mattresses etc. And does anyone know if the weight of your crate matters.

Thanks Jossie

R2D2

Not at all...............depends what stores you look in. We found Sears a little 'traditional' for our taste, but there are plenty of nice chic, trendy stores too. And theres Ikea aswell, which if you thought was inexpensive in the UK, just wait until you get here. We kitted our kids rooms out from there and have bought many bits and pieces. Go early and shop after you have enjoyed the $1 breakfast (no jest) Amazing value !!!

Like a previous poster put, we had plans to come to Canada since 2001, so never replaced anything for the last 4 years. Everything that was past its best or we'd 'gone off' we sold. We took nothing electrical at all. That stuff is better value here. What i would recommend is packing all neccessary survival itty bitty household stuff in your case, not your shipment, as we had to go out and buy things to cook with, until your shipment arrives.
We also bought a picnic set to eat off, as we knew the dinner service was coming and didn't want 2.

Beds are a slightly different size. The kids new quilts from IKEA here don't fit inside the quilt covers we brought from the UK

Enjoy.................this is the start of the exciting bit

MikeUK

Beds..
I've shipped Canadian beds to the UK and back..
sizing: Canadian Queen = UK king, etc, so bedding isn't an issue if you follow the size in inches or mm.

As to if its worth it, if your shipping a container you might as well fill it..

Electrical goods, if you understand the idea of a step up and step down transformer then bring anything you want/like that’ll run on 60hz, otherwise don’t bother as the risk far outweighs the saving.

You can get a lot of thing cheaper here, but if you sell in the UK and try and buy it back over here you’ll probably lose out overall…
worth noting that in order to sell goods ‘cheaper’ in Wal-Mart they often reduce the quality (and sell Wal-Mart only variants)..
So in a lot of cases its cheaper but not better value!!

jossie

So can I take that as a YES you can bring your Mattresses and Soft furnishing or is it a NO you can't or is it sell and buy new
it wouldn't be worth bring them.
As I been thinking about purchasing some new mattresses is it worth it?? (no jokes please).
And out of shear interest can I just ask everyone what essentials did they bring with them with their luggage, what was the most useful item and what was the most bizarre thing!!!!!

MikeUK

the question you need to answer first is..

are you renting a partial container, full 20ft container or even a 36ft’er..

kbryant

Arrived in Feb so the most useful thing was the wooly hat would have frozen to death without it - most bizarre gravy granules for the auntie (they are dear here).

jossie

Have not got to that stage yet, just sorting through what we want to take, what is worth taking and what we can't take and have to sell.

jossie

Love it!!! gravey granules will have to remember to add that to list, hubby loves his granules, Im more of a home made gravy person with a bit alcohol to give it a kick!!!

Alberta_Rose

Most of what you will get here is people's opinions, and as you can see, they differ!

Yes you can bring beds, mattresses and pillows if you want. There's no law against it, and no need to get them fumigated or whatever.

Bear in mind the different bed sizes when considering bedding though, especially regarding quilts and covers. The North American way is a comforter (it's like a quilt but you can't remove the covers for washing) and sheets, but there is a smaller market for duvets and covers here .... especially if you go to smewhere like Ikea!

If you are hiring a whole container, not shared, then really there shouldn't be a problem bringing anything you want, as it's not going to alter the overall cost significantly. If you share a container, then you pay for the space you take up .... and this includes packing materials, but the guys are well practiced at estimating the amount of space your stuff will occupy and should be able to advise you.

The possible drawback to a shared container also is that it may take longer to reach you, as they have more than one customer's stuff to coordinate load, unload and clear through customs on arrival.

In the end, get some quotes, maybe with or without the bed/s and you have to decide for yourself. Make no mistake though, when putting the value for insurance, that it's the REPLACEMENT value in Canada that you need to insure for, ...ie "new for old", not your goods current value.

Hope that helps some

Souvenir

Most useful? About 120 bottles of wine, two cases of champagne and half a dozen bottles each of malt and good cognac.

Most bizarre? Some highly iffy Indonesian wood carvings that remain in the box nearly six years later.

Butch Cassidy

Hi just a silly question did you really bring in all that alcohol????