Re: Things you took with you
 

we've not moved over.....yet!!!! but we have just re-decorated our whole house!!! and i do mean the whole house (inside and out).....we've done this for two reasons; 1, to make it saleable and 2, 'cos it's been a building site (literally) for 10 years and it's about time.....if we don't move over in the next 6/12 months, at least it is very nice to have a house that hasn't got floors, ceilings, plumbing, wiring etc etc all over the place........

BUT.....we have bought furniture/furnishings that we would like to take with us to canada and 'statement pieces' that will help sell our house....watched way too many of those 'diy' programmes!!.......AND, we bought all of our 'new' furniture from ebay!!!!! we've sold all our 'old' furniture on ebay too, so in effect, we just swapped our furniture......so we're quids in too........:)

Re: Things you took with you
 

I with you on taking just a little bit over there. Most of our furniture was 'cheap' you know, they kind you buy when your just setting up your first home. So when we applied (back in 2005) we decided not to buy 'good' stuff. When we applied we looked around at what we had and then looked at the cost of containers (As they aren't cheap), and thought that our stuff just wasn't worth taking with us. we actually downsized our house since then so have already got rid of about half of it anyway.

Also, I'm definitely of the same mindset - "new life, new stuff" . As we made this decision a few years ago we know it will cost a fair bit to set up home again, we have factored this into our savings. We are fortunate however in that there is just the two of us and neither of us are very sentimental about our stuff.

Re: Things you took with you
 

I think we would of done it that way if there had been just 'the two of us' but having an 11 yr old daughter and a 5 yr old son we weren't able to, however I can see it plus sides doing it your way :thumbup:.

Re: Things you took with you
 

We furnished virtually the entire house with stuff from Leons. I found it was quite a bit cheaper than the UK.

3 or 4 years before I moved over, I had bought a couple of 2-seaters reduced by quite a lot at DFS for £295 each.

I bought 2-seaters in Leons for around £260 normal price.

I just looked at DFS and there's a 3-seater on offer @ £745 which is very similar to one we got at Leons for under 700 dollars. Around half the DFS special price.

The Brick looks good too.

We got one computer from Dell on line (very cheap and very quick) and another from Futureshop. Telly came from there too.

Beds seem more expensive, by the time you add headboards and rails. They don't seem to do just base and mattress sets like the UK. At first glance they look similar, then you see no wheels on the bases (box-springs) and you need 'rails' (a frame with wheels) so you can move the bed once it's up.

I reckon our kitchen table and 6 chairs cost less than just four equivalent chairs I had before.

I wouldn't dismiss Sears for kitchen appliances either.

Re: Things you took with you
 

we agree we are selling what we can, just bringing over about 10 box's of personal things, new life new gear thats what we say,

Re: Things you took with you
 

New life = lots of new expense.

If you can genuinely replace all your household possessions and set up a new home for less than GBP5k, then shipping a container makes no sense. In my experience that's difficult to do.

I shipped everything, but due to bad luck my container was stuck in a dock strike in Vancouver, so we only had our suitcases of clothes for nearly 2mths to survive with. Even if I'd wanted to go out and buy furniture etc, ordering and delivery times can stretch between 6-8 weeks. It's a long time not to have any comforts of home.

Re: Things you took with you
 

Bring everything with you, everything! You see the same pieces of furniture in everybody's house because there is hardly any selection over here. If you have unique, bespoke items bring them - it will be worth it trust me.

BTW furniture costs more over her unless you are happy to shop in IKEA then it will cost you same as in the UK and fall apart the same as the UK!

Re: Things you took with you
 

Maybe I'll be proven wrong but I say no way. There is plenty of choice in Canada especially if you have cash for bespoke furniture you can just talk to your local cabinet maker and have whatever you want.


I've never been one for spending too much on my furniture anyway, probably because I've had it in the back of my mind for the last ten years I will be moving back to Canada. So we had a tot up the other week and I reckon we could replace all of our furniture in our 4 bed house not including electricals or fitted stuff for about £4000. So why would I want to spend 4 - 4k shipping it to Canada. You gotta have really nice stuff to justify the cost of shipping. And if you have that sort of cash why the hell would you be posting on here asking the question?
Here's a few links.

http://leons.ca
http://ikea.com/ms/e-ca
http://sears.ca
http://furniturelink.ca
http://buyitincanada.com
http://bdaley.ca
http://louisinteriors.com

Re: Things you took with you
 

We did much the same. Most of the stuff in our house was either tat that we had been handed down by relatives (not decent furniture either - it was the stuff they wanted to get rid of because they were buying decent furniture!) or was cheapo Ikea furniture.

I honestly couldn't see the point in shipping cheapo Argos and Ikea tat across the Atlantic.

So we got rid of it all (you would be amazed at the resale value Ikea furniture has on Ebay :eek:) and when we arrived here, we went to Ikea and spent around $6K on furnishing our house... OK so it IS cheap Ikea furniture, but I don't care as the kids are still young at the moment, and we can replace that with better stuff as they get older.

We didn't bother with electrical stuff either, and most of the other household stuff was either fairly cheap or simply not worth shipping over.

Our 10 boxes contained a few books, the pictures (I have a couple of nice pieces of original artwork that friends gave me), some family bits and pieces I had inherited, ornaments etc and my Grandmother's china tea-set.

We also got rid of the vast majority of the kids toys, just brought over their absolute favourites. Then once we got here, we went to Toys-R-Us, gave them all a trolley and told them to fill it - they had a blast!

Re: Things you took with you
 

Love it!! - sounds like me in the Canadian Superstore :D

Re: Things you took with you
 

Hello everyone,

The biggest problem will be trying to take all my clothes!! Can anyone say how many how many tops for example can you put in one packing box?

Come on, ladies ,how many boxes did you end up with for all your clothes, be honest:o .

I am hoping to just manage on half a container for all my goods and chattels but will probably have to be very ruthless on decluttering my wardrobes before the big move.

Re: Things you took with you
 

when we was starting out we decided to take a container with all our stuff.

after a couple of visits we relised that $8000 could buy alot of stuff, we decided just to bring boxes and ended up with 12 good sized boxes.

the kids brought what they loved and so did me and hubby

i cant really say that i miss all the stuff that we built up on, i brought the kids memorys that they had done in nursery etc.
i think the stuff that we have bought is good, still looking for a settee that i like, but i got some of freecycle and one was lent to me, so i have time to find one that i like, plus now we have a truck OH can collect and we dont pay the delivery on stuff.
i have also managed to find stuff in liq centres that are keeper than leons as well, but leons do have a great area for discounts, also asley furniture is good.

i suppose it will depend on where you are heading and what you can get in the area ;)

Re: Things you took with you
 

If your stuff is not limited by weight, you could try those advertised plastic bags that are sealed to suck the air out with vacuum cleaner. We've bought a set of them from mail order store and they DO work as advertised, especially for items like sweaters or winter coats. Our problem was, however, the weight because we came just with luggage.