The difference between taking out the beds (a king and three singles), 2 x 3 seater couches and a dining table and leaving them behind was just over £2000.

Looks like we will be taking things like dinner services, personal possessions, kitchen items, clothes, toys and so on and buying the bigger stuff new out there.

At £2K, it works out to be approx $3500 which is a good contribution to getting new and seeing as all our beds are now 10 years old or more it seems silly to take them because then I'd have to take all the bedding and so on which adds even more onto the cost of shipping.

I know that won't pay for absolutely everything new but it will go a good way towards it.

For us it is our personal stuff, our pictures and the kids toys that make our home a home, the bed I lay on doesn't really matter to me.

Me thinks you're being ripped off by the shipping agent.
It cost us under £4000 for a 20ft container from Manchester to Sherwood Park. If we'd taken out the the beds, dining table etc, it wouldnt have made a huge dent in the price. Beds and table dont take up much space at all, so it's not like you can go from a full container to a half container. T

I'd get alternative quotes, and try and take those things with you. If you have the money, that's one thing, but if you're trying to cut costs, it's gonna cost you a lot more than $3500 to replace those items when you get here.

other thing tobear in mind is the bed sizes are different very slightly !So new sheets here would not fit!

I got five quotes and give or take a few hundred quid they were all the same.

Difference was that we wouldn't need a whole container so could go groupage so yes you can go to half a container! Takes longer but that is no big deal as we don't have a place to move in to straight away on the other side.

And all came it at under £4K for the 20ft container, although I guess it depends where it is going to and from.

We only bought boxes of personal stuff and in hindsight I would have bought our furniture over. It is SO expensive to buy a sofa and beds etc.

We now have a sofa and beds that are, basically, elcrappo, compared to what we had in the UK, yet we paid ALOT of money for them.

Arrrrrrgggghhhh don't do this to me lol! I thought we had it all sussed! Have to say I hate my bed, but we spent a fortune on it 15 years ago and my OH is adamant that we have to wait another 5 years to replace (if we were staying here) he wants his monies worth!!

Two of the kids beds aren't too bad but one is absolutely knackered been used as a trampoline too many times.

But then again, maybe we should take them.

Gah, I don't know now.

(Can you tell I really want new ones???)

Have a look on here to get an idea of cost.....www.leons.ca

the north american shops - leons, the brick etc are pretty expensive for ugly poorly made rubbish, GO TO IKEA!

We didnt ship large furniture, partially be cause of cost and the fact our furniture was not that special, but It did surprise us how dear furniture is in canada especially beds !!!, not only that but the sales guys are mostly on commission, and the ones we met were oily beyond belief. The other thing to consider is what do you sleep/sit on for weeks before your furniture arrives? we had one company who said they couldnt say how long it would take to get a shipment to winnipeg if we didn't book a whole container

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That is fine....but what if you don't live near IKEA or want something a bit more...well....less....IKEAish?

For $3,500 you'll be lucky to be able to buy anything like as much as you will be leaving behind. You could easily spend that on one 3 seater sofa.

We will be (hopefully) moving to Toronto so will have lots of choice for shops, thank you for the link AmyDavid.

In many ways I'm quite looking forward to getting new stuff, the beds have certainly had their day and it is a lot of money to move stuff that at the end of the day will have to be replaced sooner rather than later.

Definately may end up taking our two couches though, they are quite new and to ship them alone was just over £500 so know we wouldn't be able to replace those for that price, I just hope they fit in the new house.

Also we are going to rent so may end up getting somewhere furnished until we are more settled.

So many options ...

We had a 20ft sole use container and filled it to the brim. We shipped everything even pots, pans, pyrex dishes, plates, tooth picks!!! It was so nice once we moved into our home knowing that it was fully furnished and I didn't have to crawl around the shops trying replace anything.

I think we paid in total £7,000 from Kent to Kelowna, BC.

Also like many people have said and I agree it is quite expensive to buy furniture out here.

How's this

cheap single bed approx $400 x 3 = $1200
midrange box spring and matress 'queen' = $600
Basic Bed frame =$200
cheap 3 seater sofa = $700 x2 = $1400

thats about $3400 without the dining table

Thanks Mike, that actually tallies with the research we have done, I knew I would have to add money on to buy new bedding and so on so we didn't think we would be able to leave everything behind and have money over but after 15 odd years so much is very worn anyway and would only have to be replaced. I may bring out the two sofas which leaves me plenty of budget to purchase a dining table (doesn't need to be anything wonderful to start off with we can always get a make do and save up for a "proper" table) and it also leaves some in there in case the beds are more expensive and for bedding too.

Tip ... buy bedding before you come .... it's extortionate here to buy decent duvet covers and pillow cases (which are called "shams" ?) Also they are quite into comforters for the bed which we aren't keen on. It all seems a bit '80s to me!

Anyway, we raided John Lewis and stuck the new stuff in the container. Our new "queen" size Canadian mattress (ie what they call a 5ft size) fits in our UK "king" size wooden bed frame so be careful to buy the right size. The single size is called "twin" here. (Just to keep us on our toes.)