Suzbits

Right, next thing on the list, the removals. Spoke to a guy at the Expo regarding packing up and shipping over and for a 4 bed house with 3 children he quoted £6,500! We have decided to down-size and will not be taking anything outdoors, only 2 children's bikes as they were new this year. All other toys and furniture are being sold. Not taking any bedroom furniture, only my daughters bed as it is a pink painted princess one and we have had tears when we mentioned selling it!

Has anyone packed the majority of boxes themselves? Just a thought, one to save a bit of money and two to have a real good sort out, otherwise I will have to go room to room sorting out before the packers come to make sure it is only the bare bones left. Also, can you pack your own clothes, not sure how I feel about someone else doing that - need to remember to pack clothes for 2 months into suitcases to make sure it all fits!

Any advice would be great, plus recommendations of companies not to use!

Thanks

simonmarkellis

I would have to say, that with everything else that's involved with moving over here, the one expense that is worth it's weight in gold is getting in professionals to do the move. Get other quotes, We used PSS and they were very good, about 3,000 quid for a shared container and about 3,500 if we'd have one to ourselves. 6 and half sounds excessive to me!

Am Loolah

To add to that - when we got ahead of ourselves and put some stuff in boxes before the packers came, we had to leave them unsealed so the packers could see what were in them and add their bit to the inventory thus avoiding tedious customs stuff this end.

julesnye

I've packed most of our house in large export boxes and know from discussing this with the various shippers, they will probably repack just to ensure no breakages and that what you say is in these boxes is actually that. Doing this just means that I know that most things will be together in the same box, instead of spread over several boxes.

Lenmil

After doing all of this above. I would just take as little as possible and the rest being money. It's all just dead wood you take. Just my opinion but i moved stuff to and from NZ. Cost a bloody fortune. I would not and are not going to do the same again for that reason. It's a personal choice of course.

TeamEmbo

I vaguely remember being told that we would not be covered by insurance if we packed anything ourselves; only if it was done by professional packers. Can't remember if this was for certain items only or the whole lot.

Personally I would recommend getting the packers to do the whole lot anyway - they have to do an itemised list which will then go to NZ customs and MAF this end, and if anything does need to be claimed for you have some recourse.

I wouldn't worry about them packing your clothes. In my experience they are so busy packing all your stuff they don't have time to look at any particular item or pass judgement - to them its just stuff. And they're quick and blitz ur house top to bottom so make sure you take anything you want to bring over to someone else's house otherwise that'll be packed too - keys, wallet, handbag, flight bags, suitcases any bedding you want overnight, wash bags, passports - or put it all in one room in the house and make sure they know not to pack that particular pile of stuff.