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Take it or Leave it????

Take it or Leave it????

Old Jun 4th 2008, 2:39 pm
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Default Take it or Leave it????

Hi all,

Not sure if this has been covered or not, but couldnt really find anything related.

My question is this?? Should we ship our household goods or buy new when we get there?

My reasons to decide if we should take the stuff or leave it are:

1. We have a small 2 bedroom house
2. Most of our furniture will be due to get replaced soon, (next few years) apart from the new kitchen (which we cant take anyway) and our bedroom furniture (mainly consists of large Fitted wardrobes!
3. The value of the remaining contents isnt great!
4. The cost of shipping would be approx £3000

I think we could get essentials for a house on about £6000, if we didnt go mad!

Any advice appreciated!

Also anyone in NZ, what furniture retaillers are there? I love IKEA but i know there isnt one there, so whats the alternative?

Thanks xxx
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Old Jun 4th 2008, 6:47 pm
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Default Re: Take it or Leave it????

The advice most seem to give is take everything.
We are leaving on the 21st and are taking about half of the stuff in our house.
suit,tv, pictures, PC's, washing machine, some bedroom furniture but not beds or wardrobes. we are taking some of it as we know how nice it is when
you are there and your stuff arrives, it all familiar and it helps you to feel more settled.
we checked out the cost of some things before deciding whether to take then or not
and a lot of stuff is bloody expensive in NZ.
Personally i think its a false ecconomy to "save" on shipping costs only to spend twice as much when you get there.
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Old Jun 4th 2008, 9:04 pm
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Default Re: Take it or Leave it????

Originally Posted by Yummy_Mummy
Hi all,

Not sure if this has been covered or not, but couldnt really find anything related.

My question is this?? Should we ship our household goods or buy new when we get there?

My reasons to decide if we should take the stuff or leave it are:

1. We have a small 2 bedroom house
2. Most of our furniture will be due to get replaced soon, (next few years) apart from the new kitchen (which we cant take anyway) and our bedroom furniture (mainly consists of large Fitted wardrobes!
3. The value of the remaining contents isnt great!
4. The cost of shipping would be approx £3000

I think we could get essentials for a house on about £6000, if we didnt go mad!

Any advice appreciated!

Also anyone in NZ, what furniture retaillers are there? I love IKEA but i know there isnt one there, so whats the alternative?

Thanks xxx
We shipped everything apart from the "crap" - So glad we bought our beds with drawers in - haven't seen any of those here yet. Everyone admires them and says what a good idea!! Also brought our sofa's and our large TV but alas even with Sky that did not work and we ended up giving it away for playstation games. Gave OH chance to buy his 42" Plasma!!. We had collected lots of stuff and also it makes settling here much better when you have familiar stuff around and little snippets of stuff that you bought in this place or that place or in Greece or Spain or wherever. We did have to buy a sofa and one bed before our stuff got here as we were renting plus we bought washing machine and tumble dryer and fridge freezer as we had left them back in the house. We had a 40 foot container shipped full to the rafters which cost us around £4K. Glad we did but wouldn't want a price for going home with it all but as we are here for the duration no fear of that!!! Harvey Norman is a huge place full of everything furniture and electrical then there is Big Save Furniture stores, Hunter Furniture here in Chch. Lots of places to buy stuff but beware of the mass produced rubbish. Hope that helps.
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Old Jun 4th 2008, 9:44 pm
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Default Re: Take it or Leave it????

Hey Thanks for that...

Really not sure whats best. We have some really good quality furniture but most is from ikea. We have a leather bed, which i would quite like to take, and our bedroom furniture is really nice, although it would all have to be dismantled before it could be moved - (its kinda fitted and screwed to the walls!)

I wouldn't take any kitchen appliances. Im not sure if we should replace some of our stuff here and just take everything, that way we would not have to buy anything apart from the kitchen appliances, and u usually get some of them when u rent anyway.

Also as i have 2 kids, i'm not sure if i should bring their furniture or not! Dont know what the range is like over there. We were gonna buy them new beds from ikea, which have great storage underneath, but would need to ship these too!!!

I think we would only need a 20ft container.... but not sure of the varying cost, any ideas?

Oh has anyone gona with nothing and started from scratch again? Would love to know.

Thanks xxx
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Old Jun 4th 2008, 9:51 pm
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Default Re: Take it or Leave it????

Hi!

After reading lots of posts on here, and advice from my best friend who has been in NZ for 18 months, we are taking everything. We have been quoted £3500 for a 20ft container with Burke Bros.. My friend used them and said they were great.

We are leaving our fridge, dishwasher and washing machine, but only because they are 5 years old and if they conk out, we wouldn't be able to get parts, so may as well get new.

I am de-cluttering and selling or giving to charity anything unwanted like childrens toys as our house is so cluttered.

Lou
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Old Jun 4th 2008, 10:00 pm
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Default Re: Take it or Leave it???? We sold it all in the UK

Hi, we sold almost everything and started again. The only things we shipped out was our crockery service we got for our wedding and our art, and about 9 boxes of childrens toys and books!!! (my two are 5 and 3). Oh and some kitchen stuff like good stainless steel pots and pans.

We sold our beds, sofas, kitchen tables, chairs, bedside cabinets, wardrobes etc. etc. We did this because we lived in a converted stone barn and our furniture was mostly antiques and "of the barn style". We knew that the style of housing in NZ was very different (ie) more modern and our furniture wouldn't have suited the houses here. HOWEVER, if it is good quality and you like it, I would suggest you bring it over. There is not a very good choice or variety here (we live in Auckland). Also it helps to be surrounded by some familiar things. We rented for the first few months and my Mom (who lives here) furnished the rental entirely with charity shop furniture which suited us as we knew it was short term. My husband is a property developer so we have bought a wreck of a house - "with potential" they like to call it :-) to live in so it suits us to have old knackered furniture as it would get ruined with the renovation works anyway. Also with two small children I don't have to be precious about anything.

When the renovations are finished, we will buy from scratch what will suit the house.

Things are not that cheap here, so bring what you like and you want to keep. It would be expensive to set yourself up with furniture and things like irons, kettles, etc here and as I mentioned before, there's not much choice. We really are spoilt for choice in the UK - don't underestimate that when you come here.

Hope that helped a bit.
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Old Jun 4th 2008, 10:16 pm
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Default Re: Take it or Leave it????

As others have mentioned, divan beds aren't really popular over here (or at least, the last time they were they were so truly nasty that there are adults who still have back pain thinking about the d*mn things) so if the kids have nice divan beds and are funky kid ones then chances are it would be good to bring over. When I say popular I mean "they aren't in shops so nobody has them regardless of whether they are a good idea".

I can't comment on what to bring apart from that. Not a parent. Not a Brit

oooh yes I can, the range is limited in things. By that I mean, you may be able to get say a bed for X amount of money but if you wanted a specific type eg a pink framed bed with encrusted blue swarovski crystals, you may be SOOL. (&^%* out of luck).
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Old Jun 5th 2008, 4:03 am
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Default Re: Take it or Leave it????

We brought everything except what we classed at the 'crap' only to get here and wish we'd brought it. We had 147 boxes included 2 x 3 seater sofa's, fridge freezer, dishwasher, 42'' plasma. Wish I knew before we left what I know now, I would have brought more. Our TV's and DVD players work ok here and have been compatible.

Furniture is expensive here and we don't have Ikea, bring extension cord for electrical then you will cut down on adaptors - we accidentally packed 2, turned out to be a godsend.

The day our furniture arrived, oh to have so many familiar objects after weeks of total unfamiliarity, it was fantastic your belongings also contain memories.

I had often thought we were doing the wrong thing, it would have given me the opportunity to replace items. I'm so glad I brought everything, for one you couldn't replace it all for the cost of shipping.

Hope this helps
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Old Jun 5th 2008, 6:40 am
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Default Re: Take it or Leave it????

Hmmmmm

I think i am changing my mind a little haha.

I agree with what you say about familiarity, i suppose it would be nice to have your own things with you.

If there isnt much of a range then it might also be a good idea to bring what we have.

Has anyone encountered problems with furniture NOT fitting? The reason i ask is that we have some large and awkward furniture.

Anyway, thanks loads for your input. Will need to look at what we will take and what we wll leave, but i guess we will bring most of it, well apart from the crap in the loft! lol

xxxx
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Old Jun 5th 2008, 6:48 am
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Default Re: Take it or Leave it????

[QUOTE=Yummy_Mummy;6436142]Hmmmmm



Has anyone encountered problems with furniture NOT fitting? The reason i ask is that we have some large and awkward furniture.

We've had no problem, dining table is old old old and takes 4 to lift without sleeves in, big and round, grandfather clock had lovely big 'box built' currently using as coffee table, no seriously most of furniture we brought was old and bulky.
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Old Jun 5th 2008, 7:33 am
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Default Re: Take it or Leave it????

We shipped 21 boxes - no container just part-shipped ?? I can't remember what you call it. I'm not sorry we didn't bring our furniture but I wish we'd brought all the other stuff that our friends were delighted with You just can't imagine until you've been without it for a while, how absolutely lovely it is to get YOUR stuff back

On the furniture - we spent $6k on two leather lounge suites and they weren't that flash! An awful lot of houses here have at least two living areas so if you've got a suite that's ok but not great, say, you could always have that in the rumpus room or the second lounge for the kids. Seriously, you will find a use for most things. And if you can't use it, you can sell it on Trade Me!

ps. hide something for yourself when you're packing - a little (or big ) treat to find when you're unpacking.
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Old Jun 5th 2008, 9:38 am
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Default Re: Take it or Leave it????

I love your idea about hiding a treat in the packing!

This will be especially good for the kids..

We are planning to take as much as we can squeeze into our container, but will need to find a little corner now for my treats too!
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Old Jun 5th 2008, 11:27 am
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Default Re: Take it or Leave it????

Originally Posted by ScottyD
I love your idea about hiding a treat in the packing!

This will be especially good for the kids..

We are planning to take as much as we can squeeze into our container, but will need to find a little corner now for my treats too!
We had a hidden treat in the unpacking, 2 slices of toast still in the toaster!

If you stand still when the packers are there I swear they'll wrap and pack you - they were so darn quick!

We bought everything after de-cluttering and are pleased we did as I believe it works out cheaper (quality vs choice here.)

You probably won't need wardrobes, we bought 7 but most newer houses here have them built in. That's ok, we sold 6 on TradeMe and kept one in the garage.

Mind you we still have a washing machine, 2 dishwashers, a fridge/freezer, a dining table, a 4 poster bed, 2 sets of bunk beds and some other random stuff still in it's wrapping in the garage and have lived in this house for a year now. But they are all going on TradeMe and will release some cash (tax free ...)

All we've purchased here in 14 months is the dining table and chairs, fridge/freezer that were in the house because they suit it, one bog standard TV and 2 1970's portable gas heaters because our fireplace only heated one room!
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Old Jun 5th 2008, 11:38 am
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Default Re: Take it or Leave it????

Haha

A treat is a GREAT idea

Dont know what kind of treat i would pack tho....
i'm dreaming of...... 100 boxes of thorntons chocolates... they would probably melt anyway. hahahahaha

I think the kids would get really excited tho. That would be nice!

I would only bring the 1 bedroom set, with wardrobe, drawers etc. Got it from ikea and i luv it.

Oh on the subject of heaters.... is it wise to buy some here and ship them, or wait til we get there?

xxxx
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Old Jun 5th 2008, 11:43 am
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Default Re: Take it or Leave it????

Originally Posted by Yummy_Mummy
Haha

A treat is a GREAT idea

Dont know what kind of treat i would pack tho....
i'm dreaming of...... 100 boxes of thorntons chocolates... they would probably melt anyway. hahahahaha

I think the kids would get really excited tho. That would be nice!

I would only bring the 1 bedroom set, with wardrobe, drawers etc. Got it from ikea and i luv it.

Oh on the subject of heaters.... is it wise to buy some here and ship them, or wait til we get there?

xxxx
We left 14 radiators run off an Aga back in the UK and moved into our pretty newly biult home here last June (Autumn/Winter) We had a gas fireplace in the living room, a gas fireplace in the outside/dogs' room and under floor heating (coz we're dead posh) in both bathrooms. And we froze!!! My Hubby and I "won" the bidding on 2 gas heaters on TradeMe and were a whooping and a hollering round the kitchen high 5'ing each other with excitement! It takes the chill off. We also have an electric radiator on the upstairs landing which does the same thing. The kids have electric blankets on their beds that they haven't used yet. We don't run the underfloor heating as it just seems to turn the bathrooms into a sauna!

Buy here on TradeMe, I think one of our very attractive portable gas heaters was $70 and the other $60!
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