Hi There,
I'm moving to Vancouver Island next summer with the OH and two kids.....don't know where yet, probably Victoria or environs or the Comox Valley area.... Anyway, by reading the posts I know that shipping our belongings will cost a small fortune. So I want to explore the possibility of just taking with us things of sentimental value and using the money we save on shipping/selling our furniture to purchase replacements when we are in the country. Does anyone have any experience of this or indeed any opinions?

I should add that we will be renting accomodation for the first six months/year.

thanks!!!

we thought about taking our furniture but all quotes were about 4thousand sooo just taking 6 boxes with pictures etc for 400gbp
when in mb can buy lot of furniture for 4 thousand gbp.
shirley

It depends on the quality of your furniture. If you have good quality (meaning expensive) furniture, it will cost you more to replace it in Canada than it will cost you to ship it. I think you'll be surprised at the cost of good quality furniture in Canada.

IKEA-type furniture does not travel well, notwithstanding the fact that you're supposed to be able to dismantle and re-assemble it. That quality of furniture probably is not worth shipping to Canada. If that's the kind of stuff you have, it's worth replacing it once you get to Canada.

We've moved good quality furniture as well as IKEA furniture around the world, and that has been our experience.

You'll probably find it useful to read the BE Wiki article on Canadian Bed Sizes.

We have not moved out yet but from doing research it would cost us a lot more than 4000 to replace all the furniture and household goods. (less white goods and electrical)

You have to bare in mind the houses in canada are often bigger.

Are you??? I didnt know this. Why is that?

I have found that unless you are paying $$$$ then IKEA furniture is the best quality. We bought some self assemble stuff, in particular a Rubbermaid Kitchen cabinet, and in less than a year it has fallen apart. I would recommend taking furniture because it will cost more than $4000 to replace.

We didn't have a lot of furniture in the UK - lived in a 2 up 2 down ex council house. We got rid of our furniture. We wished we brought it. We had a sofa (living room wasn't big enough for anything else) a double bed and a dining room table all less than 3 years old and all very good quality.

We moved into a 5 bed massive monstrosity and had to fuirnish it Our old stuff would have filled up empty spaces or tided us over till we found new stuff we liked. Instead we spent evenings and weekend trawling furniture shops for what seemed like forever and just got the basics.

We now live in a smaller house that has been easier to furnish - we still don't really use the basement - just an empty room with a corner sofa and tv really - we'll concentrate on it when we refurbish it.

So if it's good stuff you like I would say bring it. You may not like the Canadian style of furniture very much.

My personal opinion is that it costs more to replace than to ship (but like others say it does depend on the quality of your furniture). If you would quite like to replace it all anyway then I guess now is probably a good time! But if you actually like your furniture then you will probably find you will be better off shipping it.

Its really easy to underestimate exactly home much it will cost to replace everything. Also, if you are researching online to see what things cost in Canada don't forget that none of the prices will include tax.

We shipped 95%of our belongings over here, and as you've found it costs in the ballpark of GBP4k for your own 20ft container to the west coast.

Since moving here we've purchased additional furniture and replacement appliances. It's somewhat dependant on the quality/volume of furniture you already own, but I don't believe that we could have replaced everything for what the shipment costs.

Shopping to replace all those items you've collected over the years, whether tools, kitchen gadgets, kids toys, recreation/sports equipment is time consuming and costly. My advice would be to bring as much as you can.

Thanks for the replies so far....on looking around I guess our furniture is 60% good quality and 40% flat packed\self build.

TBH I couldn't be bothered dismantling the ikea/mfi stuff so that will be getting sold, given away. I do have three leather three pc suites that I was thinking of taking, but as we are renting accomodation then I have to consider storage costs on VI on top of the shipping costs.

The only things I really won't part with are things like wedding presents and my sea kayaks.......the OH says they hav et go hough!!! (the sea kayaks that is) lol

Anyone got any ideas on storage costs in the south of VI.?

I would bring everything you can if it's not about to fall apart.

I find furniture here quite expensive (and don't believe £4k would do a house or anywhere near) and styles vary quite a lot from Europe; I've found very little in main stream furniture stores that I would want in my house.

I viewed it as - my furniture is worth to me what a new set would be worth to anyone else... Then took into account that selling a sofa second hand may raise 10-20% of it's replacement cost...

Also factor in all the ridiculous little things you need when you get here. small kitchen appliances, stocking up a food cupboard from scratch etc - it will cost lots more than you budget!

That's my $0.02.

And don't forget most people get bigger houses over here than in the UK so even with everything I bought I still have two empty-ish rooms plus the basement to furnish after two years.

Flat pack....

Ikea is here.................

http://www.ikea.com/ca/en/

Still have the same problem as back home........have to be dragged out of that store.....


Each to their own and all......

Might be worth looking into the costs.. of your sea kayaks

We used the money that CHC gave us back to buy a cannoe and then we bought 2 kayaks, (starters) till the kids get happy using them..... its a big thing over here.. well in my neck of the woods, Ontario, GTA

So look at the costs of shipping to buying, as u might not be on the lakes (like a sea) to mind not having the sea kayaks..

Yep - bring the decent stuff - and even the not-so-decent stuff if you have room. Bigger houses, bigger rooms = more furniture required !
We brought one suite of furniture with us, then bought one when here, and still technically need some other kind of sofa-ish arrangement for a huge empty space that will just have to stay that way for a while !

And don't under-estimate how much general household stuff you need to buy anyway - toaster, kettle, iron, vacuum (sometimes), washer and/or dryer (sometimes), possibly other kitchen appliances if not included (but they usually are), clock radios, lamps, huge TV (be rude not to), and the list goes on. And on....

And good furniture is expensive. And Ikea sure does fill some gaps !!

Get some shipping quotes - start there, then be 'gently' ruthless on what stays and what goes. But you'll only get a pittance for second-hand stuff.

This is so very true. We brought literally everything from our house (even down to those jelly-like Airwick Air fresheners which I had accidentally left out, not imagining for one minute that the removal men would pack them - but they did!) But we have still spent a small fortune on replacing things like the electrical stuff. So I am really glad we did not have to replace all the furniture and other stuff too (Although I could perhaps have run to a few replacement air fresheners!)

Lisa