Ship possessions or buy when we arrive
 

Greetings everyone. We will be moving permanently to Menorca in September 2017 and I would be interested to hear people's thoughts on whether it makes economic sense (or not) to sell our furniture and other goods here in the UK and save on shipping and storage. We can bring over personal possessions and sentimental items and then buy the bulk of what we need when we arrive, which also solves the problem of having to make our existing UK style of furniture 'fit-in' with the new property. Your thoughts would be appreciated

Re: Ship possessions or buy when we arrive
 

If you can afford it, take the opportunity to buy new in Spain.

Re: Ship possessions or buy when we arrive
 

Many thanks Fred - any thought on how prices for like-for-like items might compare, sofas, free standing wardrobes, beds etc

Re: Ship possessions or buy when we arrive
 

I would say they are more here.

A word of advice on beds and bedding. Spanish beds come in metric sizes. Lengths are normally 190 but as people have got bigger with better diets you can buy 200. Widths. 90 (tiny) 105 (lovely size for singles), 135, 150 and bigger. Finding linen here to fit UK mattresses is not easy but there is mail order. Here the supermarkets sell the popular sizes but if you have say 105 by 200 the choice is exceedingly poor. Even when the bed sizes are the same, quilts and covers can be different between the two countries.

Part of the experience here is the shopping and the excitement of getting new stuff, getting it to your home. Sort of refreshes your life.

A few websites (may not operate on the islands) for you to have a look at for househld goods.

Conforama.es , Worten, Carrefour, Media markt (all electrical goods). Have a look at their websites for prices and what is available. One big advantage of buying here is you have a guarantee.

Small village/town independents often carry very similar ranges, at similar prices and deliver for free or very little.

Re: Ship possessions or buy when we arrive
 

We took stuff, but found it false economy after you factor in the cost of shipping.

Re: Ship possessions or buy when we arrive
 

Many thanks for the informative responses. It was looking at the likes of the Binipreu website that got us thinking in the first place. The cost of shipping does seem rather high, plus there is the open-ended cost of storage once our stuff arrives - and it may not even suit the style of home we buy. Electricals seem to be a no brainer - I cannot imagine operating every appliance shipped from the UK using a travel adapter 24/7 - I'm sure the insurance would be invalidated in the event of a fire or similar. As you say Olivefarmer, a huge part of the fun is rebuilding for the future.

Re: Ship possessions or buy when we arrive
 

When we came to Spain 15 years ago we brought nothing with us apart from personal effects. Planning a new home from scratch including building it and furnishing it was indeed life refreshing!

Re: Ship possessions or buy when we arrive
 

One can easily change the plug to Spanish on a multi UK socket extension lead

Re: Ship possessions or buy when we arrive
 

When we moved out here to Benidorm last year we sold everything we had in the UK except our most personal and sentimental items. The difference for us was that we were going into a fully furnished apartment. We have since bought the odd piece of furniture though to suit our lifestyle.
Best of luck with your move.

Steve.


Adventure before Dementia:cool:

Re: Ship possessions or buy when we arrive
 

I suppose it depends on how much you value the possessions you already have in the UK.

we brought all of our stuff here to Italy from the uk and have never regretted it. Have since bought items here, including rugs shipped from Greece but there is always that fondness for items we dragged with us from the uk.- they're a little bit more meaningful than stuff bought here.

Re: Ship possessions or buy when we arrive
 

Hubby and I are planning the move to Spain in Jan 16 from the Netherlands. We're taking very little with us - certainly no furniture due to not having any that we think is irreplaceable/antique/worth keeping, though I understand some import duty will have to be paid on them, in case we go on to sell them when there....is that true?

We're mainly just taking work and hobby stuff, along with our two Boyz (dogs) and a few boxes with clothing and the sentimental bits and pieces, as partly, we see it as a chance to de-clutter our lives, but also, by the time we pay for shipping and duty, I'm sure we could have some amazing new Spanish pieces for less!

Plus, room sizes differ dramatically between here and Spain, so some of the pieces we have now may not even be able to fit there, going by the budget we've got for a furnished rental property to begin with, that is.

Looking forward to some fun shopping trips and re-stocking our lives as we go along...
Good luck with your adventure KieronF, and thanks to Olive Farmer for the store tips! :thumbup:

Re: Ship possessions or buy when we arrive
 

We bought our apartment, part-furnished, however, upon arrival, five weeks ago, we realised why the previous occupants had left what they had. It all had to be disposed of, and pretty quickly !! We have re-furnished the whole place. We went into our local town where we found a wonderful store that sold everything we needed, and more if we had wanted it. We found it very comparable with UK but were amazed at the discounts offered, mainly 20% but on items they couldn't discount they provided additional discount on the 'other' purchases. They delivered when they said they would, they took care when they carried it up to our apartment, they unpacked and checked everything was in perfect condition, they even unpacked the new TV and plugged it in and checked it all worked. They took all the packaging away with them, first class service.