Callilac

Hi Everyone

Following on from a previous thread about the gas BBQ, what do you wish you hadn't brought to the US with you?

We will soon be in the position of packing up and shipping our worldly goods - I've already decided the patio heater (used twice in 4 years LOL) is not coming! But I am wondering what else to ditch? I understand electrical goods especially the TV aren't worth bringing....................

What about my GHD's?

My husband's company will be paying for the shipping, so that's not an issue.

Cheers

Cal x

avanutria

Hi Cal,

What are GHDs?

We ditched all furniture except for a relatively new set of bunk beds, but ditched the old mattresses and bought new here. Unfortunately the UK and US mattress sizing standards are not the same, so we have had some fit problems with mattress to frame. You will find the same sort of problem if you try to put US sheets on UK beds.

We ditched all electronics except my DH's laptop and computer, and a small number of portable electronics that are dual voltage. Got rid of my sewing machine and got a new one here.

Got rid of bicycles, standard bikes are really cheap here.

We didn't have a car but wouldn't have brought it anyway.

We kept most of our DVDs, as it's reasonably straightforward to find a multiregion or region free DVD player.

Kept any clothes that we liked. Most of our stuff actually ended up being books, dvds, musical instruments and hobby items.

Karen68

I personally think that furniture is more expensive here than in the UK, so I would go for bringing all of that with you unless you need to replace it, esp if company are paying for shipping.

You can arrange for transformers and plug adapters for some electrical appliances - your GHDs, for instance! - through the shipping company. We managed to get the company to pay to replace our major electricals. Our UK TVs we gave away to family, and the dyson too. We bought our power tools out here as we were supposed to be going back after a couple of years. They are just sitting in the basement.

I suppose these things like that depend on how long you are planning to be in the US. For instance, we have just bought a new sofa. It is huge compared to a UK one, and there is no way we would have bought it if we were going back to the UK soon as there wouldn't be room for anything else in a UK lounge.

Bob

Unless the furniture is top quality...ditch everything and get the company to give you a cash allowance to replace the furniture and white goods.

Only things worth bringing over are clothes and sentimental items.

AmerLisa

Absolutely!

We came over with a few odds and ends. We bought furniture and such when we arrived. Ikea worked out great in that it wasn't that expensive and served a purpose at the time.

Karen68

Why would a company who is paying for shipping also provide a cash allowance to replace furniture? They are entitled to assume that you already have perfectly good furniture. Electricals are a different matter.

We were told to leave our furniture behind on our first move out here and that we would get an allowance for more out here. When the tax was knocked off, it was very little comparatively and would have not covered much. The furniture rental firms' stuff was just nasty, so that wasn't an option either. As OH was already out here and saw how expensive things were, I got a call to get that container full of as much stuff as could be crammed in. On our second move out here we packed up basically the entire house - we just junked the kids' bedroom stuff as they had pretty much outgrown it.

SanDiegogirl

Since our living room sofas and chairs were reasonably new we brought them with us. Also the dining room set, two beds and most of the crockery/cutlery/saucepans etc.

We had an apartment 'booked' before we arrived, so it was nice to be able to move the furniture in when it arrived and spared us that "having to look and buy furniture quickly " exercise.

If your company is giving you an allowance to ship household goods over then do so. It will be easier and cheaper in the long run. (Obviously electrical items from the UK won't work in the US?

penguinsix

Placemats and coat hangars.

Ok, I use that as an example. You don't need to bring (or not bring) placemats and coat hangars, but you should put into your mind that anything you don't bring is something you may eventually need. There are these tiny little things you often just forget to pack or don't pack on purpose and when you arrive in a new country you suddenly realize you need and have to buy.

Shelf paper
A sponge holder
A soap dispenser
Coat hangars
Placemats
A potato peeler

There are dozens of these little items that you might end up having to buy, and after you are all said and done they actually cost a bit.

Is your company providing you any cash when you arrive for new things? If not, you might want to think through your day-to-day life necessitates, or more importantly, your 'once or twice a month' things and bring those, or prepare to buy new ones when you get here.

md95065

Because everything is negotiable?

... and you are entitled to ask for whatever you want - you may ask and not get it, but if you don't ask you definitely won't get it ...

Sound like you got burned both by "doing what you were told" and "not asking for enough" - caveat emptor ...

N1cky

I'm glad we brought most of our furniture, I liked our stuff and I find lots of the furniture stores here very old fashioned, lots and lots of wood and crappy upholstered sofas. It also made if feel like home to have our own stuff around.

I seem to remember someone else asking about GHDs, and the answer was they work out here (hope I'm right now ive said it)

SalopianFunk

I recall my mom and sister going back and forth for weeks about whether or not to bring their ghds. Ultimately they didn't and regretted it for the longest time.

Callilac

Haha! Great answers, thanks!

Avanutria - ghd's are (relatively expensive) hair straighteners, which I cannot live without!

I should have explained that we are planning on only being in the US for 2 years (although of course that could change if we love it!) as my Hubby is tending to move roles every 2 years.

The massive de-clutter we are about to have will be assisted by the fact that we moved house 2 years ago - so we are going to be ruthless and anything not used in the last 2 years will be binned or sold. Our current house is massive, so we knew wherever we moved we would be downsizing and we'd have to get rid of stuff.

We are thinking we will bring most of our furniture, although selling some of the smaller/older stuff. We are going to sell our cars.

I am slightly worried about giving away/selling all our electrical stuff and then coming back in 2 years with nothing..................... Would it be ok in storage do you think? Hoping we can get the company to pay for some storage.

I quite agree - we are in negotiations currently about what will be included in the relocation package and we have asked for a lump sum. We are thinking 10% of salary is realistic.

Thanks again everyone.

Cal x

scrubbedexpat099

Well that would rule out Student Loans.

rebs

We had company paid shipping and we took absolutely everything with us. It worked out well for us, as we also moved back to the UK after 2 years so shipped it all back again.

As Nicky has said, it was nice to have our own furniture with us - I think we would have struggled to find stuff that was to our taste at a price we could afford if we had to have furnished an entire house.

For our electrical items, we took it all (apart from large white goods) and anything we couldn't get to work we stored away - we had a much larger house in the US than the UK, so had plenty of storage. That worked out well for us, as we then were all set when we moved back to the UK.

Sorry to say, I could never get my GHDs to work in the US, but I'm not sure I tried all of the options - I don't think I tried them on a step up converter, so you may have better luck

Callilac

Haha David - we have plenty of other debts we'd like to leave behind!

Thanks Rebs - good to know that we're not being unrealistic with the plans.

C x