Migrating - what to take with us?

Hi i am moving to australia next year and would appreciate advice on what to take with us. Unsure whether to buy white goods and take them with us.

I think its personal choice. We personally brought no furniture and just a few boxes of kitchen ware, toys and hubbys tools.. I have no real regrets and would probably do the same all over again , but some people bring their entire house contents and are glad they have done, hence its your choice and to an extent depends how good / valuable your furniture is.

Cal x

You'll get people advising you both ways. A lot depends on how well off you are!

The argument FOR shipping:

1. It Saves Money

Shipping sounds expensive - but try adding up what it will cost you to replace everything once you arrive. If you're willing to buy second-hand, you can get some great bargains on gumtree.com.au as Australians don't value second-hand stuff and will let it go for a song. However if you want to buy new, check out harveynorman.com.au to see prices at a typical furniture store.

If you get a container or a Movecube, you can also pack all kinds of small things in the nooks and crannies, or fit in a few boxes, and that can save a lot of money too. It's surprising how much it costs when you add up the price of all your pots, pans, kitchen stuff, towels, etc etc.

2. It Saves Time

The other thing we didn't consider when we moved recently, was the sheer hassle of having to schlep round the shops, there is SO much you need if you start from scratch - especially as you don't know the retailers so waste time looking for the right shop. Then you need a sofa NOW, so you have to buy one you don't like rather than waiting three weeks to order the one you really want. If we did it again, we'd bring a lot more (though we wouldn't bring beds or bed linens because they're different sizes in Oz).

Arguments against shipping:

1. Timing

It's going to take six, eight, or (if you're unlucky) twelve weeks for your stuff to arrive. Most people book into holiday accommodation for three or four weeks when they first arrive, but even so, you'll probably have to move into your own place before the container arrives. If there's just the two of you, you might be able to buy a bed, eat takeaway and "camp" in an empty house till it arrives, but with kids that's not always practical, and you could end up having to replace half your stuff by the time the container gets there. So what's the point?

One way to reduce this problem is to send your container on a few weeks ahead - it will probably be much easier to "camp" in your own home before you go, because you'll still have your beds, plus all the odds and ends that aren't worth sending, plus you can borrow bits and pieces from family. But then you have the risk that the shipping company will surprise you and deliver in super-quick time, and you'll be up for storage costs at the other end - so you need to know what those would be.

2. The Furniture Won't Suit Anyway

Depending on where you're going in Australia, you may find your furniture doesn't suit the house anyway. If you're coming to inner-city Sydney, for instance, rooms are very small and an overstuffed sofa won't fit. Or you may be the kind of person for whom style is important, and you're not going to be happy to put a cottage-style lounge suite into a contemporary house - and obviously, you can't predict what sort of house you'll end up with.

Just be aware with white goods that are still under warranty or new, as the warranty may not be valid here if something goes wrong. Have a look at websites like The Good Guys, Appliances on line, Domain, Harvey Norman etc to get an idea of what stuff costs here, but remember if you go to a shop in person, its very rare you pay the ticket price, haggling etc is perfectly normal here. Also work out how much you will pay in rent for items in your container whilst you wait for it to arrive,it can be 'cheap' per week to rent things for 12mths but i found the price went up lots if you only wanted to hire for a month or so.

Cal x

Thankyou for the advice. We do not have expensive furniture and were unsure if there was much point taking it however we were worried about the expenditure of having to start with nothing. Is furniture more expensive or is there ways to pick up a bargain?

Thankyou for the advice. We do not have expensive furniture and were unsure if there was much point taking it however we were worried about the expenditure of having to start with nothing. Is furniture more expensive or is there ways to pick up a bargain?

The best way to answer that is to do your own research. Be careful of trusting what people here say - they could be comparing what prices were like when they migrated a few years ago, and things have changed since then!

If you're happy with Argos-quality furniture, you could check out http://fantasticfurniture.com.au If you want better quality, look at harveynorman.com.au.

Ikea is also in Australia, ikea.com.au. There are two other furniture stores in Australia that are very similar in quality and price point to Ikea, they are Freedom Furniture and Oz Design - both have online websites.

Freedom is better quality and more expensive than IKEA. And it's not flat pack stuff and can take a while to have the stuff delivered. We ordered a desk from them just over a week ago and it will not get here until early December.

We brought everything with us but never had to manage without anything as we stayed with relatives at both ends and the container arrived just as we were moving in to our rental. However, having just had to replace large amounts of furniture in my house due to many things being damaged by a sewage flood there is no way I would want to arrive and buy everything new. We are only replacing a few items, not everything, and it has been pretty hard work even though we know where we can get the stuff we like from. Unless you are buying flat pack furniture you will still have to wait for the furniture to be delivered. Some places will have some items in stock and should be able to arrange delivery within a week but others you may have to wait up to 8 weeks for your furniture. And if you buy flat pack you have to remember that you will then have to spend time putting stuff together. This is probably less of an issue if you are not working but for us is proving to be a complete pain to try and fit it in around everything else.

I don't get the whole 'furniture doesn't suit the house' thing. If you buy furniture you love then you will be happy with it where ever it is just as long as it physically fits. And second hand furniture here can actually sell really well - we sold a couple of wardrobes when we arrived for far more than we would have got selling them in the UK. If you are happy to spend time furniture and household goods shopping and buying cheap flat pack or second hand then don't bring anything. If you hate shopping or have better things to do with your time and money then bring it all.

ETA - in terms of costs the value of our items that were damaged was nearly $23k. This was most, but not all, the furniture in the family room and a few items in the bedrooms, the washing machine and a freezer. The dishwasher and fridge freezer in the kitchen survived as did the beds. We are not replacing everything like for like as many things we brought from the UK and cannot be purchased here. So far we have spent over $11k replacing items and we still have a number of things to replace. Some of our replacements have come from IKEA but most of them have come from a shop called Classic Timber Furniture that happen to have some nice quality, British furniture in stock that we really like. We knew about it because some of the furniture that was damaged was from there.

We have just shipped a 40 foot container with most of our 4 bed household goods (but no white goods or tv as these are so old). Cost us about £7,000 to ship it all (including dismantling and reassembling of beds and a couple bits of furniture). If you want to insure your shipment you have to value the goods at the replacement cost in Australia). To replace everything new would cost about £60,000. Took ages on Internet trying to find replacement values and made us realise just how much it would cost to start again. We wouldn't get much for our stuff if we had to sell it here. Besides how much time and hassle would be involved. If you have a full house of stuff I'd consider taking it and you can then replace stuff as and when.

We we are currently "camping" in our house in England but it's amazing his much stuff our friends had squirrelled away in their lift/shed that has been lent to us.

Good luck with your move.

...having just had to replace large amounts of furniture in my house due to many things being damaged by a sewage flood there is no way I would want to arrive and buy everything new. We are only replacing a few items, not everything, and it has been pretty hard work even though we know where we can get the stuff we like from.... Some places will have some items in stock and should be able to arrange delivery within a week but others you may have to wait up to 8 weeks for your furniture. And if you buy flat pack you have to remember that you will then have to spend time putting stuff together.

Yes, that's exactly why I think shipping is worthwhile. If you don't ship then you have to buy a whole heap of furniture in a hurry - not easy when you don't know the shops, and you have 101 other things to do - and you have to settle for what's in stock. Either that, or manage without for weeks - in which case, you might as well have managed without till your own furniture arrived.

Of course you can buy cheap/second-hand stuff at first, with the intention of upgrading when you're settled - but then all you've done is ended up paying for two lots of furniture!