Gemrock

Aha, hadn’t considered the humidity. Ok, so no washing powder! Thanks! Definitely have m&s undies and socks on the list for the whole family. You get some good deals in Target but I don’t find the quality quite the same. Anything else you got to Oz and thought ‘damn, wish we’d shipped that’ ?! Have 2 weeks before the cube arrives!

This is a bit random but how about washing powder? I’m presuming they will be ok if they’re unopened? We had to upgrade to a large move cube to fit some furniture in so I want to make sure it’s crammed as full as possible! I remember washing powder is extortionate in Oz, especially the eco brands.

Thanks so much Snifter, this is incredibly helpful. My husband has an invalidated PR visa and I’ve already been in contact with IOM, but no reply yet. We’re actually wanting to fly Singapore Air and would book direct with them anyway so I’ll definitely call them about the possibility of an extra 10kg. Unfortunately we’ll be arriving in early July in line with Hubby’s visa requirement, so just as winter sets in!

Has anyone attempted to fumigate goods before shipping, either at home or through Rentokil or similar? I have a couple of antique wooden suitcases and a wicker chest I really don’t want to part with. However, neither do I want them destroyed on arrival or to have to shell out big money for them to be fumigated in Oz. Are they the only two options or is there a possible other route?!

Great, thanks! That’s a good point about the mattresses - we’ll be selling the beds but I’m guessing most people won’t want the mattress in which case we can at least sleep on those until the final day and then organise disposal as you did. And try and sell the sofa, tv cabinet etc 10 days or so before we go which leaves enough time if we’re not successful to offer them on Freecycle. Going to start the decluttering now!

Thanks for your replies! We’re lucky that staying with my parents means we don’t need to worry too much about our initial arrival - if the movecube hasn’t arrived by the time we find a rental, we can hopefully borrow most necessities from them and get the rest from ikea/Kmart. Just wondering how long it took people to sell the things they weren’t taking before they left and if they booked movecubes/shipping containers a few weeks beforehand or at the last minute?

We’ve had our visa granted and accepted an offer on our house in London. Now I’m wondering how an earth to best sequence the big move to Adelaide! We are planning to use a large movecube for some of our furniture, books, kitchenware we don’t want to leave, toys, prints etc. We’ll need to sell the rest of our furniture and give away/recycle what we can’t sell. I’m just wondering how to make sure we get rid of everything before we move out, but aren’t in our house for too long sitting on boxes and sleeping on the floor (we have a toddler and a baby)! it would be great to hear how others timed it and how it worked out. For instance, I’m thinking we book the movecube for a few weeks before we move out, try and sell everything else in the last week and send a couple of large boxes of stuff we’ll need immediately by surface mail in the last days. We’ll be staying with my parents when we first arrive.