seasea Posted October 20, 2013 Share Posted October 20, 2013 Hi, At this early stage of my research I feel that it is best to "travel light". Currently, I am of the opinion that I would do just as well to buy all my white goods and any other furniture once I arrive instead of shipping everything over. What are other people's experiences of starting from scratch and shipping over lock stock and barrel? The only thing I would want to bring over is my computer and perhaps my TV. Do British TV's work over there and if they do is it even worth shipping it? How easy is it to rent furnished property in Australia? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wakeboard1980 Posted October 20, 2013 Share Posted October 20, 2013 If you have relatively new furniture I would ship it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
seasea Posted October 20, 2013 Author Share Posted October 20, 2013 Why's that? Is furniture expensive? Is it poor quality? The only thing we have new is our sofa. The rest of our furniture is either due to be replaced or not worth it's weight. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rallyman Posted October 20, 2013 Share Posted October 20, 2013 If your white goods are less than 2 years old I would ship them, they are so expensive here. Uk tv 's work fine out here just need to change the plug or fit a adapter. TV's are quite cheap here compare to uk. If you have a lot of uk DVDs bring your uk DVD player as they are formatted different out here. good luck with your move Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
seasea Posted October 20, 2013 Author Share Posted October 20, 2013 Are white goods expensive to the degree that you would buy them in the UK and ship them out? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fifi69 Posted October 20, 2013 Share Posted October 20, 2013 To ship furniture or not is also going to be subjective. Some are going to say yes def, others no don't bother. Me I agree with if its pretty new or sentimental then yes. If your taking it for the sake of it I wouldn't bother. For the price of a container and all the other fees that aren't given in your quote, you can furnish your home with furniture that suits and fits your new home. A happy medium may be to take a look around your home now, see what you would def like to take then have a look at using a movecube if it doesn't amount to too much stuff. They come in small, medium and large and are way cheaper than a container. You could easily get a sofa in a large one, maybe even a medium. There would still be plenty of room for other bits and bobs and for a large movecube you will pay just over 1000 pounds, so about the same price of a nice sofa here (of course you can pay more or less for one). Have a look online at some of the Oz retailers eg Good Guys, Harvey Norman etc to get the jist of cost of white goods. I know friends have just paid $1200 for a large side by side fridge freezer with water and ice dispenser etc, not sure how much this would be to buy in the UK but gives an idea to compare to. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cathy99 Posted October 20, 2013 Share Posted October 20, 2013 Hiya We're moving to sydney in January and are getting our stuff shipped out at the end of November. Like you we didn't/don't have a lot of stuff to bring but we do need to ship my husbands toolbox over (it's huge), so we decided to go through everything we have and decide if it was worth it or not. We are going to be shipping out our washing machine as it's only a year old, still undecided about the fridge and freezer, they're decent hotpoint ones and are 5yrs old, our new suite and definitely our bed (it cost £2,000 5 years ago) and our girls mattress's and beds (because we'd heard that furniture i.e sofa's, beds, table and chairs etc are really expensive) also our table and chairs and my pc. That's it though the rest is just a box of bed linen, photo's, some clothes and kids toys. The rest we will buy when we are there, oh yes we'll be taking our tv too. We had a really good quote of £2,850 with gb liners and our stuff will be going groupage (shared container) as it isn't enough to fill a whole one. Hth :wink: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wakeboard1980 Posted October 20, 2013 Share Posted October 20, 2013 If your furniture is due for replacement then do it there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NicF Posted October 20, 2013 Share Posted October 20, 2013 It always amazes me when people say you can furnish your house for the cost of shipping your furniture as I don't find that at all. If you are happy to buy second hand furniture then maybe, but to me $6500 (the approximate dollar value of shipping my container) I would have struggled to get all my white goods never mind anything else. Actually that may be an exaggeration but to get furniture on a par with the stuff we shipped, plus all our white goods, plus pots, pans, cutlery, etc would have cost a small fortune. (We valued our stuff in the container at well over £20,000 or $30,000 for insurance purposes). We have pieces of furniture that cost around £1000 new and wouldn't be any cheaper in Australia so they were well worth shipping. For us £4k for shipping was well worth it. To ship or not to ship is an entirely personal decision and depends on how much stuff you have and what it's value to you is. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NicF Posted October 20, 2013 Share Posted October 20, 2013 Oh and TVs do work but you might need a set top box. And furnished properties tend to be holiday rentals or student accommodation but it may depend on the area you will be living in. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
calNgary Posted October 20, 2013 Share Posted October 20, 2013 We brought no furniture as most of it was a few years old . We bought new or second hand once we arrived and i wouldn't hesitate to do it again. Looking back none of our UK furniture would have really fit and it also meant we could buy what we needed when we needed it and not have to live on camp beds etc until our stuff arrived. Cal x Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
the gardener Posted October 20, 2013 Share Posted October 20, 2013 Before you come look at Gumtree(your location in Oz),that will give you a good idea of cost secondhand. Your DVD player will not work here,but you will get one at a Garage Sale for $10. Dont be too proud to buy secondhand,sometimes you will find a bargain,we did,be patient,and be in the right place at the right time with cash! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peach Posted October 21, 2013 Share Posted October 21, 2013 Your DVD player will not work here It certainly will work here. It may however not play DVDs bought in Australia, unless it is set to multi-region - very few players these days cannot be made multi-region. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted October 21, 2013 Share Posted October 21, 2013 Are white goods expensive to the degree that you would buy them in the UK and ship them out? Be aware of the one year rule or however long/much it is. Buying everything new and shipping may or may not get past customs. If it doesn't it could cost you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NicF Posted October 21, 2013 Share Posted October 21, 2013 Are white goods expensive to the degree that you would buy them in the UK and ship them out? Didn't notice this before. Don't buy new and ship them. As well as the 12 month rule that Snifter mentioned above buying new in the UK and shipping will mean any warranties are no longer valid. If you are going to buy new then wait until you get here and buy new here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
k8bug79 Posted October 21, 2013 Share Posted October 21, 2013 Be aware of the one year rule or however long/much it is. Buying everything new and shipping may or may not get past customs. If it doesn't it could cost you. Personal experience (As I can see both sides of the argument) we had a few pieces that were good enough to keep. Some that was so bad, hand me downs, old dated and not what we wanted etc so we got rid. We bought the bits that were not top of the list to replace. In so much that we waited for ages to buy ourselves book shelves as there was always something more pressing- we didn't need bookshelves immediately so we brought them with us. We did think we would ship nothing that we couldn't live without for 3 months- but as we had just bought a new mattress we decided to ship our bed and buy a sofa bed out here. We worked on the principle that we had 2nd hand and make do furniture in the UK so what difference did it make to buy 2nd hand here. We've picked up some nice bits. You can get a range of top quality stuff right down to bargain basement on gumtree. We bought over a large movecube as mentioned above (there's a thread somewhere with pictures of how much you can fit in them) and it cost us about 1500 gbp in total for that. I agree with above that some of the furniture could look out of place and certainly the rooms and houses are generally bigger so we are having to buy more pieces than we left behind in the UK. We didn't bring our TV as we were told it has to have a different sound setting (German I think but a search on here will tell you for sure) which ours didn't. we picked up a no name one from Dick Smith for $400 does the trick. I think it all depends on your mindset. We are starting a new life and don't expect to live the aussie dream straight off. We will take what we can get for our budget. If you've enough to splurge on new stuff go for it (I for one have not found Aus to be expensive when earning $). But we are erfectly happy and comfortable with our pre loved stuff. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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