Should we ship our furniture

[Monica25]

Hi,

Does anyone have any thoughts on if its worth shipping your furniture or saving the costs and starting from scratch?

We are getting quotes bringing some of our furniture (down scaled for smaller housing).

Who brought stuff with them and who sold up and started fresh?

Thanks for input

[Sunnyskies]

Monica, the debate continues to rage and you will find the numbers evenly matched.

My only advice would be that if your stuff needs to be replaced or you want to replace it then leave it. If you like your furniture and it will cost more to replace than to transport over then bring it.

You can buy Ikea here which many new arrivals do and it is quite cheap but top end furniture is expensive.

[monsta]

Sunnykises said it quite well. It depends on the quality of your furniture and how much you have. For example shipping a single cheap sofa isn't worth it. You can replace that easily ayt IKEA. But if you have an expensive lounge suite and two good beds, then ship them.

Also, don't ship appliances. Using your RSA apliances here can coat you as much as $1200 a year in extra electricity charges. I had a mate who ditched his RSA appliances and started using his washing line instead of his tumble dreyer. He saved $400 every 3 months. That's a lot considering a good take home salary is +-$5000pm.

Aussie appliances get rated on their energy and water efficiency. This gets stuck onto the apliance at rhe apploance shops. There is even a government web site where you can look up how efficient appliances are. So, naturally appliamnces herand are far more efficient here than in RSA.

Edited January 6, 2015 by monsta

[Mara]

Monsta the dryer has nothing to do with being South African, what causes the high cost is the fact that it is actually a "heater" that you have running. Depending on the kW rating of the heating element and the length of time you use it, can definitely be a costly exercise. Even if you bought an Aussie dryer, of the same kW rating, then it would cost you the same to run.

Imagine if you needed to use heaters to heat your house instead of gas heating what the cost would be.

I agree, with all the statements above about furniture. It is only worth bringing if it is of great value. On the other hand, the joy of unpacking your container and being surrounded by your "own stuff" is priceless.

[Nev]

We sold everything and started again,

On the one side we now have matching stuff, and have gotten rid of the rubbish we were dragging around behind us, but we did live on camping equipment for a long while.

I have to agree though if you have good stuff i could be worth bringing, , I really miss my Graften Everest leather lounge suite, and replacing that here is insanity, but would it have justified a container.... not so sure, would i bring a container if i was to do it again..... no idea

[miran]

Our container should arrive next week sometime. My kids are so excited about having their "old stuff". It will definitely make the process of settling a lot easier. They still think we're on holiday and will go back "home" (South Africa). For us shipping was the best decision.

[EmNew]

Monica - we're in the same boat - trying to decide what to take and what to leave! We have some goodish pieces, but the main problem is, that since obtaining them , our tastes have changed..... I don't want to pay to ship items we really don't like anymore.

We're leaning towards a movecube for the personal items, crockery, books etc, and a few small pieces of solid wood furniture / sentimental pieces. I think my hubby will be content to camp, so long as he has his PC and internet access to his Steam library of games to escape the chaos

I actually relish the idea of starting fresh and slowly - identifying actual needs vs wants. I am of course jumping the gun here, as we have yet to receive an invite against our EOI lodged Christmas Eve, but I am OCD about planning ahead

[Magenta]

We brought over a container (mainly because we didn't have to pay for it ). We didn't have huge amounts of furniture to bring but looking at the costs of beds before we came over, we decided to bring a double and queen (extra length) beds. We decided to bring our fridge over, as it wasn't too old. I have noticed that most fridges here are shorter than SA fridges (and the space in the kitchen for the fridge is therefore too short). There are amazing sales on in Perth at the moment, and the French door fridges are really nice. So, if I did it again, I would have sold my fridge to my folks (they were very keen to buy it). Some furniture here is quite expensive. IKEA isn't too badly priced though. I kind of like the fact that I can start a bit from scratch and I finally have space in my house for a dining room table Oh, and front loaders here seem to be more water and energy efficient than top loaders. I sold my top loader in SA - I thought that if I moved into a place where space was an issue, I could put the tumble dryer on top of the front loader.

Edited January 7, 2015 by Magenta

[Izzy]

Hi

You need to compare the cost of the container versus the price to buy things new over here. You need to look at bed prices.(your eyes will water).That being said we did bring a container and I am glad I did as the costs of furnishing a house here is quite steep. We did purchase a washing machine here as we could not wait for the container so I left my top loader behind.

You need to do the calculations and decide what you want to spend your rands on. Our exchange rate was 10 to 1 so to spend money having stuff delivered was not a great option. You can also get lots of second hand furniture from the shops like Vinnies and Salvos and you can take furniture off the verge when the Council clean up occurs. They recycle everything here.

I also put in a fair bit of cleaning products from Makro in the container and that helps with the costs of setting up again.Remember you will have to start up your kitchen with everything like spices, paper plates,etc etc.

That's my 2c , hope it helps.

All the best

[Magenta]

Bring linen!! I went shopping for new linen yesterday and OMG ... It is expensive. Well, I thought so anyway. I went to Big W, which is fairly cheap ..... A set of a fitted sheet, flat sheet and 2 pillow cases $ 75 (queen size). The beds here are equivalent to SA's extra length. We bought a new bed before coming over, as beds are very expensive too and we bought a queen XL, so that buying linen here would fit the new bed. If I am not mistaken, the double beds here are the same as in SA - can anyone verify this?

[Faduv]

Got quote for 20ft container. R62k. How far will $6200 take us if we need to refurbish. I am working on 3 bedroom house with lounge and dining room.

My one idea is to do movecube with 3 new beds so that might impact the cost of refurbish house

[RYLC]

You will need beds straight away when you get here so better to buy here. If I was doing it all again I would only bring the sentimental things. Basic furniture is needed and waiting six weeks and camping is fun and all but much easier to just buy straight away. We found that our furniture didn't suit the style of the houses here. It was heavy and big and when you are now doing all the cleaning yourself it is unnecessarily hard work.

You can get furniture packages from places like Fantastic Furniture - not great quality but fine for what it is. My favourite is Ikea because it is the caravan of furniture.

http://fantasticfurniture.com.au/c/Package%20Deals

http://www.ikea.com/au/en/preindex.html?region=au-east

[Magenta]

It is possible to rent furniture and linen here. We are currently renting a few things until our container arrives. Found a rental, moved in yesterday, container arrives on Thursday. You can also rent irons, ironing boards, washing machine. There is a website with prices, just google.

[JacquiD]

Hi there

My family will be coming to OZ on a 457 visa. At the moment it's a great long 2 yr adventure . We will decide about permanent residency once we there.

I prefer to bring most of my good quality furniture as I heard its quite expensive in Sydney. Any suggestions of good companies in the Jhb area.

My husband also has a car which has been adapted for disability. He is paraplegic.

He prefers to bring it however we are weighing up our options. Any info about shipping cars for disabled drivers, rules and regulations or even suggestions would be appreciated.

My husband will be working in Frenchs Forest, so I presumed it would be ideal to live close by.

However, it's difficult to locate flat like buildings for rent. Especially buildings with elevators and wheelchair access. I guess we could look at houses but I'm already gonna have to get used to doing most of the house cleaning so I'm not taking on mowing a lawn just yet. Lol.

It's going to be a culture shock.

[RedPanda]

I've recently obtained quotes from four relocation companies(In Centurion, so Jhb should be the same), and I liked Crown Relocations and Bayley Worldwide the most, although Crown quoted more for the move, but included the 'landing/customs' charges on the other side.

You are welcome to use the search function on the forum to find older threads for this. I seem to remember one a month or so old. The info is still good.

[Mara]

@ JacquiD : Firstly, welcome to our corner of the cyber world, trust you will get many answers to your questions here.

Just something to know using the forum:

If you want answers from a lot of people, then you need to copy your post above and start a new thread.... that will give you many more answers thank posting your question in someone else's thread. When other forum members look at the thread headline, they may think "oh I have seen that one" and skip it altogether.

Creating an introduction post in the "Foyer" will allow everyone to get to know you and the red carpet will be rolled out for you!

[JacquiD]

Thank you for the welcome and the forum help.

It's that obvious hey. Lol

My first time on a forum.

So need the advice from people that have already walked this road.

Thanx again

[RedPanda]

Hehehe....it's also a bit of hint, that just below your picture it says: 1 post...now 2 posts... (it updates live)

But welcome, hope we can help you.

[Mel-B]

Red Panda - if I may ask how much were your quotes and for what sizes? I need to do mine asap

[RedPanda]

We had quotes ranging from mid R60k to low R90k, for approximately 23m^3 (23 cubic meters), and it included a Venter trailer. You can use the range as a very rough estimate. But it will change depending on what you are shipping as well as how much.

I know it's not what any of us want to hear, but it really is better to just phone the people and make appointments where they visit your house and tally up the goods to give you a decent quote. It's just better. They know what they're doing and they can estimate the volume needed a lot better than the rest of us. So just make those appointments.

[ottg]

My thoughts on this.

There is a financial and emotional decision that you need to make which has been discussed/mentioned numerous times by others too.

For some the financial side will weigh higher than the emotional side and vice versa. So take your pick!

Besides the points raised by ProudlySouthAfricanInPerth its also about living frugal when you arrive.

My philosophy is to spend as little as possible once you arrived as you will have many other holes to plug.

Because your container will cost you $6k - $10k who would not be able to buy a lot with that. While you can pick-up fairly good "furniture" from 2nd hand-shops or even the pavement (we tend to put unused thing out annually for collection) it will take time to collate. Time you can spend more wisely on other things. But if you a shopper then obviously it wont count.

Then the sense of familiarity when your furniture arrives in a foreign country is priceless as it provides a sense of stability for you and the family.

My view is rather save your money for your 1st investment property.

Needless to say if you cra*pp* furniture you know what to do - as white goods are generally low cost here.

[NicoletteJ]

On 10/26/2015 at 8:38 PM, JacquiD said:

Hi there

My family will be coming to OZ on a 457 visa. At the moment it's a great long 2 yr adventure . We will decide about permanent residency once we there.

I prefer to bring most of my good quality furniture as I heard its quite expensive in Sydney. Any suggestions of good companies in the Jhb area.

My husband also has a car which has been adapted for disability. He is paraplegic.

He prefers to bring it however we are weighing up our options. Any info about shipping cars for disabled drivers, rules and regulations or even suggestions would be appreciated.

My husband will be working in Frenchs Forest, so I presumed it would be ideal to live close by.

However, it's difficult to locate flat like buildings for rent. Especially buildings with elevators and wheelchair access. I guess we could look at houses but I'm already gonna have to get used to doing most of the house cleaning so I'm not taking on mowing a lawn just yet. Lol.

It's going to be a culture shock.

Any updates on your adapted car enquiries, Jacqui? I'd be interested to hear.