Temporary furniture

[FromDurbs]

Hi

I have posted a few times and answered some questions and have found the forum very useful, but never really introduced myself. 

We (mom dad and two big boys) arrived in Melbourne at the end of November and are slowly settling in.  

 

We are moving out of our completely furnished home early in January (see below) into a rental with a kitchen sink, bathroom, dishwasher !, oven and not much else .......    Our furniture is still on its way and wont arrive for another 2 months.  There is a double bed and a fridge on the ship, so I dont want to buy those.  We should buy a bed for one child, the other is also on the ship.  What do people do?   Is there a place to a) borrow? b ) rent ? c) buy cheaply ? d)  buy camping stuff which we may use later? a bed and a fridge.  The rest I think we can manage without and some other things we should buy anyway, like a microwave, kitchen chairs and a washing machine.   I brought some kitchen utensils and pots with us, so I think we will be fine cooking.  It is the sleeping that is worrying me.  These old bones cant sleep on the floor.  Is it appropriate to ask at work whether anyone has something I could borrow?  

 

For those wondering about realistic time lines:

I came on a 457 visa and had a job when I arrived.  We knew no-one in Melbourne and do not have family we could stay with.  I started working two days after we arrived, which in hind sight I think was good.  It helps to settle into 'real life' in stead of exploring the city, I think.  And it gives you locals to talk to, ask questions, get advice. 

When I confirmed the final arrival date, one of my colleagues (almost my boss, its complicated) wrote to me and asked if we would dog sit for them.  She really made it sound like we were doing her a favour, while offering me a fully furnished (lovely, I might add) house for free.  The dog is delightful, by the way.  So we stayed for 11 days in a tiny airbnb flat/apartment (what do people call it here?) on top of each other and have been living for 2 weeks in the fully furnished house.  We managed to secure a rental, to start the day after we need to move out when the owners come back.  It took us 2-3 weeks to find a rental.  

I would spend the first week just looking at the various neighbourhoods, physically going there and looking at one or two houses.  Once you have chosen the neighbourhood, I would allow 2-3 weeks to hunt for a house in that neighbourhood.  The paperwork was completed in about 2 days.  Another house we applied for on roughly the same day took a week to get back to us.  So I would plan on maybe a week from finding a place to stay to being able to move in.    

Dont book accommodation for too long, because in the beginning we could not really apply for rental houses that were immediately available (the majority), since we still had a month before we could move in. Some kind of open ended booking which you could extend week by week would be great. 

It also took us about a week to find a car.   And 2 days from buying it to having it .

 

 

[Riekie]

Many people in your situation camp out in their homes until their furniture arrives. (They buy camp beds, chairs etc or cheap foam mattresses.)  Some South African Facebook groups have been helpful in providing a few odds and ends to help out new arrivals.  Another option is to rent furniture - there are quite a few places that do that.  If you don't know where, ask your local real-estate agent as they often hire furniture to "dress" homes they have on the market. 

[DavePE]

I would suggest Gumtree. For sofa's and beds and that kind of stuff. There's a lot of really good stuff for free or very close to it. Might be worth renting a small van and going and collecting stuff from there. I've seen $5,000 leather sofa's being advertised for free. Definately worth a look. Appliances are also well priced on gumtree but furniture in particular is really well priced.

[Riekie]

Also try these Facebook groups in Melbourne:

 

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Inzalo-South-African-Network-Melbourne/100006329806

 

https://www.facebook.com/South-Africans-living-in-Melbourne-177742685613698/

 

https://www.facebook.com/MelbourneSouthAfricanInfo/

 

 

 

[Andriette1305]

Thanks for the facebook links Riekie! 

 

@FromDurbsWe will be in a similar situation at the beginning of Jan 2019 but have decided (before I started spending time on the forum!) to rent some furniture. It seems that gumtree free furniture might help us a lot! When we went for our activation trip, we rented a furnished 2 bedroom house which was lovely, but expensive if it has to be for a month and also not available upon our arrival (my husband already checked! )

A bit concerned on how long it takes to get a rental, as we will only be arriving early Jan and I would want to be settled in before school starts for the kids (end Jan from what I can generally gather?) 

We are 'lucky' in the sense that we will be sending our stuff during October which should give us enough time that we arrive together with the container. 

 

Thanks again!