HELP PLEASE! Advice on Shipping Furniture

LinzLou
Junior Member



Joined: 15 May 2008
Posts: 14

Posted: Wed May 21, 2008 1:54 pm

 

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I am trying to determine what to move with us and what to sell, and finding the emotional attachment much to strong to make rational, practical decisions, so any input would be greatly appreciated. We are moving to Edinburgh in a few weeks (so no time for eBay, but probably lots of time for an in-house garage/estate sale)- for an indefinite period of time. Originally I was going to ship most of our stuff (given our large moving allowance) but am now feeling that this is absurd. I think part of me is worried that we will be financially ruined having to purchase all new things over there.
I am particularly concerned about 1) beds; 2) couch; 3) table; 4) stemware/glassware; 5) coffee table/end tables/ bookshelves.
Any advice or words of wisdom from those of you who have done this would be a huge help.

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mari-mac
Senior Member



Joined: 01 Sep 2006
Posts: 94
Location: U.K.

Posted: Wed May 21, 2008 11:02 pm

 

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I guess it depends on what quality of things you have, and the quality you want to replace them with, if that makes sense. If you have nice quality stuff, then you may find that it is very expensive to replace them here (or even to find equivalent quality). For top end, I would look at John Lewis's website for an idea of prices.

However, if you don't mind buying budget stuff and then replacing over time, you will find it do-able. There is an Ikea outside of Glasgow, and other stores to look at are places like Argos and Woolworths. Again, look them up online to look at prices.

I don't know if you've found a place to live yet - but you can rent places that are furnished or partly furnished, which may help with the short-term need for furniture!

I have a friend who made the opposite move to Chicago and shipped all their furniture and didn't realise that there was Ikea in Chicago too, so she would have saved a lot of money not shipping her own Ikea furniture over.
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Steven
CanuckAbroad VIP



Joined: 28 Sep 2007
Posts: 1112
Location: Calgary

Posted: Mon May 26, 2008 8:08 pm

 

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Look into international removal companies, but it isn't cheap to do it. Beds and other furniture tends to be smaller in the UK as houses are smaller so it might not be a wise idea to move all your stuff over to the UK.

If you've got a decent moving allowance though I think I probably would use it.

I've used Allied in the past, they were very good but also expensive. I've also tried doing it myself, I stuck all my stuff in my car and drove it down to the Port and into the container, that was a disaster, my dad (unknown to me) left a jug of grapefruit juice on the backseat of my car which leaked everywhere, plus my stereo and PC were stolen out of the car.

I've also done it the "one suitcase at a time" way, i.e. leave all my stuff in one place and gradually bring it over, which works but obviously not for furniture.

You get what you pay for!
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Steve.

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cordobaman
CanuckAbroad Regular



Joined: 27 Apr 2008
Posts: 70
Location: North Bay Ontario

Posted: Tue May 27, 2008 3:21 am

 

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Well, we've certainly learned you can only be sentimentally attached to so much stuff; in our case, we're getting rid of EVERYTHING. I look at it as there's an IKEA over there, and can replace the bedroom set if we wanted to at any point later. Virtually the only things we'll have left will be our clothes, the dog and our fondest memories. As a previous poster mentioned, if you let a house that is partly/fully furnished, then there's simply no need."stuff" can be replaced.

Just my $0.02 .

Peter

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acrossthewall
Junior Member



Joined: 06 Dec 2006
Posts: 19
Location: New York, USA

Posted: Mon Jun 09, 2008 2:51 pm

 

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Edinburgh does have an IKEA, for the record, though it's out of town (to the south, just outside the city-bypass highway).

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