Shipment going 1st July - surviving til the 25th...?

[Lisyloo725]

Hi overseas movers!!
Does anyone have any advice for approaching our shipment (containing everything/almost everything) leaving around three weeks before we fly...
I have 2 DC - aged 6 and 3.
I am working til the end of the month but need our stuff to go earlier so that it arrives in time for DC3’s birth!
(I know I must be mad)

Do we keep air beds and sleeping bags and sleep on those?
And a kettle/toaster - then trash it?
Towels - a beach one each.
Four plates, bowls, knives, forks, spoons, corkscrew (!)...
Toys

Have you any tips?
Have you any suggestions for things not to ship - to leave until I pack my case?

We are renting our house out here once gone, so the washer and fridge will still be available for us to use luckily.

Plastic plates, cups, beakers (not China)

I just moved into a hotel apartment! We were selling our house so it was that or sleep on the floor - I either shipped it, sold it, gave it away, donated it or chucked it, then arrived with one suitcase, which had to include work clothes as I would start my new job before our shipment arrived.

It does sound quite hard, sleeping on an airbed living out of suitcases whilst working, looking after your other kids and pregnant. Can you get the tenants in earlier and move into an airbnb for those weeks or get some rental furniture basics for your house for the 3 weeks?

Where are you going? Might help to know, so we can advise on what not to ship.

Thanks all!
@silentpool we are headed to Oz. I know I can’t take anything wooden and not varnished - so I’ll have chopping boards til the last day!

It’s a good idea to give the house over while we r still in the country! I didn’t think of that!
I’ll look at prices of local air bnbs -thanks.

We are shopping all our belongings - if it’s allowed it’s going.

My stuff took about 5 months to get to Aus from the UK (delayed at the arrival port for 6 weeks) so I might suggest thinking about what will happen at the other side too!

Agree with pp…rent an aparthotel for the month. Air bnb also sounds like a good plan (that didn’t exist when I moved overseas many years ago!). Spent a good month waiting for my shipment. It was like Christmas Day when it arrived I was so excited 😂

Yes, rent a serviced apartment or similar. Makes life so much easier.

Thanks. Yes we will rent an air bnb for the month following quarantine. So we can have that as a base to explore the areas we think, from our armchairs, look good!

Quick Q: do Aussie homes come with fitted wardrobes? Our mover told us they do so not to take three wardrobes we have which are freestanding. Interested to hear thoughts. X

Our rented house in Aus has fitted wardrobes and drawers in all bedrooms and 2 big cupboards in the hallway. It's definitely more usual here, but I am not sure if all, for example older properties, have that. We didn't have wardrobes in the uk, but we brought some chests of drawers and they have been useful as extra storage.

Also, OP @Lisyloo725 I was thinking of your other thread about what to do before leaving and I remembered that we ordered lots of plug adapters from Amazon to use so we didn't have to change the plugs upon arrival here. We are still using some of the adapters 3 years later!

Thanks v m @Thefourthcraw x x

I rented 3 diff properties in Sydney and none came with wardrobes. But they were all beautiful old style properties. Suspect new apartments will have fitted wardrobes.
Have you looked at what's available yet? Things go quickly so you wouldn't be able to get what's available now, but it would help give you an idea of what's around and what types you like better than others.
Domain is the equivalent of Rightmove. There's an app (it's green) or a website, (probably domain.Com.Au).the app is pretty good.

Thanks @Smidge001- yes I’ve got the domain app.
I did hear that we were able to upload eg landlord references and proof that we are good people/prospective tenants - sort of making a profile - but I haven’t yet figured out how to do that. Do you know if that’s true?

Definitely worth getting pdfs of all those things ready. But when I was looking, you had to upload them to the specific estate agent directly - or potentially to the specific house, rather than just on to the site in general.

Don't forget, the rental prices are quoted per week, not per month (which is frightening if you're not coming from Central London prices!)

Thanks @Smidge001 - a bunch of PDFS sounds like a good plan!
Luckily we are coming from London - but you’re right - they’re a shocker!

We sort of camped for the last week (renting the house out unfurnished) but it wasn't much fun and if we did it again I'd get an air bnb for a couple of weeks. We ended up with a hugely compressed timeline for reasons beyond our control.

We have been here 3 months and still don't have our shipment- we're getting it in about a week, so also consider that. We could have called it forward earlier but have been in rather bijou temp accommodation and it seemed more hassle to move twice. I wish I'd brought more clothes and sent more stuff for the kids in our small air shipment.

How are you doing @Lisyloo725? Did everything go smoothly with your belongings leaving? Are you camping in the house like @101spacehoppers?

Oh this is interrrrrresting @101spacehoppers.
Booking flights, I wanted to book 8 23kg bags - but hubby convinced me to book just six - due to managing them in the airports really. We have three flights and with one change we do need to collect and recheck in the bags - so quite a lot of faff. I’d be interested to know who you used for air freight and the approx volume/cost??

Our packing up has been bumped to the 12th,13th,14th and we fly on the 23rd after school ends. We have this last week, at least, to continue the washing things - the boys wellies that we’re keeping as baby due is a boy, took ages!!! This weekends job is the trampoline and all other outdoor bits.
They saaaay they take 46 days, plus a week either side, so we’ll see. Baby is due on 15th Oct so I really need it to be faster than 3mths!!

@Thefourthcraw thanks for checking on me! DH suggested flying a few days later (so that we can spend more time with his parents before we go) but I’ve painted the picture of living here with a few old mattresses and a kettle, heavily pregnant with two small kids and one iPad!! 😂😂 we’re flying on the date I first suggested!! 😆

@101spacehoppers are you in Oz? Where abouts?
Did you manage to find a rental pretty easily??
There’s so little on Domain - I’m hoping that all the good ones get snapped up before they get put on the web!! Ie. There’ll be more than it seems!!

No not in Oz! It was a facilitated move by work so I don't know how much anything cost- Pickfords handled both the container and the airfreight and seemed fine. We only got normal economy baggage for the flight, followed about 10 days later by 250kg airfreight and then the container later. The actual shipping to where we are didn't take long but customs is a pain here as well. It's been at the port a month...

Many years ago, I moved back to Australia from the uk. For a particular reason, I actually got in touch with customs about a fortnight before my shipment was due.

That meant that the paperwork was half done before everything arrived. IIRC, I just got into the car and presented myself their front desk (not in Sydney) and talked to them. I got a really friendly reception. I like to think that it made the process a few days quicker.

Ah @Lisyloo725 you made the right call with not moving your flights any later, despite DH wanting to hang about! At least you have a shorter time between the container leaving and you following.

I don't know how long shipped goods are taking at the moment. Our container arrived in Oz 9 weeks after leaving the UK, but that was 3 years ago and I have heard that it is much longer now. Have you got hotel quarantine booked, you may have heard that the federal government here are putting a cap to reduce the numbers coming in again? I hope it doesn't impact you.

That sounds like a nightmare with the customs @101spacehoppers.

Yeh, @Thefourthcraw - quarantine is booked. Thankfully the company are paying for and organising that.
Customs scares me!! I’m sure we’re gonna get stung for a rogue dead spider stuck to the bottom of something!!!!