furnished or unfurnished???????? help please?

[clan mac]

Hi all,

we will be arriving from the UK end of March/beg of April 2015, was wondering if we should look at an unfurnished rental vs furnished rental till our stuff arrives from the UK???? As you will see from our signature we have been in this process for a LONG time. Our house took ages to sell in the recession and we had to sell it at a reduced price, which means that we will not have a lot of money to spend when we arrive. I am aware of the fact that it may take time to find work, although I hope we get something quickly! Any advice please? Also any advice re areas? Sincere thanks in advance - Lorraine x

[samandcraig]

Hi Lorraine, how have you kept going after so long?? We started the process 2 year ago next month and are finally going in March 2015, can't wait, good luck with everything.....Sam x

[RachaelOs]

A lot of people rent a furnished place for about a month, gives you a chance to get set up, look for a long term rental etc etc.

 

We did but still had to wait for our furniture to arrive once we moved in to our unfurnished rental so obviously it's difficult to time it exactly!

[Gumster]

We managed with an air bed & garden furniture until ours arrived. It was like indoor camping! We certainly had a new respect for our belongings when they arrived! We managed to pick up a few freebies from a couple of poms in adelaide members which really helped us out!

[snifter]

Short term furnished then look for a longer term rental and go with the indoor camping is a good idea. We did that in reverse doing the indoor camping thing before we left as we had a place to stay when we arrived.

[KathCats]

We found it hard to get a decent rental per se. Furnished is difficult to get and more expensive. Having a car is more important over here and if you don't mind second-hand stuff there are a lot of garage sales at weekends and people leave "hard rubbish" at the side of the road which you can take for free. There is also an Ikea here which is cheap. When our stuff arrived from the uk we didn't even want most of it so seriously consider whether you really want to spend money on shipping over furniture.

 

We have furnished our whole house very cheaply but did buy new beds and bedding (Ikea) and a TV. We got a fridge from Gumtree for $50 and the most amazing Hoover I have ever had for just $5 at a garage sale as it was dusty!!!

[clan mac]

Thanks for all the replies, food for thought re bringing stuff vs not bringing it. I have a lot of expensive furniture which I'm loath to part with so think I'm probably gonna bring it and take the shipping cost on the chin!!! OUCH! The car thing is a bit worrying as we have a limited budget hmmm. Might actually think about the camping thing this end and send the furniture middle of Jan then we go straight to unfurnished which might save some money. I suppose too that it will give me time to get rid of stuff that wont fit. All advice much appreciated xx

[snifter]

Going with the shipping early can work well.

 

We kept back all the stuff we were not shipping and in the weeks before leaving sold off what we could and in the last few days either took what was left to the recycling centre or gave it away. We slept on air mattresses the last bit after the spare room double bed sold and our car we left with a friend to sort out after we had gone. It was being sold for scrap so he was happy to break it for us. We ate off paper plates the last few days and picnic cutlery, all stuff we were happy to bin and I did a load of laundry at my Mum's on the Sunday before we left A friend came with his truck on the morning we left and we bagged up all the last bits we had no use for and he took them to the dump down the road for us. Was a really good way to streamline the shipping and also to ensure we could manage before we left. The last evening we went and had a meal at our local pub and watched TV via the laptop as we still had our internet connected till the day we left.

[Jessica Berry]

We didn't ship anything over, apart from personal/sentimental items in a few boxes a couple of years later. The lady that bought our property knew we were emigrating so I asked her if she wanted to buy any of the furniture and she bought most of it off us. It would not have been cost effective to ship it over, for us, it was much easier to get rid in the UK and start afresh.

 

We spoke to a rental agent when we arrived and said we were looking for a furnished place and she found us one, so it all worked out.

 

In terms of where to rent, it depends on your circumstances/preferences and where your jobs might be, it can be a pain if you rent far South and then work far North and vice versa and for some employers it can be a reason to exclude you if you live too far away.