What can you fit in a container?

[persianharry]

We are just in the planning stages of our move and to be honest we have a lot of belongings! We are not attached to much of our furniture so we plan on disposing of most of it and the only big items will be beds, a sideboard, a washing machine and couple of smaller bits. What we don't know is just what else we need to dispose of? There is just the two of us (and a dog), but Mrs Persianharry has a fair few wardrobes full of clothes and lots of things like glassware.

 

We just wondered if some of you could share what you managed to fit in your containers so we could have an idea of what we could take with us?

[NicF]

We had a 5 bedroom house in the UK, although one bedroom wasn't much bigger than a cupboard (just had a computer desk and chair in it). We sold the furniture in the spare bedroom but took pretty much everything else except a large double wardrobe with us. To give an idea that included a sofa, stressless chair and footstool, two occasional chairs, dining room table and chairs, two single beds and mattresses, a king size bed and mattress, three wardrobes, several sets of drawers, various side table, TV cabinet, washing machine, dishwasher, two fridges, a freezer and lots of boxes full of our stuff.

 

If you aren't planning on bringing much furniture then you probably don't need to use a container. I would consider using a large move cube instead.

[Lazy Cow]

We had a 5 bedroom house in the UK, although one bedroom wasn't much bigger than a cupboard (just had a computer desk and chair in it). We sold the furniture in the spare bedroom but took pretty much everything else except a large double wardrobe with us. To give an idea that included a sofa, stressless chair and footstool, two occasional chairs, dining room table and chairs, two single beds and mattresses, a king size bed and mattress, three wardrobes, several sets of drawers, various side table, TV cabinet, washing machine, dishwasher, two fridges, a freezer and lots of boxes full of our stuff.

 

If you aren't planning on bringing much furniture then you probably don't need to use a container. I would consider using a large move cube instead.

 

:notworthy:

 

We had a container and a share - with a last minute chuck/donate - but we didn't bring as much furniture. Ours was mainly boxes of 'stuff' and books. I wish we'd packed more wisely, your list is awesome NicF!

[persianharry]

Thanks both of you, that's very helpful. I think we are similar to Lazy Cow i.e. we will have a lot of boxes of stuff so can I just ask: when you say "container and a share" do you mean that you had to take on extra container space in a hurry because you had filled the main container? And was that extra space very expensive?

[snifter]

FWIW we used a large MoveCube and shipped about 32 boxes (tea chest sized mostly but did have some book boxes also), one KS bed inc frame, one desk, chair (taken apart), office chair, blanket box, double wardrobe (flat packed), set of golf clubs, one bike and some odds and sods.

 

Boxes contained clothes from (all 3 of us), bedding (including duck down duvets and 5 pillows), towels, kids toys, all kitchen crockery (about 4/5 boxes all up there), 2 sets of drawers, books, CD, DVDs, photo albums, box of office stuff like bills, documents etc, box of toiletries, christmas decorations, shoes x 2 boxes and then some random stuff like lamps, ornaments etc.

 

Most of fitted in the MoveCube fine but we did ship 3 or 4 tea chests extra that we didn't have room for in the cube and tbh I could have ditched some stuff and streamlined a bit more and so saved that but there was some stuff I wanted to bring. If I was doing it over I'd forget most of the toys, the Christmas decorations and shred more old files of office stuff to have a bit less.

 

The Movecube was great for us as we self packed everything so could really have a sort out as we packed over a few weeks. I gave loads to charity, friends and so on. Sold most of our furniture in the weeks leading up to leaving. We planned it well and made sure our packing boxes were all the same size (tea chest and book box) from the same supplier so we could ensure when we worked out the space we were exact on measurements. We could also tape an area in our dining room the size of the Movecube and stack everything in to make sure it would fit. We got a mattress cover to protect the mattress when shipping and a heap of slica gel sachets off of Amazon and bunged a heap in each box/bag. I vacuum packed a heap of the clothes and bedding where possible too.

 

All up I was really impressed with how much we managed to fit in. Seven Seas took about 12 weeks door to door from UK to Australia and the customs fees etc were what we had been expecting. Price wise it was good as it is self packing so not paying someone to do that for you. Of course, its not a sole use large 20ft container but a sole use smaller container and you are not taking all the furniture so packing is pretty straightforward so long as you have thought it through the best way to load it on the day. We made sure we had it planned out and it was fine. Had been prepared that some of the furniture might not fit but all the things we wanted to bring, we got in and all our personal effects.

[persianharry]

Thanks Snifter, very useful information. I have worked out that a 20ft container is the equivalent of about 6 large MoveCubes, so from what you got in your cube we could get 6 double beds, 192 boxes and enough golf clubs for the Ryder Cup in a container! We aren't worrying so much now.

[Lazy Cow]

when you say "container and a share" do you mean that you had to take on extra container space in a hurry because you had filled the main container?

And was that extra space very expensive?

 

Yes, that's exactly what happened!

 

We'd had someone come out, and give a quote for everything to go into one container. Turned out the quotation would be the only straightforward part of the whole UK side of the transaction.

 

The container wouldn't take all our belongings. They phoned their boss, tried to charge extra for the additional space needed, but in the end agreed to waive all but any charges incurred when it reached Australia (though I can't remember what they were). That still meant we had to get rid of a fair amount of stuff before we left for Australia the following morning, so it was pretty stressful.

 

I can't remember what price they attempted to exhort from us, because it was a long time ago now.

 

Like Snifter, if I were doing it all again, I would be more selective - not such a hoarder, perhaps.

 

Perhaps.....!

 

LC

[flossybeth]

We managed to fit more or less the equivalent of a 3 bed house (2 adults, 3 children) into our 20ft container. We looked at selling and replacing but when it came to working out the cost of it all (just things like CDs, DVDs and books for a start) it made no sense at all - we'd spent 40ish years accumulating our 'stuff' and we didn't want to have to do that again.

 

Having said that we obviously had a huge clear out - car boots, give aways, charity shops and the people who, once they knew we were emigrating, dropped by and left with a "you won't be taking that with you, will you?" (from shears to our garden bench and dishwasher...)

[Sallyh]

If you get some quotes from shipping companies they will tell you what you can fit in.

 

Bring all your white goods.

 

Good plan to reduce your stuff, we didn't have enough time to do that but these days we are rocking minimalism for how we want it to work for us.

 

We had an end terrace, 2 beds and a study, 3 kids aged 5,3 and 1 and all our stuff fitted in. That includes the loft. But we did ditch some furniture that we didn't want.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[Sallyh]

I looked at getting rid of most of our stuff too. For me, the consumer side of things made it a not so good choice for us, and to be honest a half container was too tricky etc. you might as well ditch what you don't need and bring your things.

 

 

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Edited July 21, 2016 by Sallyh

[TheTaylors]

Hi Snifter

 

I saw your post on Poms in Oz about moving from Bristol to Adelaide. My husband and I are looking to move from Bristol to Adelaide within the next 12-18 months and are v. excited.

 

I just wanted to check; you mention that you used a MoveCube or something - lost the post registering on here - rather than having a shipping container. We don't intend to bring masses of stuff. Would be lots of boxes, a couple of bikes, computers etc. Could you let me know who you used and the cost please?

 

Thanks.

 

Zoe

[snifter]

Hi there Sorry, for some reason I'm only just seeing this now.

 

MoveCube worked well for us. They do 3 sizes iirc. We used the largest and it was able to fit such items as a UK king size bed and frame, desk, chair and a couple of other bits of furniture. Plus about 30 or so boxes, many of them tea chest sized. We just went for the largest cube as we knew we'd fill it and once we knew the dimensions, then we whittled our stuff down and planned how to fill it to the brim. We did mark out the floor space etc on the floor of our dining room and used boxes all the same size so we knew they would fit in as we needed.

 

Best thing you can do is give them a call for a quote as it may vary a bit depending on location and size of cube. If you have a good idea of the amount you are shipping and can work out what size cube you'll need give them a shout and see what price they quote. IIRC we paid something like £1000 or so for a large cube and then about $300 in fees at customs the Aus end. It took about 12 weeks door to door without issue.

 

One thing to keep in mind is the cube stays within the trailer when its dropped off. So there will be a step up to lift things into the trailer. We found this fine and had planned for it. We ended up with a few extra boxes left over and so shipped them separately for a bit extra and they arrived a few days before the cube.

 

http://www.sevenseasworldwide.com/

[TheTaylors]

Hi Snifter

 

That's really useful, thanks. We aren't planning to take any furniture so this should work really well for us. How far in advance did you have to get a quote and book?

 

Thanks.

 

Zoe