[Billy]

I know its a difficult question to answer, but I'm just trying to conceptualise how much we can take and what we have to leave behind. I dont plan on taking furniture other than a 3 piece suite and maybe a desk and a couple of chairs.

TVs, PCs, washing machine, lawnmower, clothes, dishes, books, hifi etc. Will I have plenty room? (family of 2 adults and 2 kids).

Anyone give me a rough idea please?

Thinking maybe a 40ft container and stuff the lot in, maybe it'll be cheaper in the long run?

Cheers
Billy

[Diny]

Hi Billy

We're right in the middle of getting our quotes from various shipping companies.

We have been told by all of them that our entire house contents will fit into a 20ft container (sole usage of course).

We are a family of 2 adults and 2 kids. Now I understand that the following list may bore the pants off some folks - but I reckon it will help you. I am amazed at how much will fit into a 20ft box !!!

Loung:
3 seater sofa
2 seater sofa
Pine chest
Tall shelving unit
Big TV
Large knee hole desk
small oak cabinet
1 footstool
rug
Large overmantle mirror
Pictures and ornaments
Stereo & approx 200 CD's

Hall:
Telephone table
Wall mounted hat stand
Pictures

Cloakroom:
Medium sized shoe cupboard

Kitchen:
2 x large bar stools
contents of 10 cupboards (plates etc)
Massive wall clock
Microwave cooker
4 slice toaster
Electric kettle

Dining Room:
7' x 4' dining table
Wall mounted corner cupboard
Floor mounted corner cupboard
Pine side table
Small floor standing cupboard
Stereo
Flower stand

Garage:
2 Adult bikes
2 BMX bikes
Stepladders
Tumble Dryer
Various tools

Landing:
Large wall mounted miror
Pine washstand

Bathroom:
Pine washstand
Wall mounted mirror
Large quantity of towels & bedding

Bedroom 1:
Double bed, base & matress
Dressing table
Bedroom chair
Portable TV
Wall mounted mirror
Pictures & ornaments
Contents of double wardrobe
Bedding & curtains

Bedroom 2:
Double bed, base & matress
Bedside table & lamp
towel stand
Lloyd Loom chair
Pine tallboy
Curtains, bedding & rug

Bedroom 3:
2 x captains beds (to be dismantled)
2 x wardrobes
2 x desks
1 x chest of drawers
1 x CD stand
2 x swivel desk chairs
Large amount of kids toys and books
Contents of wardrobes

I told you it was boring, but it just goes to show how much they can cram into a 20 footer - however I still need convincing, seeing will be believing.
I hope this helps.

Diny

[Diny]

Ah hold on - I forgot the office:

1 desk
1 swivel chair
1 bookcase with dozens of books
Large framed picture

Plus all the curtains, curtain poles and lampshades in the house too.

Diny

[Billy]

Blimey, I'm shocked. I was hoping to convince the other half we would need to ditch half our junk. Thanks for that, gives a bit more scope I guess for loading up with paint, wallpaper, Guinness etc.

Cheers
Billy

[Diny]

I know - it's amazing how much stuff they can cram in.

Don't get putting paint in though - I understand it's not allowed 'cos it may be flamable. If in doubt about anythng, either ask the shipping company or log onto the NZ MAF website.

Diny

[Raeven]

Gad zooks!!!!

You have more stuff than we do (except maybe tools and garage items), and our mob is trying to push a 40' container off on us!!

Further investigation warranted!!!

Diny, thanks so much for taking the time to publish the list. It's an extremely good guideline for the rest of us to gauge against.

All the best, Rae

[Diny]

Looking back at my list it just seems that there's no way it will all fit into a 20 footer. However, all 3 companies have said the same so they must be right.

When I get all 3 quotes back I'll let you know what they are.

Diny

[Timbo]

Thanks Diny, that is all very good info. Me thinks you are after Moorfs job. :laugh

[Diny]

Nahh - I just like waffling !!!

Diny

[Moorf]

Crikey Moses ... all that in a 20ft'er - maybe I'll just ship our belongings Parcelforce Registered :laugh :laugh :laugh :laugh :laugh

We sold pretty much everything and then I de-junked... feels good though...

[Michelle and Richard]

Yep, wont go the way of Diny, with my typing speed it would take me all day.

However we did get contents of 4 Bed house in a 20ft container. Like Moorf we ditched loads of c**p but have bought lots of large furniture electrical equipment as it was all new

When you get the quotes they will know exactly what you need. Do shop around the qoutes vary and bargain hard.

Michelle

[Diny]

Haven't replaced any of the furniture but everything else has pretty much been 'de-junked' and yes, it feels great.

Richard & Michelle - you make me feel alot better by saying that you did get all your stuff in a 20 footer - I really do have my serious doubts.

Diny

[karltsmith]

A 20 footer shoild take the contents of a 3 bed house. Cubic capacity is about 1000 cubic feet (33m^3).

Its suprising how much stuff you can get in! We had 140 boxes that included some big items!

Karl :cool

[Carol]

so you've decided against the maternity clothes then Diny........

;)

Heaven forbid that PB's minor op failed.......AND HE HAD TO HAVE ANOTHER ONE!!! :laugh :laugh :laugh :laugh :laugh :laugh :laugh :laugh


(op that is not another kid....oh ....YOU know what I mean!!!) :nice1



Carol :mrgreen:

[Diny]

Carol :nice1

The funniest bit about your posting is calling PB's op 'minor' ...... heck he'd be offended at that :laugh

No you're right .... heaven forbid having another baby, the days of changing bags, nappies and microwaving mashed up veggies are (thankfully) well and truely over for me.

Diny

[Carol]

When Kenny (my hubby) had his - he was the most pathetic speciman for at least three weeks!!

I felt like saying

"Think yourself lucky you didnt need Infra Red treatment on THAT mate....."




But I refrained..........

I am so nice! ;) :laugh :laugh :laugh

[Diny]

Carol

'Pathetic specimen' .... another accurate description.

However, I think we must feel very sorry for these poor men of ours, they obviously get to suffer so much more than us.

If I have the sniffles - PB catches them and they turn into the flu.
I get 'abit of a head' - PB gets migraine.
I get an upset tummy - PB gets a gastric infection.
I need glasses for reading - PB needs them all the time - Bi-focals too !!!
I get a tickly cough - PB gets bronchitis.

Are you getting the picture here ............. ????

But hey - a mate phones to see if they fancy going out for a beer ....... and they decide that 'getting out for an hour will do them some good'. :cheers

Oh please !!!!!!!!!!!!

But - would I change him ................ err YES!!!!

Diny :nice1

[Diny]

Lord knows wat the above postings have got to do with getting household items into a 20 footer??

[Diny]

Have had our 3 quotes in for a 20ft sole useage container.

White & Co - 3175.00 + 3% insurance

Britannia - 3480.00 + 3% insurance

Crown - 3890.00 + 3.5% insurance

Big difference between highest & lowest and I can't understand why we're getting much higher quote than other people are from these companies. I must look like abit of a sucker :no

Diny

[jo b]

[quote="Carol"]When Kenny (my hubby) had his - he was the most pathetic speciman for at least three weeks!!

I felt like saying

"Think yourself lucky you didnt need Infra Red treatment on THAT mate....."


OMG :eek

Carol I had forgot I had Infra red treatment. I had forgot :eek :wah

But I did tell my husband that the midwife said we couldn't get close for 12 months after the birth :mrgreen:
Sadly after 2 months he found out :roll:

Jo

Diny

you can get all that stuff in a 20foot container but what they don't tell is what size it will be when it arrives :laugh

Jo

[leslie]

when we came to uk we shipped a half-empty 20 ft container. not a good feeling. its amazing how much fits in. and no breakage. my suggestion is leave the expendibles to the end and if you still have space shove 'em in.

[Diny]

Hi Lesley

There's no problem fitting all of our stuff in, the problem is that we seem to be getting charged several hundred more than every other forum member.

Can't work it out - we're right here in the heart of the country (so obviously no ports on our doorstep) but only 5 mins from Jct 12 of M6 so not exactly remote or hard to locate.

Anyway - today I've managed to get White & Co down to 3050.00 + 3% insurance.... I'm getting there !!

Diny

[leslie]

that it what we can fondly remember as the british conundrum once we're all out of this place - everyones starving and homeless but don't need the work...

[StevieD]

Why worry ladies? Us men know that you are very skilled at packing everything including the kitchen sink in a suitcase! :uhoh

StevieD dons body armour and helmet awaiting the onslaught......

[Diny]

Brave man Stevie D !!!

I'll have you know that last year the 4 of us went to visit the rellies in NZ, when we checked in at Heathrow the lady behind the desk was amazed at our small amount of luggage ........ and I packed !!!!!!!!!

Mind you ...... you should see the fun I'm having packing things for a 20 footer ............. kitchen sink? YOU BET !!!!!

[Simon & Emily]

Diny,

To bring this bang up to date, did you eventually settle for a 20ft container? We are not yet in a situation to get the companies in for formal quotes (we still only have half a kitchen and feel they would not take us seriously :wah ) but Simon's convinced that there is no way all our valuable posessions (c**p) would fit into a 20ft space. I tend to agree, but the difference between the two is a lot of cash.

Many thanks,

Emily

[shagen]

Have you started packing Diny? Or shall I say, have you finished packing?

I am just curious to know if all what you wrote actually went into the 20ft container!

[Diny]

Right folks .... packing update.

All along I've been telling myself (and anybody else who'll listen) that there's no way all our 'stuff' will fit into a 20ft container.

As you may or may not know, over the last couple of weeks I've been packing up our belongings. We've opted for a kind of half and half service. We self pack all our belongings that will go into cartons ... bedding, clothing, kitchen wear, ornaments, pictures, toys, tools .... you name it - we've packed it. The shipping company (Britannia) are going to see to all of the furniture.

We were told that we could have 50 cartons. I collected them a while ago and have spent almost every waking hour cramming our life into them.

I am amazed at how much will fit into one carton (about the size of a large grocery carton). I soon developed the skill for packing heavy things at the bottom, lighter on the top, pad fragile items with clothing. I personally feel the trick is to make sure that nothing 'rattles around' in the carton. Make sure all is packed 'solidly' and well padded.

Anyway ..... I continue to proclaim that a 20 footer won't suffice. Until maybe my dear hubby (who may I add has displayed the patience of Job with me over the past couple of weeks) carried all the packed cartons down into the garage.

Up to now I have filled 37 cartons and there's no way I'm going to need the full quota of 50. We have just an average size, 1 car garage. Now the cartons are in there they seem to be lost along one side of the wall. They don't take up that much room at all. So, I now feel I may have to eat a rather large slice of humble pie and (at least try) to admit that maybe - after all - everything will fit into a 20 footer.

So ... all I can say is that, inspite of what I've always been lead to believe, you can fit a quart into a pint pot!!

I'll keep you updated as the rest of the story unfolds. Excuse the pun but .... watch this space. :laugh :laugh :laugh

Diny

[shagen]

We'll be watching! :eek

[Simon & Emily]

Thanks Diny - at least you've got somewhere to store all your boxes, rather than climbing over them every day :laugh

Emily

[Marie P]

HI Diny

Dave wants to know what your container is costing ,are you saving money by packing boxes yourself ?

cheers

Marie x

[Jennie & Rob]

I, too, am amazed with what will fit in a 20ft container. We have a three-storey house and are taking everything apart from sofa/2 leather chairs and garden stuff (checkout our house and you can see what is in it:http://212.50.188.108/
7 shipping companies have told us it will fit in a container with possibly a couple of boxes over.
I agree with the prices differences - I have had £3300 to £4800 with insurance 2.7 - 3% This is a price for complete packing, dismantling and unpacking.

[Nicola]

Nice house Jennie and Rob.

[Diny]

Marie

We had several quotes and did our best to play one company off against the other. Just as we thought we'd found a good service, all the shipping costs to Australasia shot up.

Anyway, in the end we've opted for Britannia. Yes, it is cheaper (by about 500 quid) to pack yourself.

If you both plan to work right up until the last moment before you leave, don't go for the self pack option because it does take a suprising amount of time.


Diny

[Diny]

Jennie & Rob

What a lovely house !!!!

Have a look at ours - it may help to give you some indication of what will fit in a 20 footer. We are taking everything except 2 double matresses, fridge, cooker & washer.

Good luck.

Diny

[andersonclan]

Diny

What about insurance? Are you still able to get all risk when you're self packing? Does it cost anymore?

Thanks

Margaret

[andersonclan]

Diny, Jennie and Rob

Nice pads! :nice1

It makes me think that a recommendation of a 40ft was maybe too much - 3 beds, lounge, dining room, study, etc + bikes, tools and garden tools.

Margaret

[Simon & Emily]

Diny, Jennie and Rob,

Thanks for sharing these links (apart from seeing what goes into a container I'm just being nosy ;) )

A quick question Jennie - did you have to do anything special to your wooden outdoor furniture? Or can it go 'as is'?

Thanks,

Emily

[Miffy]

I had a 3 bed detached house and two sheds, all fitted into a 2ft container. In fact it only 3/4 filled it!!

I would totally recommend NOT packing up yourselves. I felt every penny was worth while spent when I saw what an amazing job the removal men did.

Three guys from pickfords arrived on Thursday morning, 9am as promised. I walked them round the house, pointing out what wasnt going. (TV, Dyson Wash m/c cooker, thats it).
They then started packing everything up. The dismantled the wardrobe and the all the shelves and desk in the study.

By 2pm the were pretty much done apart from the kettle 4 cups and the matress and duvet. And a few bits of garden furniture.

Friday morniing they cam round and packed up the last remianing bits and then when the container arrived filled and packed that up.

When the container is ready for delivery over in Dunedin again, the pickfords NZ guys will come round un pack everything, put furntiure back together and take all the packaging materials away.

All I had to do was make tea, alot of tea, infact every hour on the hour :laugh :laugh

Well worth the price I paid (£2,800 plus insurance which came to about £500). :yes :yes [/i]

[Miffy]

Diny, Jennie and Rob,

Thanks for sharing these links (apart from seeing what goes into a container I'm just being nosy ;) )

A quick question Jennie - did you have to do anything special to your wooden outdoor furniture? Or can it go 'as is'?

Thanks,

Emily

We just cleaned it all down so there was no dirt left on it.
Then it was packed up in bubble wrap and put in.

[Diny]

Britannia are charging us 3448.00 - that's including insurance, and yes, all the stuff we've packed ourselves is covered too.

I can see the benefit of having the removal company pack everything - but a difference in price of about 500.00 tipped the scale in a 'self pack' direction for us.

Britannia will wrap all the furniture, load everything onto the container and then take over from there.

I guess the best suggestion is to get plenty of quotes, ask plenty of questions, definately play one quote off against another and then make a decision that suits you.

Our final price is a little on the high side, but every company I spoke to said that this is due to the fact that we couldn't live further away from any port in the UK if we tried (we're right in the middle of the country). Maybe this is the case - maybe not - maybe I'll believe anything.

Our highest quote was from Crown - they quoted us 5300.00 plus insurance at 3.5 % for a 20 footer. :eek

Diny

[Jennie & Rob]

Thanks for the nice comments about our house. It has only just exchanged after being on the market for 10 months!

I am so astonished at the price differences. The company you are using Diny = Britannia were the most expensive for us around £5000. I think we are going to use GB Liners as they were almost the lowest price and I am confident they can do it. Interesting thing I came across though was that nearly all the UK companies (apart from Pickfords and Crown) sub-contract the work in NZ. Most of them use NZ Van Lines. They all use the same actual shipping companies as well so when it comes down to it, it is a question of who you think can do the job best in terms of packing and sending your stuff off from the UK - oh, and PRICE!

Nearly all the companies said that they would be willing to reduce the % for insurance.

[Jennie & Rob]

Diny - nice house too. We have similar tastes I think! :cool

[jonSE]

just to reinforce how much goes in a 20" container. We had 197 cartons in our 20" container - the smallest of these cartons was approx 2"by 18"by 18" The largest was the the three seater sofa.

Jon

PS I think a 20" container is actually about 40m3

[Diny]

Thanks folks. Great minds think alike eh.

See you fly out 2 days before us. All the best :nice1

Diny

[captainxmas]

Considering the insurance is optional - is everybody paying for it?

We are definately considering not taking it up, any claims will be wriggled out of and I imagine if the ship goes down (fingers crossed) there's no way the compensation would cover replacing our stuff.

And when has insurance really ever worked out for you?

[GeorgeM]

And when has insurance really ever worked out for you?

We had a real disaster with Pickfords - they managed to damage lots with their "experienced" team of (largely) students on holiday... Lots of stories and piccies if anyone is interested... (e.g silk dresses packed with 3.5kg dumbells, etc etc - just think how the dresses looked after 3 months stuffed in a box in this way...) :(

Glad that we paid the extra to get the stuff insured. At least the insurance company paid up prompty with little hassle...

I'm also told that more containers than you would like to imagine fall off the decks, or get dropped or heavily bumped during the numerous times they have to be moved about which can result in a huge amount of damage. Think of what the contents of your container would look like if the crane operator just missed the trailer onto which he was moving it...

As with all insurance you need to take a view on how likely an event is to happen, how much it would cost you to recover from this as opposed to how much it will cost you to take the risk away.

[Diny]

Maybe consider going 'half measure' on this one.

Don't insure the entire contents of the container, just insure those things that would cost a fair bit to replace.

We haven't bothered insuring such things as clothes, kitchen wear, bedding etc. We do have some quite costly pieces of antique furniture which couldn't be replaced with a few quid. We have insured these items only.

We feel happy with the level of cover we've got, and also happy that we're not insuring property that isn't really worth much. All up insurance has cost us just under 400.00 - and that's included in the final price of 3448.00.

Diny

[jonSE]

Not wishing to alarm anyone but something between 1 and 2 % of containers are lost off ships in any one year. This obviousl includes ships that are a total loss where all the containers go missing (not many ships sink) and the containers that fall off. Household goods containers do probably have a lesser chance of being lost because being non hazardous they may avoid being on the outside row at the top. This space is reserved for anything that may become a hazard should the ship be on fire etc. - It can be ditched over the side quickly.

Be very careful about what you are paying for Insurance wise. We only discovered recently that we paid for Mechanical Derangement and Mould and Mildew insureance on our two Porsches - yet the policy specifically excludes cover for cars!. Read the small print. we will be attempting to reclaim the premium returned that shouldn't have been accepted. Iam not holding my breath.

jon

[Moorf]

Another note on "mechanical derangement" - we have several electronic/computer related items that have been in storage in the UK since we moved here. The shipper would not insure us for mechanical derangement as the items had not been used for several months while in storage.

If you want these items covered it may be an idea to leave them with someone who could "use" them until such time as your items are shipped.

This site has pics of a container going overboard :eek not sure I wanted to see that considering our container is mid-ocean at present! :uhoh

http://www.veromarine.co.nz/dirvz/marine/marine.nsf/Content/PhotoFeature0007

[Simon & Emily]

This site has pics of a container going overboard :eek not sure I wanted to see that considering our container is mid-ocean at present! :uhoh

http://www.veromarine.co.nz/dirvz/marine/marine.nsf/Content/PhotoFeature0007

So true Moorf - they are scary pictures. It looks sooooo unstable. And they only lose 2000 a year - that's quite a lot to lose, whatever the persentage. :(

Emily

[Miffy]

Maybe consider going 'half measure' on this one.

Don't insure the entire contents of the container, just insure those things that would cost a fair bit to replace.

We haven't bothered insuring such things as clothes, kitchen wear, bedding etc. We do have some quite costly pieces of antique furniture which couldn't be replaced with a few quid. We have insured these items only.

We feel happy with the level of cover we've got, and also happy that we're not insuring property that isn't really worth much. All up insurance has cost us just under 400.00 - and that's included in the final price of 3448.00.

Diny

Please be wary if you are planning on underdeclaring the value of your container contents and read the small print of the policy.

Many underwriters consider if you have under declared the value you have invalidated your policy if you want to claim.

Regardless of the fact that you are happy with the amount of cover you have obtained the underwriters will say as you have under declared the true value they will only to pay you half the amount of the value you originally stated.

This was clearly stated on our insurance application form.

This has actually happened to a friend of mine. She had alot of good pieces of jewlery that were stolen. It turns out she had under declared the value on her house hold contents insurance (she didn;t know the correct value as they were presents she didn't realise her ex-boyfried loved her that much!) and the insurance company would not pay out the true replacement value. IT went all the way to the courts and she lost and thee was nothing she could do.

It is always best to be up front and honest with them.

[Miffy]

Considering the insurance is optional - is everybody paying for it?

We are definately considering not taking it up, any claims will be wriggled out of and I imagine if the ship goes down (fingers crossed) there's no way the compensation would cover replacing our stuff.

And when has insurance really ever worked out for you?

Wow! Its a brave decision not to go with any insurance at all.

If the container was 'lost' or fell over board or the contents were badly damamged due to bad seas, think how much it would cost replace everything.
Okay no amount will be able to replace photos, and personal momentos but furntiure colthes etc its a hell of alot to have to pay out.

I guess you have to weigh up the likelihood of that happening along with the cost, against the cost of mitgating the risk by purchasing insurance.

[Moorf]

The law of Sod always rears its ugly head when I do something like not insuring stuff :?

[wayne]

Scary stuff indeed we have accepted a door to door quote of £3750-10%( special offer)on our contents of our house , workshop ,and my Harley all going into a 20 ft container ,had 2 quotes and they both estimated 850 cu ft so room for more goodies definately have insurance if only for my bike stuff the household items :cool

[nessie]

Wayne


Hi :P

Which company was this with? My hubby has a motorbike he may want to take.

Regards

[shagen]

Our 20 ft container just got packed yesterday. It took them 3 days to pack and stuff the container. Amazingly all but 3 of our items managed to get in.

Stuffing the container is a work of art. It is so tightly packed even an ant would find it tough to breath! :eek

We managed to fit in one lounge set, a 6 seater dining set, a TV rack, 2 TVs, one master bedroom, 2 single rooms complete with wardrobes, clothes and linens, books, books and more books, kitchenware, one 370 litre fridge, 1 washing machine, 1 dryer, other miscellaneous stuff like a microwave oven, childrens' toys, computers, computer tables, etc etc.... All in all we had 164 boxes!

Our container leaves Malaysia on May 22 and is expected to arrive in Wellington on June 19.

[veronica]

when do you guys arrive Shagen!

[shagen]

We are flying out on May 25 via Singapore and arriving Wellington May 26.

[veronica]

A tad quicker than the container..... Pete is in the middle of packing our container in the UK and at the moment we are scheduled for a 20 footer. this should contain all of our house stuff, all of Petes garage!! and some extra stock for the ski business. You can get a lot in a container, the trick is to have no empty spaces, not only is that a waste it creates an opportunity for things to get crushed.

[baboonworld]

You might be tempting fate!

[nessie]

We've had quotes from 3 companys, 2 of whom reckon we can get all of our stuff AND OHs motorbike in 20ft container. We have 4 bed house :eek Admittedly we are not taking lounge suite, cooker and wardrobes but I'm worried whether this is realistic.

What do you reckon?? :uhoh

[shagen]

You will be surprised!