# Moving costs or not



## alborino (Dec 13, 2014)

Looking at moving costs UK to Spain, including insurance and VAT, I'm getting £6 per cubic foot or £162 per cubic meter. Now I'm ignoring sentimental large objects but looking at the cost it is interesting if it is worthwhile.

Just wondered if others had just taken small things as air freight or even luggage and bought new in Spain? And no matter how you did it any thoughts on you wish you had brought more (really miss my arm chair) or wish you had brought less (why did we bring a bed that has suffered in transit)?

Obviously if you are selling, will be homeless (well not on the streets but you know what I mean ), then buying the process involves storage which adds a further complication and could get extended if purchase falls through. But in our case we already have a pad so can migrate over time small things. 

Looking at the cost, the small amount of cash we could get selling the stuff in the UK, and the benefit of totally new stuff that suits the new house, I'm thinking the light is not worth the candle.

Any thoughts from those who have made the move would be very interesting 

ps thought best in Tasca as it is a bit of a personal thing but feel free to move it - although bear in mind the cost


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## Lynn R (Feb 21, 2014)

alborino said:


> Looking at the cost, the small amount of cash we could get selling the stuff in the UK, and the benefit of totally new stuff that suits the new house, I'm thinking the light is not worth the candle.


That is exactly the way we looked at it. I sold some antique pieces of furniture at auction before we put the house on the market, then we just said to any prospective buyers that if they were interested we would include the contents in the selling price, just as an "added extra". We couldn't be bothered with advertising things and dealing with people trying to haggle over prices, and already had our house here fully furnished by the time we moved anyway.

We still ended up bringing 63 boxes of stuff (a couple of small pieces of furniture, 2 lots of hi-fi separates, boxes of vinyl albums, my 2 large dolls houses and all their contents, clothes, books, tools, pictures etc.). From memory I think we paid about 1300 sterling in removal costs.


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## StevejR1 (May 21, 2013)

Our moves continue to move in tandem Alborino ....we are having the same contemplations....

We've looked around our house, and we've decided to only take the furniture that we feel will fit in a Spanish home (...personally I don't think there is anything worse than a Spanish house full of British furniture...). So the odd table, a couple of nice bed frames, a couple of 'maybe' items, but very little else.
We are going to try to get rid of as much of the clutter you accumulate in your life first, and then offer the rest to the buyers, if they don't want it..then it will be a house clearance, because it is hassle free way of getting rid of it.
I'd rather take the probable small amount of cash we receive, make a saving on transportation costs, and then enjoy buying suitable new or antique fair furniture when we get there...I'm actually really looking forward to the opportunity of buying traditional Andalucian furniture for the new place. 

Having said that we're sure that there will be loads of other items that will need to come with us, personal things etc, and I'm sure they will prove to be surprisingly bulky. So we have always allowed a budget for transportation and storage, and Lynn's quote isn't far off what we expect to pay, but we have allowed £5,000, although that is far too high I think in reality.

We have also considered hiring a one-way hire van to take the majority of our stuff ourselves. I think this is just as expensive as getting someone to take it in the long run, but it would be a great adventure, and a great start to our time in Spain 

But to answer your question, I guess it all depends on how much you like your furniture, or more importantly how well it will fit in a Spanish home...if you're more interested in building a new home, and a new life, then furniture really isn't that important


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## snikpoh (Nov 19, 2007)

alborino said:


> Looking at moving costs UK to Spain, including insurance and VAT, I'm getting £6 per cubic foot or £162 per cubic meter. Now I'm ignoring sentimental large objects but looking at the cost it is interesting if it is worthwhile.


Wow - go with £162 per m3 as it's much cheaper than £6 per ft3 (35.315ft3 in a cubic meter so you save £50 per m3)!


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## Alcalaina (Aug 6, 2010)

We had a Luton lorry for our move, cost about £1600 I think (in 2008). It was mainly full of boxes (books, DVDs, kitchen stuff) and musical instruments. We didn't bring much furniture other than a king-size bed and mattress (hard to find here in pre-Ikea days) and a solid pine dining table/chairs. The house we bought here included furniture and white goods.

The cats came via overland transport (£400) and we drove our car down from Santander with all the computer equipment and valuables.

Were I to do it over again I would leave most of the books! They take up so much space and most will never be looked at again.


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## StevejR1 (May 21, 2013)

Alcalaina said:


> We had a Luton lorry for our move, cost about £1600 I think (in 2008). It was mainly full of boxes (books, DVDs, kitchen stuff) and musical instruments. We didn't bring much furniture other than a king-size bed and mattress (hard to find here in pre-Ikea days) and a solid pine dining table/chairs. The house we bought here included furniture and white goods.
> 
> The cats came via overland transport (£400) and we drove our car down from Santander with all the computer equipment and valuables.
> 
> Were I to do it over again I would leave most of the books! They take up so much space and most will never be looked at again.


Could I ask which cat transporter you used, and your experiences of them?....we have 3 Orientals that we're bringing with us, and we've looked into flying and overland methods.


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## mrypg9 (Apr 26, 2008)

It's a matter of personal taste, really. We had 'good' furniture we were not willing to sell for much less than its value and we thought we'd settle more easily with our familiar things about us. 
We tend to take the old-fashioned view that furniture is for a lifetime, to be handed on, even.
So we took everything to Prague and then from Prague to Spain.
We used Pickfords and a French company AGS for our moves within the Czech Republic and then to Spain. When we moved from the UK to Prague we took the cheapest quote which was a huge mistake.
We would certainly have saved money had we got rid of everything apart from books etc. but as I said it's a matter of taste, really. I like our old furniture and china and the few items of furniture we've bought here have been second-hand.


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## Lynn R (Feb 21, 2014)

I know one thing, although the furniture we had in the UK wouldn't have suited this house, if money were no object then I'd have preferred to buy a housefull of stuff in the UK and have it shipped over here, simply because there's a wider choice available there of the kind of things that suit my taste.


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## 90199 (Mar 21, 2010)

This is the way we went. We valued the cost of replacing our items that we had in the U.K., then we got quotes from several removal companies.

Much to my amazement the cost of replacing our English stuff was far in excess of the shipping costs in a container, from Yorkshire to the remote Atlantic Isle where we now reside, El Hierro, Canaries.

So we moved the lot and lo and behold the container arrived, all in good order and no duty to pay, we both wished we had packed more in.

Your move to the European part of Spain, should be far cheaper than ours. Two wagons two ships and more than two thousand miles for us.


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## Alcalaina (Aug 6, 2010)

StevejR1 said:


> Could I ask which cat transporter you used, and your experiences of them?....we have 3 Orientals that we're bringing with us, and we've looked into flying and overland methods.


I'm afraid I can't remember the name, but they were based in Devon. They did one or two trips a month, by road through France, with two drivers so they could do it in two days. The cats were very well looked after with roomy cages. We thought it would be the least stressful way of doing it - for us and for them!


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## Alcalaina (Aug 6, 2010)

mrypg9 said:


> It's a matter of personal taste, really. We had 'good' furniture we were not willing to sell for much less than its value and we thought we'd settle more easily with our familiar things about us.
> We tend to take the old-fashioned view that furniture is for a lifetime, to be handed on, even.


I have a friend like that, she has been paying 60€ a month for nearly 10 years to store her "good furniture" because it won't physically fit into her house here! I'm afraid I'm a bit of a pleb in that respect, if something isn't useful to me any more there's no point in hanging on to it.


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## alborino (Dec 13, 2014)

Many tx folks and interesting.

Snikpoh are you taking the **** out of my arithmetic? 

Steve will end up living together if we are not careful 

Well I've got a month to try and have a clear out. Then I have a great Aunts dressing table and a dresser a mate made for me 30 years ago to consider. And my telescopes that are a bit too big I think for luggage (and they might be the straw that sways me to the moving option). 

As I said I've got stuff in our spanish flat that has been with us for over 10 years so it is not although I wouldn't have familar things.

As for old records I'll be off to the secondhand shop in London. Haven't played them in years and no longer have a turntable 

Then there are my flamenco guitars which will almost be returning home (one from Seville and one from Granada) but I'd trust them with no one.

But beyond that nothing I think I'd miss. But will need to decide soon :confused2:


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## mrypg9 (Apr 26, 2008)

Alcalaina said:


> I have a friend like that, she has been paying 60€ a month for nearly 10 years to store her "good furniture" because it won't physically fit into her house here! I'm afraid I'm a bit of a pleb in that respect, if something isn't useful to me any more there's no point in hanging on to it.


I wouldn't do that. I like having the old stuff near me so I can see it and use it every day. We don't have Chippendale, far from it, just quality stuff we've had for decades.
I don't like change, least of all in my intimate personal surroundings.
What you said earlier about books....I got rid of quite a few when we moved although we've still got a bookshelf - lined room we call the library. But I regret chucking them. I threw away a hardback copy of Hugh Thomas''The Spanish Civil War' when we moved to Prague which I replaced and gave a copy of 'the Fundamentals of Marxism' to my Czech dissident friends. Wish I'd kept that now.
As you have probably realised I am in many ways very small c conservative and really dislike what I see as unnecessary change. This is an attitude OH does not share.


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## Expatliving (Oct 21, 2013)

Can I just add ...

We began the throw out today! But at the same time, looking at viable places to replace items in any new house we purchase. The choice in Spain is rubbish, sorry, but in the UK we are spoilt. Spain: So, with Ikea 50 km away, we are left looking at a sellers market, that being, a market that is largely unaffected by the 'supply and demand' scenario in the UK. DFS would clean up in Spain, if people had the dosh!!

Anyway, I digress. Looking at various properties for sale we've noticed a certain trend of many sellers for 1970s furniture? How odd? It's the 21st century after all ... But that's us, everybody likes their own thing, but the last thing I want is my Spanish home to look like an interior of a British home?


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## mrypg9 (Apr 26, 2008)

Expatliving said:


> Can I just add ...
> 
> We began the throw out today! But at the same time, looking at viable places to replace items in any new house we purchase. The choice in Spain is rubbish, sorry, but in the UK we are spoilt. Spain: So, with Ikea 50 km away, we are left looking at a sellers market, that being, a market that is largely unaffected by the 'supply and demand' scenario in the UK. DFS would clean up in Spain, if people had the dosh!!
> 
> Anyway, I digress. Looking at various properties for sale we've noticed a certain trend of many sellers for 1970s furniture? How odd? It's the 21st century after all ... But that's us, everybody likes their own thing, but the last thing I want is my Spanish home to look like an interior of a British home?


There will always be IKEA.......

Within a thirty minute drive there are two or three sellers of quality used furniture. I don't know how prices compare to the UK as I've never bought second-hand (or 'pre-owned', as I believe the term is now that the middle-classes have been reduced to buying it) there but for the quality of the pieces we've bought the price seemed reasonable.
Quite a few posh houses have been sold/repossessed so I'm guessing that's where a lot of the stuff comes from.
I'm not sure what '1970s furniture' looks like - lava lamps, bean bags? - but then I'm not sure what 21st century furniture looks like either. We bought quality 'classic', the kind that doesn't date. As I said earlier, I don't like chopping and changing furniture to suit fashions. My mum had most of the furniture she got when she married my dad fifty years later. It wasn't dated.
People used to buy furniture for life, they chose the best they could afford as they certainly couldn't afford to change it every few years.
I guess that's changed now. Watching the ads on tv over Christmas it seems all people do in the UK is play moronic and violent games with XBoxes and so on, take out payday loans, gamble on mobiles and laptops and buy furniture on credit, mainly sofas...


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## alborino (Dec 13, 2014)

mrypg9 said:


> I guess that's changed now. Watching the ads on tv over Christmas it seems all people do in the UK is play moronic and violent games with XBoxes and so on, take out payday loans, gamble on mobiles and laptops and buy furniture on credit, mainly sofas...


:eyebrows: Which goes to show why people should watch less telly and get out more. And of course Spain encourages that: the TV is crap and the out is to die for 

Guess those of us who can choose to live in Spain shouldn't underestimate our luck. 

But while on this subject I remember when Rafa Nadal was a nice guy who when he won his first title still flew home cheap on Easyjet. Now he is promoting online poker. O for the days when sporting heros were heros. Give me Bobby Moore any day. Now there was a hero you could live up to 

But Mary thanks for the laugh with you aqssessment above


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## xabiaxica (Jun 23, 2009)

Expatliving said:


> Can I just add ...
> 
> We began the throw out today! But at the same time, looking at viable places to replace items in any new house we purchase. The choice in Spain is rubbish, sorry, but in the UK we are spoilt. Spain: So, with Ikea 50 km away, we are left looking at a sellers market, that being, a market that is largely unaffected by the 'supply and demand' scenario in the UK. DFS would clean up in Spain, if people had the dosh!!
> 
> Anyway, I digress. Looking at various properties for sale we've noticed a certain trend of many sellers for 1970s furniture? How odd? It's the 21st century after all ... But that's us, everybody likes their own thing, but the last thing I want is my Spanish home to look like an interior of a British home?


if you want IKEA but not the drive, there are two local companies who do the shopping for you, deliver, & even put any flatpack stuff together for you! 

I've used this one FLATPAXABIA | IKEA España, Murcia | Entrega y Montaje - they are the longest established, too


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## mrypg9 (Apr 26, 2008)

alborino said:


> :eyebrows: Which goes to show why people should watch less telly and get out more. And of course Spain encourages that: the TV is crap and the out is to die for
> 
> Guess those of us who can choose to live in Spain shouldn't underestimate our luck.
> 
> ...


We watch football, mainly, and Newsnight when it's on but over the holiday periods the programme schedulers obviously think we park our brains under the Christmas tree....

Oh yes, Spanish tv is dire. Mind you, we don't have satellite Spanish tv, just the terrestrial. 
As for footballers...time was when the maximum wage was £20 a week. I saw a programme about Manchester United, focusing on the Munich disaster and prominently featuring Duncan Edwards, where some of the team were in a pub chatting up some girls and one player said " Don't tell them you're a footballer, tell them you're a plumber or an electrician'....


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## Alcalaina (Aug 6, 2010)

mrypg9 said:


> We watch football, mainly, and Newsnight when it's on but over the holiday periods the programme schedulers obviously think we park our brains under the Christmas tree....
> 
> Oh yes, Spanish tv is dire. Mind you, we don't have satellite Spanish tv, just the terrestrial.
> :


Am I the only Brit who actually _prefers_ Spanish TV? I would rather clean the toilet than watch soaps or "reality" shows (in any language) but I enjoy a high standard of news reporting, documentaries, sports coverage, political analysis and especially satire (_El Intermedio_ is truly brilliant). And they don't stop just because it's Christmas.


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## mrypg9 (Apr 26, 2008)

Alcalaina said:


> Am I the only Brit who actually _prefers_ Spanish TV? I would rather clean the toilet than watch soaps or "reality" shows (in any language) but I enjoy a high standard of news reporting, documentaries, sports coverage, political analysis and especially satire (_El Intermedio_ is truly brilliant). And they don't stop just because it's Christmas.


You could well be.  I don't watch soaps or reality shows in English or Spanish and God knows there are plenty of those on Spanish TV...
I also don't think Spanish documentaries or news coverage is better than that of the UK . I notice that many documentaries are US or UK programmes dubbed as are many Spanish programmes.
We unfairly run down British TV but compared to most other countries it is very good. Panorama, Dispatches, Newsnight are as good as if not better than any of that kind on Spanish TV.
Canal Sur is particularly dire and seems to exist on non- stop reality shows of one kind or another. Spain has its Jeremy Kyle shows too.
Last night we stayed in and watched BBC 4 from 8pm until 11.30 pm. First a programme about wildlife in the Amazon rain forest, then a programme about the moon, then a Swedish Wallander mystery. Excellent, intelligent fare.
Not everything in Spain is better than in the UK..


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## baldilocks (Mar 7, 2010)

mrypg9 said:


> I wouldn't do that. I like having the old stuff near me so I can see it and use it every day. We don't have Chippendale, far from it, just quality stuff we've had for decades.
> I don't like change, least of all in my intimate personal surroundings.
> What you said earlier about books....I got rid of quite a few when we moved although we've still got a bookshelf - lined room we call the library. But I regret chucking them.


You are just trying to be snobbish: "Chippendale" indeed, and just what is wrong with Sheraton and Hepplewhite?

With regard to books - there are different types of books - there is nondescript fiction that is mostly unmemorable; there is classic fiction where the story is the same and the only variation is the quality of the paper, binding, etc.; there are original/early editions which may well be irreplaceable; there is non-fiction some of which may have been updated or superceded (e.g. technology) or unchangeable (Darwin's "On the Origin of Species"), etc., etc. I thinned out the quantity of books that I had and now very much regret doing so. I had many going back to the early 1800s which, for the most part, are almost irreplaceable. So be very careful about discarding books. 
Furniture costs money to ship and/or to replace - we got rid of display cabinets and bookcases (for next to nothing/paid for them to be taken away) and have had to buy replacements here! Wardrobes back in UK were built-in and here they have had to be bought (free-standing) - bear in mind that seasonal weather variations may mean that you have to have two or more sets of clothing which need to be stored when not in use (we have three huge wardrobes in the attic chock-a-block full of out-of-season wear). You are going to need some form of lounge and dining-room furniture and unless you subscribe to the modern-day disease of waste more and "_ça ne fait rien_" or are filthy rich, it pays to weigh up the options very carefully.


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## xabiaxica (Jun 23, 2009)

Alcalaina said:


> *Am I the only Brit who actually prefers Spanish TV*? I would rather clean the toilet than watch soaps or "reality" shows (in any language) but I enjoy a high standard of news reporting, documentaries, sports coverage, political analysis and especially satire (_El Intermedio_ is truly brilliant). And they don't stop just because it's Christmas.


I think there might be two of us.....


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## mrypg9 (Apr 26, 2008)

I know Spaniards who subscribe to Sky.....


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## alborino (Dec 13, 2014)

mrypg9 said:


> I know Spaniards who subscribe to Sky.....


It isn't for sure just brits Mary, my spanish family who have seen the BBC think Spanish TV is crepe  And my wife thinks there is nothing to beat DA. Yes there is the odd good spanish prog but so much dross and so many anuncios.

But on moving: books that will be very low priority as my wife loves her kindle and reads a minimum of 4 hours a day. I prefer the real thing but as spanish detectives (especially historic ones) are my thing they get read and then given away. If I know who dun'it I won't read it 

On furniture some good points by Baldilocks but most properties we are looking at have some built in wardrobes so we're down to the sentimental furniture and thus we are looking at max budget of £2000 incl VAT and insurance for the first hop UK to our Spanish flat.

Unfortunately I will be taking diving gear, surfboard, telescopes and guitars. So I expect SWMBO will want to balance the books some how. But as we will hold the stuff in storage until after summer hols she now accepts plants do not go (Her cactus collection will go by hand. I'm not entirely mean ).

Sadly the second hop across Spain will be bigger as we have great beds and other bits already in Spain. But Spanish prices are much lower and no frontiers to cross so that should be easier to justify.

I have 70 bottles of wine but as we won't be away until April I think I can handle that :eyebrows: Back to blightie on the 9th so a bottle a day should just about do it


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## mrypg9 (Apr 26, 2008)

alborino said:


> It isn't for sure just brits Mary, my spanish family who have seen the BBC think Spanish TV is crepe  And my wife thinks there is nothing to beat DA. Yes there is the odd good spanish prog but so much dross and so many anuncios.
> 
> But on moving: books that will be very low priority as my wife loves her kindle and reads a minimum of 4 hours a day. I prefer the real thing but as spanish detectives (especially historic ones) are my thing they get read and then given away. If I know who dun'it I won't read it
> 
> ...


We spent last night watching three La Liga matches back to back. Sad or what.....
I hate moving. I hate change. My ex-husband once remarked that I had spiritually never left 13 Malvern Road where I was born. I think he was probably right.

I like the term 'sentimental' furniture. Most of my books would come under that heading. I have sixth form and university course books from over forty years ago.
I am so concerned about the fate of my books when OH and I are no more that I have inserted a sentence in my Will stating that my dil is to inherit them personally.
My son is a Philistine and I fear where books are concerned may have Goebbels'-like tendencies.
Unless, that is, I had books on Jaguars, Aston Martins or motorbikes. I do not.


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## Expatliving (Oct 21, 2013)

Classic well made furniture is good, mass produced outdated 'mite full' monstrosities are best avoided. So, anything without a cushion base of several decades is fine in my book. 

Based on the possible property I might secure in Spain, I can honestly say I will be painting and renovating into my old age, with little time to enjoy new or old furniture, at least that's what my wife tell's me ...


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