# Advice wanted to ship or not to ship?



## tamarbutah (Jan 25, 2010)

Hi everyone,

I'm hoping to move to Cairo sometime this year Insha'Allah and I have no idea about the shipping and custom costs, I am wondering if it is better for me to bring my furniture over or buy some there.
Any advice is appreciated.

Thanks


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## DeadGuy (Jan 22, 2010)

Well, my humble advice is that when it comes to furniture or heavy stuff like that, it's always better to get them from where you're planning to live, specially when it's a long distance between the place where you're shipping stuff from and the place where you're shipping them in.

As for the customs' thing, everyone in here knows that everything here moves by money when it comes to customs or any other agency that follows the government in here (paper work for ANYTHING and EVERYTHING!!!! and it's always a hassle, trust me!!!!), it's like the old fashioned coin public phones, you ALWAYS have to pay something, you either have to pay the custom's fees which usually are HIGHER than anyone would expect -and for no reason that makes sense- or you'll have to pay almost the same amount of money but with less hassle and less drives to the custom's place , but in this case, you'll be paying that money as a bribe! and ya, it's much easier than going official, but be careful who you're gonna bribe if you decided to do that.

So my advice? buy anything you think you need to ship from here, you can find all the stuff you need in here, with reasonable prices, and my advice? don't try to be cheap, you'll find many sellers and many brands in here, so just don't go for the cheaper one, cause it means it's less in quality and will be broken sooner than you think, another reason to buy things from here? the products with warranty?? you won't need to ship the things back to be fixed if they needed to!

Hope I could help, have a nice staying in here, if you can anyway.

Good luck!


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## New Gal (Apr 22, 2009)

Just moved over to Hurghada from the UK and my advice...don't bother, save your money and buy here, you can find everything over here.

Good luck x


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## tamarbutah (Jan 25, 2010)

Thank you both for the advice, I may leave my furniture here in UK or at least try to sell it so that I can buy over there insha'Allah. 
Is there anything smaller that I should bring like pots and pans or bedding Quilts and towels etc..? I worry that the quality won't be as good there for these items?


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## New Gal (Apr 22, 2009)

Bedding maybe but sheet sizes are different over here, my double sheet didn't. Bring a thick duvet if you can as I miss mine and couldn't find that so easily. Towels are ok here.

Bring shoes, I have, lots, nice flat pumps as I find over here the sizes again are a bit weird oh, UNDERWEAR!!!!! Bring lots! Other than that, you can find everything over here. 

PM your details if you need anything else or just to talk or rant, I moved over alone and the months before were very hard so I know how you feel.

Best of luck x


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## Tinytraveler (Feb 17, 2010)

>>>>save your money and buy here, you can find everything over here.
Yes you can find almost everything over here however it may take you forever to locate the exact thing you want. The Interior Designer that I am I am very picky about the items that grace my home. If you know what you like bring photos and dimensions of furniture you want and you can have them made here. 
You can buy a cheap sofa set (quality like the cheaper Ikea sofas) just so you have something to sit on until you can get your custom made furniture which will be worth the wait. Then sell the cheap stuff to the Rububekia Guy ( guy that buys used items). If you don't want to wait for custom built items there are several furniture stores in the Maadi area that sell American/European style furniture. 
Go grocery shopping at Carrefour and they usually have a souce book (book filled with adds for furniture, tile, doors, almost anything to decorate a home; found in the magazine section) for about 50LE that will help you in locating the different stores you might want. 

Things that I wish I would have brought with me when I came:
heavy LARGE frying pan that does not have Teflon. Found one 1 for USA$150...yeah I am waiting to go home for a visit and get mine. 
Cupcake pans 
Weather stripping (Took me forever to find that and haven't seen again)
Down bed pillows Have only found fiber fill pillows.
Down comforter Yes it gets cold and many places are drafty. Note I am not bringing my winter down comforter but my summer down comforter. 
Tennis shoes/trainers for daughter to grow into. I have not seen a pair of TS for her that were not absolutely gaudy and ugly or of decent quality that were not USA$100+ 
Craft items for kids I have found nock off crayons here but they are the cheap quality ones that you get given at restaurants, that don't really color but just leave shavings everywhere. 

The problem with buying anything here is if you see it this time buy it because you may never see it again.


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## tamarbutah (Jan 25, 2010)

Tinytraveler said:


> >>>>save your money and buy here, you can find everything over here.
> Yes you can find almost everything over here however it may take you forever to locate the exact thing you want. The Interior Designer that I am I am very picky about the items that grace my home. If you know what you like bring photos and dimensions of furniture you want and you can have them made here.
> You can buy a cheap sofa set (quality like the cheaper Ikea sofas) just so you have something to sit on until you can get your custom made furniture which will be worth the wait. Then sell the cheap stuff to the Rububekia Guy ( guy that buys used items). If you don't want to wait for custom built items there are several furniture stores in the Maadi area that sell American/European style furniture.
> Go grocery shopping at Carrefour and they usually have a souce book (book filled with adds for furniture, tile, doors, almost anything to decorate a home; found in the magazine section) for about 50LE that will help you in locating the different stores you might want.
> ...


Dear NewGal and Tiny Traveler,

You have both given me some idea of the things I need to bring and I am grateful for your input, I will bring my quilts and buy some new pillows and bring my pots and pans and other kitchen items insha'Allah. 

What about any electrical items? I know the wattage is the same as UK but I was told electrical things are expensive there. Was thinking of things like microwave, hi-fi, vacuum cleaner, toaster, kettle, blender, printer etc.

Also I have 2 children age's 9 and 7 and I am prepared to teach them at home for a while, but do you have any information on the schools there? We are Muslims and I want them ideally to go to an Islamic school but they don't yet know enough Arabic to start in the Arabic schools.

I would like the number for the guy who makes the furniture if that is ok with you Tiny Traveler? And is he very expensive?

Thank you both sooo much

Amani


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## expatinalex (Feb 12, 2010)

I agree with everything DeadGuy has said ......especially as regards customs etc.
What you will pay .......under the table ......to have your container cleared along with the legal cost of shipping will probably buy you everything you need.
Also that things move so slow here and if there is a problem the hastle of sorting it just isn't worth it.
You can buy everything you need here at the quality you want.

I hope you have a friend her to go shopping with you to make sure you don't pay 'over the odds '

And of course I hope your stay here is a good one!!!


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## GM1 (Sep 30, 2008)

Tinytraveler said:


> Craft items for kids I have found nock off crayons here but they are the cheap quality ones that you get given at restaurants, that don't really color but just leave shavings everywhere.


Did you go to Samir & Aly stationaries? They have good quality stuff (like Faber Castell etc), but maybe not the same big choice you have in you country. Here: Egypt Yellow Pages ? Online Business Directory & Local Search Engine ? Search you will find where Samir & Aly stores are located.


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## melissa87 (Dec 29, 2009)

iv never used this site so im just mentioning it because there seems to be tons of gr8 craft items on it, clay/paints/colours/paper

Paints & Colors - Stationary - nefsak.com - Buy Online - ???? ???????

Once im in cairo im gona make a small order and if its successful il be getting lots of stuff since its so cheap! hope this helps sum ppl


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## New Gal (Apr 22, 2009)

Hiya Tamerbutha, sorry I haven't posted in a while, hope your move preparations are going well?


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## New Gal (Apr 22, 2009)

Sorry, I clicked submit accidentally and forgot to add that I bought a toaster, hoover and DVD player here, all were reasonably priced and of good qualities and thats in Hurghada, am sure that buying electrical goods in Cairo will be much easier and you will have more choice. 

I couldn't find a toaster for a month and thought I would go crackers cos of lack of toast! xxx


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