The Preparation - Getting packed and moved

We started researching moving companies, my parents had moved with someone else, and I had a friend who worked for Crown, so we decided to get a quote from them. Their 1st quote was a little expensive so we thought we'd think on it and look at other options, but they came back to us with a significantly reduced 2nd quote and we made the decision to go along with it. They also advised us on who to was a good pet carriers.

There are definitely mistakes we made in our preparation and in the move to Melbourne, but going with Crown was not one of them. The Christchurch branch was amazing to deal with, and on the moving day all we had to know was what we wanted packed. 2 Guys came in and packed it all. Yes, everything except our suitcases and any valuables we wanted to take with us when we flew over. It was the easiest 'moving day' I've ever had! To make their lives simpler, and ours too we put everything that was staying/being sold/getting thrown out in the garage and left everything else in the appropriate room to be packed. Advise from my mother that was greatly appreciated by the packers. They told us some stories about how they've packed houses with the kids still asleep in bed! We must have been a better organised day for them!

The bonus of all this is that although we weren't transporting a whole house of furniture, we still had a significant amount of belongings to fill part of a container, and if they pack it then yo don't have to deal with customs. And it's a door-to-door operation. You can actually pay extra for them to unpack and assemble for you too!

There are a couple of things that we should have thought of more clearly, and if you're doing the same as we are, pay heed:

• We didn't take any of our large furniture, in particular our bed. Our bed was only 18months old, recently paid off and amazing, but it was going to cost an additional $500 to bring over. Quotes from Crown are not based on weight but space. We were hoping to sell it for a lot more, but ended up desperate and selling it for $500. We made this decision partly based on reports that furniture was drastically cheaper and also that it would take 3 - 12 weeks for our boxes, etc to arrive. We ended up paying more for an average bed here - where furniture is cheaper, beds seem to be relative - and our boxes arrived in 4 weeks.The moral of the story is if you have expensive, good quality or antique furniture that you can afford to bring over, do. It's still going to cost you on this side. You may get a great deal, but it's inconvenient, and not that much cheaper. the other option is quite simply sell everything and start fresh. That way you're not paying any shipping costs.
• We didn't read the fine print/weren't told that there would be additional costs on the drop-off side for a 'harder job', e.g an extra man or a double storey. They ended up not charging us for an extra man, because there wasn't one, and waived the 2nd-storey fee for something else because most of it was stored in the ground floor garage. Be strong, make sure a bill is accurate.
• What we learnt most from the movers, regardless how good, you need to bargain with them. They are like car rentals at airports, they throw in hundreds of dollars of hidden and extra charges, so make sure you're upfront with them and get them to do the same.