from australia to u.s.

[maybenexttime 0]

my australian husband was approved last month. we have to stay in australia for a couple of months getting business completed. so it gives us plenty of time to clear out what we have and what we will take with us.

at first we thought of selling practically everything and just shipping a couple of boxes of personal items. we were concern on the electrical differences and whether shipping some items would be more expensive than just buying new once we are settle.

we are completely ignorant on shipping options/companies, adapters, etc. how hard is it on electrical items with adapters? any suggestions on how to move half way across the world are appreciated. i came to australia with one suitcase, never intending to stay. that was 5 years ago. so this is all new to me.

thanks!

[Jawaree 717]

get some shipping barrels for kitchen stuff, beddings, curtains, books , plates ,momentos

some clothings, shoes, bathroom stuff etc even sml table that can breakdown...as to

furniture unless its a piece am attached to I would not take. Google returning USC with

personal effects & household items & you will see what to do.

[Harpa Timsah 13,258]

Adapters are a pain (and expensive if every thing needs one), so personally I would chuck as much electrical stuff as you can. Keep things like computers. Is there something you are thinking of specifically?

[maybenexttime 0]

thanks jawaree...i did some reading up on sending personal effects/household goods.

harpa, we have a 4 camera security recorder that i was thinking of taking but concern on a adapter wearing it out sooner. it has a 500g hard drive in it. we have two desktops and thinking of just taking the hard drives and memory. we also have to laptops that we will probably take which will need adapters. we have an external hard drive that actually has it's own adapter in the plug which is kinda cool and wish everything else had that feature.

this actually stemmed from a conversation with my daughter (grown and in the states) yesterday. told her we have the wii sold, and she said NOOOO, bring it. i explained the plug and games format difference but she still insisted. then i mentioned i hate to give up the security system and again it was, mom bring it. so we decided to take a second look at what we are going to take.

we will probably still just end up selling everything but just wanted opinions on that.

[austex 42]

Hi Maybenettime

We are in the same boat, we are in the process of selling everything... I would check the Wii games because Nintendo got cheeky and they are region coded. We just sold ours and will get a new one over there. I agree it is not work dealing with adaptors. We are just taking our Hard drives and not the computers themselves.

We are using Overseas Packers and Shippers.... we interview 4 companies and they all seem much of a muchness. Then my husband did a google search on each one and this one seemed to be the better one... (I hope..lol) We are taking some furniture that we like and the rest is going.... Getting a 10 year old to cull is the hardest thing...haha

Good luck with your move.... ours is only 5 weeks away... tickets booked and a bit of R&R in Hawaii and then start our new life in Dallas....

M.

[Darnell 8,478]

security system? look on the back, see if there's a switch for 230V <> 120V

if that's the case, then it's dead easy to replace the power cord. forget any 'adapter' .

Edited June 21, 2013 by Darnell

[indiana_sweetie 120]

security system? look on the back, see if there's a switch for 230V <> 120V

if that's the case, then it's dead easy to replace the power cord. forget any 'adapter' .

That's the main thing to look for, dual voltage, because you can buy a plug that your AU appliance plugs into and then you can plug it into an American socket. For instance, my curling iron is dual voltage and most laptop power supplies are dual voltage now. All I needed was a $3 plug for Europe. But when my daughter moved to Australia she brought a small appliance with her and needed to buy the kind of adapter that converts the voltage. They are expensive.

[rjm_cmyk 75]

Also - with many PC clone box style computers you can swap out the power supply unit if it can't be switched between local and US voltage.

[aaron2020 11,651]

Laptops are easy. Buy a new cord. That's it. The transformer on the cord will properly juice the laptops without any problems.

The Wii is a pain since its region locked. You will not find games in the US for it. It's really cheap to find a used system in the US since the system is obsolete. If you want to keep it, switch out the power cord. The hardware in your Wii is the same as the US so you just need to switch the cord. Region lock only deals with software. Alternatively, you could hack the Wii to be region free.

Sell the security system. You either have the problem of not enough cameras or too many cameras to deal with adapters.

[aaron2020 11,651]

Adapters are a pain (and expensive if every thing needs one), so personally I would chuck as much electrical stuff as you can. Keep things like computers. Is there something you are thinking of specifically?

+1

Potential problems;

Costly adapters for too many pieces of electronics.

Also unsightly adapters all over your house.

Fire. Adapters are not recommended for long term use since they do give off heat.

Electricity. Adapters need power too. Using too many of them will increase your electric bill.

Edited June 22, 2013 by aaron2020

[VanessaTony 3,567]

I personally didn't bother bringing any electronics except my laptop (which as others stated was as simple as a power cord change). I know many people who had adapters and the appliances burnt out after a while, they just didn't work well.

Appliances here aren't super expensive so I would sell what you can, give away what you can't sell (I donated a lot to charity).

[MattWatt 0]

We're in the same boat, considering what to sell and what to take.

Just a heads up - an Australian TV will not work in the US, even if it will run on 110V. Like the old analogue PAL vs NTSC issue, digital broadcasts in the US use the ATSC standard, whilst AUstralia uses DVB-T.

[maybenexttime 0]

thanks all. your responses helped me to put some of this in prospective.

yeah, nix on the wii.

austex ..thanks for the tip on the shipping company and good luck to you.

darnell, aaron2020 and rjm_cmyk, i never thought of looking on the back of appliances. i have often seen the switches but didn't realize it till now to look for them. duh!! i really don't want to go into adapters and would much rather sell than convert. my husband says to sell everything but then we looked for switches on a few things. the security system plugs into a power pack that also plugs into the cameras and it seems to have a input to change the voltage/power cord. we are gonna look into it more but if a power cord is all it needs i believe we are gonna take it with us. my husband doesn't want to look at switching power supplies on the desktops so we are just gonna take the hard drives and the external drive.

we are trying to make this easy believe it or not. if we go by a shipping company and have to fill up a container, then we might as well take what we can. ...thanks for all the info,

indiana sweetie - i am from indiana and we will be settling in indianapolis. and EVERYTHING is expensive here in australia. while biding some time yesterday waiting on someone, i went to a home auction in a suburb of melbourne. the home was so plain and near a train station....i watched it go for a half of a million dollars. a home like that would of gone for maybe 50k in indiana. incredible!

vanessatony - yep, that is what i worry about...burn outs and fire with adapters.

thanks matt for the heads up!

[indiana_sweetie 120]

indiana sweetie - i am from indiana and we will be settling in indianapolis. and EVERYTHING is expensive here in australia. while biding some time yesterday waiting on someone, i went to a home auction in a suburb of melbourne. the home was so plain and near a train station....i watched it go for a half of a million dollars. a home like that would of gone for maybe 50k in indiana. incredible!

You are welcome and welcome back to Indiana! My daughter lived in Indy for a few years and loved it.

[VanessaTony 3,567]

thanks all. your responses helped me to put some of this in prospective.

yeah, nix on the wii.

darnell, aaron2020 and rjm_cmyk, i never thought of looking on the back of appliances. i have often seen the switches but didn't realize it till now to look for them. duh!! i really don't want to go into adapters and would much rather sell than convert. my husband says to sell everything but then we looked for switches on a few things. the security system plugs into a power pack that also plugs into the cameras and it seems to have a input to change the voltage/power cord. we are gonna look into it more but if a power cord is all it needs i believe we are gonna take it with us. my husband doesn't want to look at switching power supplies on the desktops so we are just gonna take the hard drives and the external drive.

we are trying to make this easy believe it or not. if we go by a shipping company and have to fill up a container, then we might as well take what we can. ...thanks for all the info,

vanessatony - yep, that is what i worry about...burn outs and fire with adapters.

thanks matt for the heads up!

Have a look at the price of items online like on Bestbuy.com for retail computers and a new Wii etc. So cheap compared to Aus. If he wants to build one himself it can be cheaper or more expensive but personalised.

TV's are cheap too, you can even look at Walmart.com.

It's going to be a big change but it should be great