Should We Bring Furniture and Electricals??

sam101 · 26-10-2009, 10:23 AM

Hi All,

Can anyone advise me re: taking any electrical goods with us from Australia? We're just planning our move to HK in Jan and I wonder if it's worth bringing our tv / wii / computer etc.

Also, should we bring our furniture, sell it, or store it in Sydney? We're planning on coming out for 3 years (with our 4 kids and a dog) and I wonder if anyone has any advice on bringing lounge/dining furniture and beds (esp the kid's bunk beds). We're likely to get an apartment over 2000sq ft in Pokfulam.

Thanks in advance - we're coming out for a look round in November so I'm hoping that the trip will settle a lot of my questions but answers to the electrical/furniture issue will help me get started!!

Sleuth · 26-10-2009, 01:14 PM

I think, unfortunately, that you will need to look first and then decide about furniture. Keep in mind a 2000 sq ft apartment is probably only about 1300 sq ft of space. Our house in the US was smaller than our apartment here, but you could fit a lot more stuff in it.
Also, you could find an empty 2000 sq foot place, or it could be full of built-in furniture. For instance, kids bunk beds wouldn't work in our apartment because the beds are built-in. Unless we gave them the master bedroom.
On the electrical, you would need a bunch of plug adapters to bring the stuff from Aussie. But, in general, I'd bring the electrical appliances. Beats buying new ones here unless you are dying for new ones. Assuming the voltage is all the same. And TV set might not work here. I'm sure somebody from Down Under can give more exact electrical advice.

PDLM · 26-10-2009, 02:22 PM

The voltage is the same. It's probably better to change plugs rather than use adaptors in general (or bring a couple of Aussie multi-way power blocks and then you just change the plug on the wire going to the wall socket).

If your TV is modern, multi-system and has HDMI/composite video inputs then bring it. If the only signal input is an antenna socket then dump it.

Bring your computers.

I'm not sure about Wiis and region-encoding on games, but all the stuff you already have will obviously continue to work.

If you would have to pay to bring the furniture then I wouldn't. If someone else is paying then it probably makes sense to bring it, recognising that you might need to sell some of it here if it doesn't fit (and second hand furniture generally is almost given away here).

Star Gazer · 26-10-2009, 03:00 PM

i would suggest that you go have a look see at the classifieds here to have a sense of what type of furnitures/ stuff are being sold. would you be amenable to getting 2nd hand furniture?

i agree, if someone's paying for it, bring it over, if not then consider selling it or putting it in storage. also consider the costs of bringing it back home when it's time to leave here.

selling or storage? are they antiques?. if they are pretty expensive furniture, i would also consider putting them in storage first.

when you have decided on a place in november, then you can gauge whether it's better to leave your furniture behind or lug it over.

PDLM · 26-10-2009, 03:02 PM

Originally Posted by Star Gazer:

selling or storage? are they antiques?. if they are pretty expensive furniture, i would also consider putting them in storage first.

Yes - remember that HK's climate can be pretty brutal for furniture (particularly wood and leather), so don't bring very valuable stuff unless you can control the shipping conditions and you are prepared to pay a lot in climate control in keep it in good condition here.

imparanoic · 26-10-2009, 03:34 PM

wii will be region coded, i don't think you can modify pal (au or uk) to play either fakes or official imports ( jp or us), however, that was last year, don't know now, wii games in hk are japanese and not in english

please note that if your TV has built digital receiever (DVB) it won' t work in hk, you need a set top box

Sleuth · 27-10-2009, 12:51 PM

Originally Posted by PDLM:

Yes - remember that HK's climate can be pretty brutal for furniture (particularly wood and leather), so don't bring very valuable stuff unless you can control the shipping conditions and you are prepared to pay a lot in climate control in keep it in good condition here.

Our furniture has been here almost 3 years and we brought with us a leather sofa and several pieces of wooden furniture. No adverse effects yet.
On the other hand, our Ikea furniture purchased in HK is having a rough time with the humidity.
I am inclined to believe that well-made wooden/leather furniture can handle the stress, whereas cheap stuff can't.

MovingIn07 · 27-10-2009, 01:18 PM

We have carted out stuff from UK to Malaysia to Australia to NZ and now to HK. TV works fine. We just buy power strips that take multi-type plugs since pretty much every plug we have is different! No problem with furniture and humidity. I feel more comfortable having my own stuff around me, but didnt bring beds because they were all built in.