My husband and I are moving in the next couple weeks to Zurich from Ohio for my husband's secondment. We are very excited about this new opportunity! We are starting to think about what all we should bring. He had been in May for training and scouted a couple of apartments, and thinks we should bring most of our furniture. I on the other hand, think less is more and we should only bring our couch and beds (we will pack extra sheets as I am aware the sheets are different sizes).
I would love everyone's opinion! What did you move or wish you moved.
- Erica
PS. His company is providing us a 20ft shipping container.
You might consider "less is more" in another context (I'm quite fond of empty unfurnished space, not sure it is minimalist you mean though)
If you consider how much cash it will take to add furnishings you don't bring but want, less is more. Even IKEA is hefty compared to other European countries (there are understandable reasons, every finger that touches the box once inside CH is getting paid a decent wage)
If the company is prociding a 20ft container they are also providing delivery of your goods. Unless you will have a car here with capacity for transporting furniture the delivery charges for anything you buy will also add up,
Regarding furniture, it depends. Ikea is the same here as everywhere and there are a few other similarly budget minded places. So I probably wouldn't bother to ship fiberboard items, even with a free container.
On the other hand, if you have some nice solid pieces, I'd probably bring them. My experience is that for more serious furniture you either end up paying a lot or shopping in Germany.
Thanks for the responses! We are moving from a 2 bedroom/ 2 bath (148 sq m) and hope to move into a 2 bedroom apartment (75-100m) in the District 2 area. So luckily we aren't moving from that giant of a house, but I am still concerned about everything fitting. We do not have a kitchen table currently, just a dining room table that is 1.8m x 1m (without leaves) that I absolutely love! I am terrified it will get damaged in the move or will not fit into our apartment. Anything we do not bring, we will place in storage.
Medea - It has been a crazy past couple months! Before the opportunity came up we had been in the process of gutting our bathroom and kitchen by ourselves – all the way down to the studs!!! When my husband had left for training for 3 weeks, we had no walls or power! That was a joy to life in by myself So we are trying to wrap everything up before we move and our new tenant moves into a brand new refurbished house. I can not wait till we move so I can have a moment to relax and enjoy life again!!
If you dont mind second hand, there are several Facebook groups where expats sell or give agay their stuff when they leave the country again. Often they offer only few months old things, sometimes just 1 year old. This one is quite popular: https://www.facebook.com/groups/Powertrade/
I've said it on other threads and I'll say it again here. If you love a piece of furniture so much you want to bring it, consider how much it will cost you to take back to the States later. Many relocation packages only give you the transport container or reimburse the cost one way.
We didn't want to bring a lot of furniture because we didn't know what size and layout of flat we'd get. Closets are not commonly built-in here like they are in the States. You may need to buy wardrobes, which take up floor space.
We sorted through everything else and asked ourselves if it was something we need, use often or simply brings us joy. If it didn't fit in those categories, it stayed behind. We did not rent a storage unit. We sold, gave away, and dumped tons of things and left a few things with my parents. It was a great way to de-clutter and start fresh.
We left our king-size comforter with the folks, as we were reasonably sure it wouldn't fit in any household washing machine here. The "thing" in Switzerland is to each have your own small duvet/comforter anyway.
We brought our roasting pan for the Thanksgiving turkey...it doesn't fit in the ovens here.
It's downstairs being used as a storage box now. I don't think it's that big, at least not by the standards JW mentions. Then again, we live in a flat as opposed to a house.
Our oven is 48 cms wide inside and even if you could remove the handles of the roasting pan (which you can't) it won't fit. I like to say the oven is too small, not that the roasting pan is too big. I complain about our kitchen sink being so puny as well.
We moved two years ago. Sold our house, gave away pretty much everything - which we still regret. We had no idea how much room we would have in the 20ft. container. It turned out that it was a whole lot bigger than what we thought.
We knew that we would not return to the US. We also knew that the place in Zurich would be a whole lot smaller.
Items we did not bring and we should have:
are the bikes, the camping items, storage shelves (cellar).
What we no longer use are storage containers for cereal (way too big to fit here..). Our plates are too large for the dishwasher.
Go buy shoes and clothes before you move. Almost everything is more expensive here. You will need rain and winter clothes.
We moved to London for 2 years, stayed 5. Didn't bring anything but a dishpack and beds, stored everything else. Left London to move here and picked through stuff from storage in the States to ship to Zurich. Items stored for 5 years don't fare well. If you didn't need them for 5 years, you probably didn't need them at all
The dh insisted on bringing the US, king-sized beds, even though mattresses had to be folded into ungainly burritos to fit up stairs and through the doorways, but worth it. But you'll have to bring the bedding from the States. The bed sizes here are....different.
I insisted on photos/art, a year's worth of reading, all my outdoor gear, and non-electric kitchen toys. Shipping new isn't allowed, so make sure things aren't obviously new.
Wish we brought? Grill, although you have to make modifications to use it here. More rugs/carpets, because they are obscenely expensive here for no apparent reason. Furniture, but, after 17 moves, I find it rarely fits the new digs.