If you have Kids make sure you keep them involved. One big mistake we made was thinking that our 3 year old didn't need to know at an early stage of the proceedings - we were amazed when a very sad and angry boy told us what the "For Sale" sign meant in the front garden as we had forgotten to tell him before it went up! All kids will be unsettled and I think the older the child, the harder the move may be for them – especially if they are in their teens.

Only YOU know what you will take with you so it may be easy or it may be a serious project to plan what to take sell or throw out! Put kids into the equation and it starts to become complicated.

We used the whole exercise to get rid of all our old or unwanted things and start again. It comes down to economics if it costs more to insure, store and ship something than its worth. The decision on whether to insure or not is a personal choice and depends upon the value of the items you are shipping and don't forget to take into account any excess fees you have to pay in the event of damage or losses. You will need to build a list of all the items you are bringing into Canada and give their values in Canadian dollars.

This is probably easiest to take it from the inventory drawn up by the packing company – give as accurate assessment of value as you can but don’t spend weeks on it. If you have a box of kids toys for example – put your best guess at the value on the list as follows:

1. Box of assorted used kids toys C$100.00

2. Box of photographs No commercial value

3. Queen size bed C$850.00

And so on. You will be expected to have several copies of your packing list and a form B4 (Goods to follow) with it upon your arrival so make sure you have at least 3 copies in your hand luggage. Its ok to have too many but a pain if you don’t have enough!!

You will also need a similar list for any items you bring with you on the day of arrival and also any other subsequent shipments (we had an extra large box of things couriered in a totally separate shipment just before we left).

Don’t forget that Canada, as with the rest of North America, has an electrical system that runs on 115v different from both Europe and the UK. There is a good chance non North American electrical goods will require a transformer or simply won’t work over here so this may be a good time to dispose of your old goods and buy new once you arrive and are settled.