What Do You Wish You Had Brought Or Left Behind?

nwi314

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Hello All,

We are preparing for our move to BA in September. The company will ship some, not all of our household goods. So what should I stock up on and bring? What kind of things do you wished you brought in bulk? And what do you wish you left behind? For example, we have a Keurig coffee maker. Are K-cups even available or so prohibitively expensive it would be better to leave it behind. That kind of thing

Thanks in advance
 
Moving from where?? In general make sure your electrical appliances are both 110/220 such as freezers, fridges,printers etc. Otherwise transformers are expensive and impractical...!
Too long to enumerate spices vitamins etc, etc.
 
Sorry. We are coming from the US. Good tip on needing transformers, I did not know Argentina was 220. Our house hunting trip isn't until next month. Thanks!
 
things I have brought to my BA apartment over the years-
good knives (I like Global)
Cheap department store SS cookware set
Cheap department store 100% cotton sheet sets
Big bath towels
Apple stuff- computers, airport routers, extra chargers, cables, computer speakers
my computer embroidery sewing machine
whiskey

All of these things are much much cheaper in the USA.
Some are just not available in BA.

I find that electronics of all sorts are very expensive and outdated in buenos aires- printers are generally 4 years or so behind US models, and 3 times the price.
Stereos, routers, laptops, phones.

my apartment in BA is furnished with wonderful argentinian antique furniture that is much cheaper than in the USA, and nicer.
I have great antique china and glassware, also easily found cheap in BA
many disagree, but I actually wear a fair amount of argentine clothes.

the main thing is- if its made locally in argentina, its usually not expensive.
if its imported, its very expensive, sporadically available, and parts are often non-existent.
 
It really depends on you, if you like to cook bring good quality kitchen stuff and high end appliances that you use regularly but keep an eye on the voltage, many are not dual so if you're going to use a lot at the same time it's probably safer to invest in local.

I agree I'd focus on smaller electronics over things like furniture. Although if I could I'd have brought a dryer as they're not common here and expensive, but you can find decent washers.

Food stuffs: stock your favorite hot sauces, spices and maple syrup.
 
Sorry. We are coming from the US. Good tip on needing transformers, I did not know Argentina was 220. Our house hunting trip isn't until next month. Thanks!

When I first moved down here every kitchen appliance I owned needed a transformer; fridge, microwave, toaster blender, juicer , espresso, heater oven, bread machine, about 10 transformers, required only for the kitchen. Note the MW, fridge and toaster requires a hefty transformer for 2000 watts requirement, as well as the LED TV set and Laser Printer, Washer/Dryer. Forget about Notebooks and sound systems, hair dryers etc Quite an investment. $$$

If one owns already all the artifacts what choice does one have ?? , sell them for dirt and buy new ones in USA? Best deal ... bring your own transformers ... Buy many rebuilt /cheap ones...!!!
 
Bring as many boxes of "sandwich" bags that you can. All the way from the small ones up to gallon sized, or whatever you use. They sell them here in quantities of like 5 or 10 and are horribly expensive. I had brought down a number of boxes last time I was in the States but all but one box burned up in our kitchen fire at the beginning of the year, and I sorely miss them!

Tupperware or its like. Light and easy to pack and what's available here is crap.

Spices (there are only fairly basic spices available for the most part, none of what I list below):
  • Seasoned Salt
  • Old Bay
  • Tony Chachere's
  • Garlic salt (used to find this here, but haven't seen it in years)
  • Chili Powder
  • Specialty spices like McCormick's Grill Mates
  • Anything you depend on for cooking that is dry and easy to bring and isn't salt, garlic or black pepper (although the latter can actually be difficult to find at times!)
If you depend on Crisco for pie crusts, bring a ton of Crisco bricks :) Lard is not a very good substitute if you make pie crusts like my mom ;)

I second good kitchen utensils, particularly sauce pans, good frying pans, woks, etc. You can get decent knives here if you look and pay a lot, but if you can bring them do so. What is available here is mostly terrible and costly and what's not terrible is more costly and there is not a good selection anyway.

I second, also, electronics such as cell phones, computers, routers and such. Appliances not so much - they're expensive here, but as mentioned, the power requirements make things complicated. I've never actually seen an actual clothes dryer here, in reality (though I've seen them advertised), but I rmember recently someone asking about bringing an electric dryer and it being complicated due to the electricity requirements.

If you are a physical book person, bring books. For the most part English books here have terrible selections unless you like cheesy romance novels or others (I'm not knocking it, but it could get boring). But for me the best thing to do is make sure you have some form of electronic reader (see electronics above) that can read the Kindle format and an Amazon account. I have Amazon Prime and can read up to 10 books at a time for free! (as long as the book is part of the program).

Clothes, clothes, clothes. Clothes here are terribly expensive. Inexpensive clothes usually don't last but a couple of washes unless you are extraordinarily careful (my wife and our girls hand wash a lot of stuff they buy here). Expensive clothes are not very good either. Very, very expensive clothes are OK, but are very, very expensive. If you are bigger-sized than normal, you will have a hard time finding clothes that are comfortable. And I'm not talking exaggeratedly big either - I'm a bit overweight, though not fat by any means, but I like loose-fitting clothes. An XXL shirt here, for me, barely fits (fits like an XL, which doesn't give me much space) - Latinos seem to like tight-fitting clothes and their sizes are adjusted accordingly. I still have clothes that I brought with me 10 years ago when I first came here, but only one or two shirts I've bought here over time. Shoes, especially women's, are horrendously expensive. Non-cheap-looking men's suits go for about 10000-12000 pesos (650 - 800 dollars - seems expensive to me, but I haven't bought a suit, here or in the US, since 2001).

Bags and suitcases and such are horribly expensive.

I don't know about K-cups here. We got into the coffee machine stuff while here and bought a Nespresso a year or two ago. A bit expensive but good support.
 
Everything would be the easy answer for me I guess. I came here five years ago with 1 bag and $1500. Now, I would say it depends on how often you plan to head back to the US. If it is often, then there is no real need to bring everything at once. If you are locked here for longer than a year for any reason, just bring everything aside from appliances as mentioned. If you have a favorite food, bring it, and bring a lot of it. There is a solid chance it is not here unless it is a potato or something.
 
I am amused that someone says women's shoes in Buenos Aires are "horrendously expensive".
Over the 9 years I have been spending time in Buenos Aires, we have had over 2 dozen US female friends visit us.
Every single one of them returns home with multiple pairs of shoes, and all have told us how cheap they are.

What IS expensive in Buenos Aires are cheap, made in China, mass production shoes, like, say, Nike Trainers.
Anything imported is expensive.
However, things like made to order leather loafers are still amazingly cheap in Buenos Aires.
I, personally, own a good 2 dozen pairs of shoes from Argentina, and, in every case, they were 1/3 to 1/2 the price of equivalent shoes in the USA.
But I dont wear sneakers. I dont buy big brand names.

If you wear primarily stuff made in China, Bangladesh, Costa Rica, and similar sweatshop countries, bought cheap at target and walmart, yes, you should bring lots of it with you- that stuff has 100% duty on it here.
 
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