Purchase dresser stateside or wait?

We are headed over in about a month. We are replacing some of our oversized American furniture  before we head over since my husbands work is paying to ship a 20ft container. I was curious if we should purchase dressers/chest-of-drawers before we come or wait? Are dressers commonly used or mainly wardrobes?

My thought was wait since we don't know what size house we will find/can afford. We prefer to rent an unfurnished house since we have three boys and don't want to worry contstantly about them damaging a landlords furniture...

If you're not looking for super high quality stuff, Ikea is actually cheaper in the UK than in the US, so I'd wait.

Wait until you arrive in the UK because, as you say, you have no idea what size house you will be renting.

the thrift stores here are full of beautiful old pieces of furniture.........cheap too

If you're not paying for the shipping yourself, and have room in your container, I don't see why buying there is a problem. I'd keep the size normal to smaller as houses are generally smaller here. If you ship it and don't need it you can always sell it on or donate.

Both dressers and wardrobes are common here.

I agree with Courtney - if the container is paid for and space isn't an issue, bring one! That is, if you see one you absolutely love and think you could happily live with. But don't go out and rush to buy something that isn't perfect because, as others have said, you'd have no problem finding one here. Your call! 

I would bring one if you have room; I wish I had brought a lot more.  It would have been cheaper for me to ship than buy new/used.  I don't know where everyone else lives but here in Devon, I am having a hard time finding affordable used furniture.  At thrift stores, a used dirty couch is 200 pounds, not so nice tables with chairs are 100.  Shelves are 80.  Night stands 35.  Dressers 100-150.  And this stuff is NOT nice.  No luck so far on gumtree or ebay either. 

Also depending on where you go, houses may not be that much smaller.  We viewed a lot of places and only one place was smaller to compared to what we had in the US. 

I would bring one if you have room; I wish I had brought a lot more.  It would have been cheaper for me to ship than buy new/used.  I don't know where everyone else lives but here in Devon, I am having a hard time finding affordable used furniture.  At thrift stores, a used dirty couch is 200 pounds, not so nice tables with chairs are 100.  Shelves are 80.  Night stands 35.  Dressers 100-150.  And this stuff is NOT nice.  No luck so far on gumtree or ebay either.   

I've had really good luck on eBay, but also at auctions. Have you looked into local auction houses? They're a lot of fun! 

I'm guessing it's easier to find stuff in the bigger metropolitan areas, but people here do seem to want much higher prices for used stuff than in the US. The flip side is that people may be willing to pay you more if you sell.

I recently moved and managed to sell off a few pieces for more than I paid for them several years ago.

I'm guessing it's easier to find stuff in the bigger metropolitan areas,

Out here in the sticks, I bought a dining table and six chairs for £50 (including delivery)! 

I would bring one if you have room; I wish I had brought a lot more.  It would have been cheaper for me to ship than buy new/used.  I don't know where everyone else lives but here in Devon, I am having a hard time finding affordable used furniture.  At thrift stores, a used dirty couch is 200 pounds, not so nice tables with chairs are 100.  Shelves are 80.  Night stands 35.  Dressers 100-150.  And this stuff is NOT nice.  No luck so far on gumtree or ebay either. 

Also depending on where you go, houses may not be that much smaller.  We viewed a lot of places and only one place was smaller to compared to what we had in the US. 

wow that is really expensive..........i live in birmingham and have bought a ton of stuff at the thrift stores and on ebay........even freecycle ive gotten some great things.......guess my best buy was a very old pub table with 2 antique chairs for 5 pounds.........didnt even need any work on it either

Well, since we are going to be in London (outskirts) I will assume we will have access to a variety of used furniture... On the dressers I think we will wait unless we find something fabulous. We were thinking of just buying something from Ikea while we were there, but if I could find some pieces to bring back with us that would be fab!

The Ikea prices are not always cheaper in the US - on the Hemnes 3 drawer chest it is $149 US and 90 GBP, which would be about $144 US dollars converted. But -- the beds we looked at for one of our boys was the Odda bedframe with storage which was $149 US and 160 GBP and I can't find a difference.

Then  you have to factor in that our savings, which we would use to purchase furniture, is in US dollars - so if we convert it to GBP we lose 35% of our money... We could wait until we save enough GBP when hubs starts work, but we would prefer to get things settled quickly...

Why would you lose 35% of your money when you covert from USD to GBP?

Personally I'd buy it in the US considering you do not have to pay to ship it. Then when you move in to your place, you have a dresser already. Your clothing isn't homeless. Then you could keep an eye out and replace it should you find your dream dresser in the UK.

Believe me you'll have a lot on your plate already with the move. Buying furniture can be a headache, considering a lot of places will give you a quote of 10-14 weeks for delivery!

And furniture delivery can cost ££. If someone is going to deliver it to you for free, why wouldn't you?

So jealous of some of you and your good finds!  Not having much luck here.  Not a fan of ebay since I never win but it seems like a lot of people sell things on ebay.  I always lose at the last minute.