What to ship, sell, store or throw away when you leave Singapore

Decide before the mover’s survey

Your quote depends on what the surveyor sees, so settle what’s going before anyone surveys your home. Guidelines from FIDI, the international movers’ federation, tell a member firm’s surveyor to list every item “shown or described” for the move, estimate its net volume, and note anything staying, being sold or being disposed of, ideally under a separate heading. That volume can be converted into a weight used in rate calculations, and the quotation follows the survey report.

Walk through each room before you book surveys and sort everything into four groups: ship, sell or give away, store, and dispose. Tell the surveyor what is staying, whether the survey happens in person or by video. You can compare Singapore international movers in the Relocado directory, and the three-month countdown shows where the survey fits in your timeline.

A category-by-category checklist

For each item, ask three questions: will it work in your new home, is it worth the container space, and could you replace it easily? Some things can’t go at all, so check what your mover won’t ship before you decide.

Appliances: check voltage and plug before you ship

SP Group’s electricity connection handbook gives Singapore’s low-voltage supply as 230 V single-phase at 50 Hz. The Consumer Product Safety Office (CPSO) says the 13 A three-pin Type G plug is suitable for most electrical appliances here. Read the rating label on anything you plan to ship and compare it with your destination.

A label reading 100–240 V and 50/60 Hz covers every supply in the table, so a plug adaptor is all you need where sockets differ. For a 230 V-only fridge or washing machine bound for the US or Japan, compare the cost of a transformer, or of buying new, with the space it takes in the container.

Selling: list early, keep the essentials

Start with what you won’t miss: spare-room furniture, decor, a second TV, anything seasonal. List it as soon as your dates are fixed, on Carousell, through a moving-out sale or among colleagues who are staying. Keep the bed, fridge, washing machine and a few chairs until the final days, and sell them for collection on an agreed date before handover.

Compact items in good working order are the easiest to sell, because buyers can collect them without help. Built-to-measure pieces, heavy furniture that has to be dismantled and anything a buyer needs a van for take longer to move on. Used mattresses are hard to sell at all.

Donating: check what each charity accepts

Charities want items they can pass on or resell, so condition matters, and collection is not always free. Two options publish clear rules:

• Re:Nue, The Salvation Army’s social enterprise, accepts furniture, electrical appliances, electronics, household goods, sports equipment and clothing. It doesn’t take food, medicine or textbooks, and its unaccepted list includes “Furniture (5+ feet)”, with chipboard, compressed wood, plywood and custom-made pieces given as examples. Small items go into its donation booths, while bulky items are by appointment only: you deliver them to Re:Nue @ Bukit Timah, or book a staff collection, which carries a transport charge and starts with a “View and Collect” condition check. Items that don’t pass aren’t taken away.
• Pass It On, an initiative of the Central Singapore Community Development Council managed by The Helping Hand, lets you list items for registered social service agencies to reserve for the people they support. Pass It On itself doesn’t collect or store anything, and transport costs are generally not included: you deliver the item, the agency arranges collection, or you pay a transport provider. It won’t take damaged or non-working items, food, medication or stained mattresses. Each listing needs a “valid till” date, so set it before your handover.

The National Environment Agency (NEA) keeps a longer list of donation, resale and repair channels and suggests contacting each organisation about its criteria before you donate.

E-waste: what NEA’s scheme covers

Under NEA’s e-waste scheme, regulated consumer products include computers, phones, printers and monitors; fridges, air-conditioners, washing machines, dryers and televisions; personal mobility devices, power-assisted bicycles and e-scooters; portable batteries, including power banks; and lamps. NEA has licensed ALBA E-Waste Smart Recycling to collect them, and the main channels are:

• E-waste bins in public places such as malls, community centres and supermarkets. ALBA’s 3-in-1 bins take small electronics such as laptops, phones and routers, plus batteries and bulbs; devices must fit through a 500 mm by 250 mm slot.
• Free doorstep collection of large household appliances, including fridges, washing machines, dryers, televisions and air-conditioners, booked with ALBA. Some types, such as wine chillers and portable air-conditioners, are excluded. Collection is scheduled 7 to 14 working days out, on weekdays excluding public holidays, and can’t be rescheduled, so book it well before your last week.
• One-for-one take-back: a retailer delivering a new regulated product must take away an old one of the same type at no cost, which helps if something breaks in your final months.
• Collection drives that ALBA runs quarterly with town councils, and drop-off at its depot in Tuas.

ALBA’s drives and doorstep service don’t take small household appliances such as rice cookers, vacuum cleaners and microwaves. For those, NEA points you to bins run by the recyclers Metalo, KGS and Virogreen. Never put batteries in general or blue recycling bins, and tape the terminals of rechargeable ones first. Wipe and sign out of phones and laptops before you hand them in.

Town council bulky-item removal has limits

In a Housing & Development Board (HDB) flat, NEA’s bulky-item guidance is to contact your town council for anything other than large appliances. Don’t plan your final clear-out around it. Aljunied-Hougang Town Council removes up to three bulky items per household per month at no charge, on weekday afternoons with three working days’ notice, and only items that fit the block’s lift and that one person can manage.

Aljunied-Hougang’s service excludes built-in fixtures, large furniture such as big wardrobes and pianos, glass items and “shifting of house-moving items”. Nee Soon Town Council excludes “items for house-moving”, and East Coast Town Council says its service does not apply to house-moving. Ask your own town council what it will take.

In a condo, start with the management office. East Coast Town Council tells private-estate residents to contact their waste management company, and NEA’s guidance for private housing is to use the public waste collector serving your estate, at a separate fee, or a licensed waste collector.

Storage, if you might come back

Storage can make sense if you expect to return, for example at the end of a fixed-term posting, or if you own furniture you would struggle to replace. The trade-offs: you pay for every month it’s there, everything has to be moved in now and out again later, and someone may need to act for you in Singapore if your plans change.

Before you sign, ask about access hours, climate control, insurance and the notice needed to end the contract. Then compare the running cost with the cost of replacing what’s inside.

What’s left at the end

Whatever isn’t shipped, sold, donated, recycled or stored still has to leave before you hand back the keys, so check your tenancy agreement for the condition the flat must be returned in. Charity collections and ALBA’s free service need booking ahead, and town council removal is capped, so plan a final clearance for the last items.

Junk to Clear, the team behind Relocado, has cleared homes since 2009 and clears single items up to whole flats, seven days a week. The guide to your last two weeks covers the handover itself.

Relocado is run by the team behind Junk to Clear, HomeToMoved and HomeToClean. Where this guide links to one of them, it’s because the step calls for that service, and we say so in the sentence. Enquiries sent through the form go to the same team. How Relocado works