There is always one with a different view....
When I got an overseas assignment with my work, we had 4 weeks to sort out and move a life time of stuff. The easy option was just to ship everything.
We didn't know how many years we would be away and wanted to rent our house out totally vacant. We did get rid of lots of stuff, like old furniture and gardening equipment (as we didn't know whether we would move to a house or apartment), and we did leave the fridge, washer and dryer in our house for our tenants, but generally we just filled up a shipping container with everything we owned. We shipped bikes, canoes, outdoor furniture you name it.
We didn't want to pay for storage back home, and didn't want to have to pay to refurnish our lives overseas. We have used most things, even random stuff like fancy dress costumes.
We only brought a suitcase each on the plane, and lived in a serviced apartment for a month whilst we hunted for a place to live and waited for our belongings to arrive.
We are happy we brought everything. We have enjoyed putting up our Christmas decorations, riding our bikes, having a fully equipped kitchen and sleeping in our own bed. We would make the same decision again.
We live in the Middle East, so don't need our winter clothes at all, but it was great to have them on hand when we decided to go skiing this year, and they will get use again as we are spending a week in Europe this coming winter.
The downside of bringing so much with us was that it really governed where we could live, and we ended up spending a lot more on rent than if we had not brought everything with us. The contra to this is that we have not had to buy any household goods here. My employer paid for the shipping costs, so there was no difference to us in actually bringing everything with us. We did so in the knowledge that for a lot of our furniture it will be a one way trip.
We wanted to bring our dog, and We spent quite a bit getting papers and a crate etc, but when we got here, we found it was so hot and that we were home so rarely compared to our lives back home, that we decided not to fly him over. We miss him greatly, but he is far happier with my parents than he would be here.
So my tips.... make sure your new place feels like home as everything else will feel alien. You will really enjoy coming home to a place every night that feels familiar. If you don't bring your furniture, you will spend a packet at IKEA like every other expat!