Moving all my stuff from the UK to USA

[3SS 0]

Any suggestions on what would be the best (and cheapest) way to move all my stuff. I have a lot of books as well as figurines.

[Boiler 45,670]

I used my baggage allowance to move as much as I could on visits.

Books are too heavy for most options.

[lost_at_sea 995]

We've shipped most of our stuff by boat (books, kitchen equipment etc.). We didn't have furniture (bar one item I wanted to keep). Sea is the cheapest way to move big stuff (versus air freight). Our stuff is actually still on the boat. Our sea freight amount was calculated by volume, rather than weight, by the way, so it was a good way to get the heavier things over.

We also maxed out our personal luggage allowance to bring clothes and some personal affects.

If you had some delicate things, you could consider sending them well packaged ahead of time via traditional shipping courier (FedEx etc.).

Edited August 12, 2013 by lost_at_sea

[yvy23 11]

Any suggestions on what would be the best (and cheapest) way to move all my stuff. I have a lot of books as well as figurines.

My stuff also has a lot of books and figurines. In the end I got quoted by a local company for shipping by sea - that way the shipping is volumetric, not weight based, so the books aren't too much of an issue. It is horribly expensive, though where I live I'm extremely limited for which companies I can use so I'm probably paying extra because of a lack of competition on quotes, but you should be able to get a quote with insurance so you're covered if anything did get damaged. To be honest, I wouldn't want to travel with fragile figurines in regular baggage anyway - the risk of damage is just too great imo compared to being able to package them properly in boxes.

[3SS 0]

The problem with sea though would be Im moving it Iowa which is as land locked as you can get

[lost_at_sea 995]

The problem with sea though would be Im moving it Iowa which is as land locked as you can get

Yeah, so you'll be doing sea + land. It'll probably still be cheaper than air freight.

Google about a bit, you'll find folks offering services with a combination of sea/air/land freight. I put in iowa... https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=iowa+international+movers&oq=iowa+international+movers&aqs=chrome.0.69i57j69i60j0l3.5325j0&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

Edited August 12, 2013 by lost_at_sea

[Anna Grant 169]

Please don't use a company called 'Excessive Baggage' or 'Excessive International'. They did not take care of my belongings well at all.

I brought one delicate figurine with me in my hand luggage, wrapped up in bubblewrap. I told them at security about it and the x-rayed it separately. Unfortunately, I didn't take my Kindle out of my bag, so they searched all my hand luggage this last time :-(

[Nich-Nick 3,354]

The problem with sea though would be Im moving it Iowa which is as land locked as you can get

You sign up for door-to-door service. It is based on cubic volume. Identical boxes---one filled with feathers and the other filled with rocks-- ship for the same price on a boat. Air freight goes by weight, so the feathers much cheaper by plane than rocks.

Door-to-door means the removal company you choose picks up your boxes at your home. They store them until the next ship is departing. The ship arrives in NY or wherever and an agent clears customs on your behalf. Your boxes are loaded in a moving van or other freight delivery type truck and hauled to Iowa.

I found it impossible to estimate or compare. The estimations are based on "how many boxes of this size or that size? Well who knows until they start finish packing? There can be additional unknown charges in the US due to custom inspections, the agent fees, etc. And insurance is additional and expensive and has tricky rules.

Before you start packing, know that you need an inventory of what you are shipping for customs, so write it down as you pack. To insure, you likely need a more detailed list with values. We did.

We had no damage at all including a fragile antique wall clock from a great, great grandfather. We chose this company because we liked their preparation of the shipments-- 1st Move International. See video http://www.shipit.co.uk/Packing_Overseas_Removals.htm

We picked up our stuff from the port and it looked just like that in the picture...about that size. Still had all the bands on it assuring that nobody had pilfered through the boxes and no boxes were lost. That was 2.45 cu. meters. It was 21 Dell computer boxes plus a two part wooden crate built for the clock, and a random box for the last bits. Total invoice was £1145. Extras included in that total was the custom crate they built £80 and insurance £321 (covering just over £8000 worth of stuff). It did not include a land freight delivery because we got it ourselves in a pickup truck. We had a couple hundred dollars worth of fees on our end. First Move refunded £125 since we did the custom clearance and fees on the Houson side. They offered. Nice to deal with.

[fcat 79]

Move cube!

Watch the video

http://www.sevenseasworldwide.com/shipping/movecube

£400 for a small one £750 for a medium one, £1000 for a large UK to the east coast

[nobbie 105]

My stuff is going with Pickfords. I have around 300 cubic foot of stuff, door to door (east coast) around £1500 plus insurance.

and as it is international they pack everything for you

[N&S 32]

After having heard horror stories about moving companies (my now-husband moved around a bit and had severe damages on every move caused by the moving people) I decided to pay slightly more and go for the option where no external people were handling my stuff. I ended up using ewepack (not sure if they do it still, but I'm sure there are others around) who delivered a wooden crate to my front door which I packed myself (with the help of my hubby) and then they came at the end of the day, sealed the crate in front of me and off it went. The crate then goes into a shared container but at least no one was man-handling my boxes / repacking as they pleased (as was the case for my hubby) and then via sea and truck to our house here in Boston.

The price was around 1500 GBP for door to door (but had customs needed to open my box there would have been additional charges) - not cheap but worth it for me for the peace of mind.

Re books: I'm fairly sure that the royal mail offers discounted rates for shipping books / printed materials by sea if you don't include anything else but it would still probably be somewhat more expensive as you'd pay by box but might be worth looking into.

Hope this helped.

[Berty 74]

We had no damage at all including a fragile antique wall clock from a great, great grandfather. We chose this company because we liked their preparation of the shipments-- 1st Move International. See video http://www.shipit.co.uk/Packing_Overseas_Removals.htm

You're so lucky; I remember when I received my items (not from that company, I hasten to add, but still, a reputable one that's actually mentioned in this thread) there was a heck of a lot of damage. My nice wooden chest was riddled with damp, my books - some of them rare first editions - were completely curled/folded; so much so that the spines were broken, and there were countless examples of large, heavy items being placed on top of smaller, lighter ones. Man, not a happy time for me there.

Edited August 13, 2013 by Berty

[Nich-Nick 3,354]

You're so lucky; I remember when I received my items (not from that company, I hasten to add, but still, a reputable one that's actually mentioned in this thread) there was a heck of a lot of damage. My nice wooden chest was riddled with damp, my books - some of them rare first editions - were completely curled/folded; so much so that the spines were broken, and there were countless examples of large, heavy items being placed on top of smaller, lighter ones. Man, not a happy time for me there.

I think the shrink wrapping and heavy plastic outer wrapper helped keep water out as well as boxes from shifting about. Rough seas splash all over those containers. It was brought out of the warehouse by forklift, still wrapped, on the pallet, and taller than our heads. The warehouse guys helped us cut it open to load in our truck.

This could always happen...the containers can fall off Into the ocean.

http://webecoist.momtastic.com/2011/04/19/deep-cargo-an-ocean-of-lost-shipping-containers/

[Kiwinyc 62]

After having heard horror stories about moving companies (my now-husband moved around a bit and had severe damages on every move caused by the moving people) I decided to pay slightly more and go for the option where no external people were handling my stuff. I ended up using ewepack (not sure if they do it still, but I'm sure there are others around) who delivered a wooden crate to my front door which I packed myself (with the help of my hubby) and then they came at the end of the day, sealed the crate in front of me and off it went. The crate then goes into a shared container but at least no one was man-handling my boxes / repacking as they pleased (as was the case for my hubby) and then via sea and truck to our house here in Boston.

The price was around 1500 GBP for door to door (but had customs needed to open my box there would have been additional charges) - not cheap but worth it for me for the peace of mind.

Re books: I'm fairly sure that the royal mail offers discounted rates for shipping books / printed materials by sea if you don't include anything else but it would still probably be somewhat more expensive as you'd pay by box but might be worth looking into.

Hope this helped.

Did you really pay £1500 for one crate? I'm imagining a tea chest size but that can't be right?

Perhaps because you had a small(?) shipment, customs didn't bother but I've been told by the co. that quoted me that its better for them to pack and create an inventory because US Customs trusts what a professional shipping company says and are less likely to insist on opening and inspecting (which costs) personal belongings packed by the owner.

And sorry to hear these stories of shipping damage etc. Fwiw I've shipped stuff from London to New York, L.A. to Sydney and Sydney to London and not had a problem. BUT - never believe the estimates of time for delivery they tell you. In my experience its always at least double so don't ship anything you think you need to use anytime soon. (Or I suppose in the case of your container falling off the boat - ever)

Also, you can't ship anything until you have your visa - a copy of your passport and visa needs to be part of the customs documentation before it can leave the country.

Edited August 14, 2013 by Kiwinyc

[lost_at_sea 995]

Did you really pay £1500 for one crate? I'm imagining a tea chest size but that can't be right?

Perhaps because you had a small(?) shipment, customs didn't bother but I've been told by the co. that quoted me that its better for them to pack and create an inventory because US Customs trusts what a professional shipping company says and are less likely to insist on opening and inspecting (which costs) personal belongings packed by the owner.

And sorry to hear these stories of shipping damage etc. Fwiw I've shipped stuff from London to New York, L.A. to Sydney and Sydney to London and not had a problem. BUT - never believe the estimates of time for delivery they tell you. In my experience its always at least double so don't ship anything you think you need to use anytime soon. (Or I suppose in the case of your container falling off the boat - ever)

Also, you can't ship anything until you have your visa - a copy of your passport and visa needs to be part of the customs documentation before it can leave the country.

Just passport, not visa, in our experience. On the US->UK my husband just needed a copy of passport bio page, not his visa, and we found the same now in the other direction.