Shipping a house worth of belongings internationally

I recently shipped some household items to Vancouver from the UK using Pickfords and was very happy with them.
I used a company in Birmingham (cardboardboxes.co.uk ?)for custom-sized boxes for a couple of furniture pieces - I had a few issues with time delays with them (I was trying to arrange from Canada) but ultimately they delivered the flat packed boxes for a reasonable cost and the product was great. Ordinary cardboard boxes won’t cut it - you will need double or triple walled boxes. I packed myself but for a whole house I would get the moving company to do much of it.

As PP have said , don’t ship anything Ikea or similar. I wouldn’t do beds or sofas either. I do really regret not shipping a lovely dining table and sideboard- I decided it wouldn’t be worth the cost as I could buy something new for same price as shipping. Turns out I couldn’t find anything new that was the same quality (and had the same memories) as that old table .

IME, the things that make a home are soft furnishings (just take the cushion covers), books, art, sentimental items, and everyday kitchen items like favourite mugs, crockery, bowls etc. that are just “home”, and the odd piece of furniture like a favourite chair.

Don’t take any electronics (transformers are a pain and ugly). For sports equipment like bikes, unless it is highly specialized, then don’t bother. Be ruthless!

That said, it is very overwhelming to arrive and start from scratch furnishing a home (especially when you have kids, new jobs, etc, etc) Maybe speak to the shipping company, set a budget / size of container then fill with as much as you can. Remember, unless you are buying from Ikea, new furniture needs to be ordered and can take months for production and delivery.

I recently moved house and had to buy a lot of new furniture- I highly recommend Article for decent quality and good customer service. Very disappointed with CB2 for quality- overpriced for what it is and customer service not great. Crate and Barrel - in store customer service great. EQ3 also decent quality and good customer service. Simons (Montreal-based department store chain) also good for house stuff. Avoid Hudson’s Bay - terrible customer service.

As PP said, Canadian customs do require you to list every single item in every single box. Do this as you pack, not by memory later as I did 😁. I can’t recall exactly but there is some issue with bringing mattresses in to Canada. The shipping company will be able to give you an info package on that stuff in advance or DM me and I can dig out the info they sent me. It took about 6-8 weeks for my stuff to ship from UK to my doorstep in Canada. I did have to go into the customs office in Vancouver to get a form stamped before it was released from customs and delivered to my home but this was a quick and easy process.

Good luck with the move - feel free to DM me with any questions 🍁

I put my stuff in storage, it burnt down and I lost the lot. We had some insurance but not enough.

if anyone wants to ship or stow away their stuff I’d say insure it to the absolute max. It was a whole bereavement process losing the stuff, I wrote threads on here about it

I nannied for a family who did the shipping container. It was delayed. They ended up buying all the furniture anyway as they couldn't wait. When they moved back again they shipped what they wanted to keep with the expectation it would take months and bought the basics new again when they arrived

The Canadians like a list of what is in every box. ! Call Pickfords or another international removal company. They can pack for you or leave it up to you. I always packed anything that wasn't breakable. It is a great chance for a clear out. Make sure your furniture arrives a day or two after you do, it will mean a couple of weeks here without everything but it is easier to borrow from family and friends here. It really isn't that stressful.

I'd weigh up the cost of shipping against buying replacements. Also depends on availability of things in your new location.

Contact a shipping company for a door to door quote. They provide boxes and crates etc, you don't get a shipping container dumped in your front yard.

I've family members move UK to Australia and Australia to UK. Containers took a couple of months but I think they were told to allow 4. Restrictions on taking wooden items and garden furniture into Australia were quite strict.

We did it three times. It's the stuff nightmares are made of. Take the insurance for sure.
We didn't move any large pieces of furniture as they never seem to fit the room sizes in other countries and just bought new or new to us once moved.
Took toys, clothes, sentimental stuff, Dh's work tools and boxes as they were needed. Nothing electrical just got new.
Things I wish I had shipped- My lovely stainless steel pan set and some casseroles and baking stuff. All now replaced but missed.
Each time it took about 6-8 weeks till the stuff arrived
We each had a large piece of luggage to take with us, so had clothes and some toys on arrival. I also paid for two extra suitcases.

Mummy's Flipping House on Instagram has just moved from the USA to the UK - her videos are worth a watch. They moved the dog with a company that sounds great but I think that was about £7k from memory. I remember her packing moving boxes (just normal size) and saying each one would be $200 - is it really worth keeping your cutlery and cushions at $200 a box?

Contact someone like Pickfords, and get hold of their international arm. They will likely give you a cost and time scale.

Things to consider:
It will take weeks (maybe months) to get your stuff. So you may well find yourself buying stuff to get you through... And where/how are you going to live while stuff idms being transported.
If you take anything electronic, you will be living with adapters. And anything that isn't duel voltage will need a transformer too.
Will you be able to get sheets and duvets to fit the beds? Different countries have different size beds....

We have done this moving to the uk from the southern hemisphere. We used a international company called."Crown". We had a house full of stuff but I managed to sell the bigger items like sofa, beds etc. We did bring our table and chairs as well as TV etc.

We packed small items but there were two staff memebers came in to pack the kitchen and it took them all day.

It took 3 months to arrive at our house in the UK and they also unpacked everything and helpped to put most furniture together. It was 10 years ago though, everything was paid by DHs company but from memory it was around £5000. The whole process was pretty straight forward and nothing got lost or damaged.

A family member did a similar move and shipped pretty much their entire house overseas. They paid an international moving company to do the packing and filled a shipping container. It didn't take long to arrive and everything arrived in one piece. If you don't have a house ready to move into when your stuff arrives, storage fees charged by the shipping company can be very expensive though, so if you think you're going to take some time finding somewhere to live, also look into local self storage options, which will be cheaper.

We moved from the uk to the Middle East, and then from the Middle East back to the uk nearly 20 years later: we used Pickfords on both occasions who were, on the whole, brilliant. They came and packed everything up, loaded it onto the 40ft container and we saw it again a few months later at the other end.

It’s not worth it for furniture usually. We didn’t bother. Sell what you have and buy new ( I mean secondhand new also).

We just maxed out luggage options, most airlines you can pay to add up to 3 32kg per person if needed. So you have a lot potentially with 4 people. And then post a few as regular large parcels for things you want to keep but not urgent.

We are going from the UK to Canada.

OP we did the same move in 2016. We had a whole shipping crate for our 3-bedroom house. It all went smoothly and took about 4-6 weeks in total I think. We got quotes from 2 or 3 companies that specialize in this. There will be lots of suggestions on the British Expats forum. We do know others who have not been so lucky however, and have lost a lot of their stuff in moves or taken months for it to arrive (2 different families).

If I were doing it again, I wouldn't move all the furniture. It isn't worth it. Instead I'd share a crate, which is much cheaper, and only move art, personal effects and a few items of furniture that I love. 💗

Remember, if you use Facebook Marketplace to get rid of stuff on this end you can absolutely use it to get cheap stuff on the other side!

We moved US to UK and did it with a few suitcases and a cat carrier. Over the years we've toted more stuff over in suitcases after annual trips home, where I usually spent a few days going through the stuff we'd left behind and throwing out even MORE stuff than we already had. We'd left Minnesota in mid December so it was easier to throw it in the Uhaul rather than find a place to dispose of it. Also, dont forget charities - BHF will take furniture I believe.

We are going back this year and as much as I want to take this bed, the mattress and sheets wont fit US sizing. Most everything else is borrowed or Ikea and the electronics stuff I can unload quickly to friends I imagine. You find out very quickly what really matters to you and what is just general life crap - and its a good lesson to keep learning when you are in your new locale wondering if you should buy something expensive or sizeable, or more books/toys, etc!

• don't take any Ikea furniture, chipboard doesn't travel and it's easy to sell
• find shipping companies which offer a share in partial container, takes bit longer but cheaper
• sell any electronics - you will need 110V over there I think and different plug. You won't want to wait 3mths for the tv anyway
• agree with others that if you can get away with not shipping furniture then do this as new house will need different pieces
• check out airfreight for hybrid options. Gets there fast, but dearer than freight per cubic metre. Ideal for kitchen items+ toys, a few books etc
• hand carry all valuables on flight

Depending on where in the UK you live, I would potentially be interested in purchasing some bits from you! I'm looking mainly for living room and snug furniture but could also use knick knacks etc 🙂

If you feel comfortable to share your vague location and some photos of your sofas etc then I could absolutely take some bits off your hands!!

Check if electrical items are compatible with the power supply.

@Youhaveyourhandsfull

I did in reverse took over 4 months, dockers were on strike!

Check bed sizes. Real pain in the arse when you ship your bed then find bedding sizes in the new place are slightly different so your sheets never fit quite right

Assuming you’re not currently planning on staying forever in your shoes I would take as little as possible. Declutter and sell stuff you’re not attached to or which you know you won’t use when you’re back. Leave family heirlooms and truly sentimental stuff with your family in a loft or something- there’s no way I would trust a shipping company with anything I couldn’t bear to lose.

When I lived abroad I got a small trunk of stuff shipped to me and then accumulated stuff from shops like ikea but also eBay/ second hand once I got there- then it felt less wasteful. I enjoyed the process and was also able to sell quite a bit of it before I came back too. Although it might seem daunting/ wasteful to replace in your new home imagine the environmental costs of shipping every last teaspoon across the world! Plus some things (like electrical items, bedding etc) simply won’t work, or won’t work as well in the new place and you’ll be really surprised how quickly it all starts to accumulate again!

Can someone go on ahead so you’ve got the basics like beds, table and sofa for when you arrive with the kids?

We moved from London to Vancouver with a large family. A full container (small ones are 20ft long) is fairly expensive and the easiest way it normally part of a container. Don't believe anyone who says it takes 2 weeks, it absolutely doesn't.
I'd allow 6-7 probably. It would just be delivered to your door in boxes.

What we did was just paid for extra suitcases and packed essentials- kitchen stuff, etc, to keep us going until the container finally arrived. We didn't have to pay for shipping as it was a work transfer but if I was paying myself I would take as little as possible. It's really not worth taking something from IKEA.

Bear in mind though everything is more expensive in Canada than the UK, but we did get a lot of free stuff from marketplace which you will probably be able to do as well, provided you aren't in the middle of nowhere.

If any of you are going out to visit on any occasions before the move, max out your baggage allowance and consider buying more bags to pre move stuff so its there when you arrive (leave with a Canadian friend or get a small storage unit). Dont forget it will be freezing in Dec, so make sure you have good winter clothing options for all of you)

Contact a removals company who deal in international moves for personal effects (not all freight forwarders do private work directly). It's best to ask other families who have done the same move who they used because different locations lend themselves to different companies.

You need to then work out what you are willing to spend on shipping and consider the shipping time. Cull your belongings starting now, good excuse for a sort out.

I've done this and it's tough! We had boxes go missing too so you need to inventory every box.

Just another thought, think about booking the Queen Mary 2 westbound instead of flying (into New York) if east coast Canada as you can take unlimited luggage within reason plus the dog! Kennels get booked up so no guarantees. Then find a company to drive to over the border. If you didn't take furniture you might be able to use this plus mail a few boxes.