Shipping a house worth of belongings internationally

[MooseBreath]

DH and I are trying to get our affairs in order for an international move to another continent (in December). We have a 4yo and an 18mo, as well as a dog. Permits to live in the country are sorted.

We currently rent, but have a house deposit ready for when we move. Ideally we would bring much of our furniture and belongings, so we aren't starting from scratch.

AIBU to have absolutely no idea how to go about doing this? I assumed we could use a shipping container, but we would be moving overseas and then a fair way inland. I have read online that this is incredibly unreliable and takes years for belongings to arrive, which seems insane. We can't exactly wait years for our furniture and clothing...

Has anybody done this before and know the basics of what to look for? How does it work?

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?

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.

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.

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.

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 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

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 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 🍁

You use an international removal firm - eg Pickfords. They organise it all for you end to end - they have contracts in most countries with other removal firms. Will cost about £10k and take about 3 months. Not worth it financially unless you have priceless heirlooms.

Thank you to everyone for the advice.

I am actually Canadian and we are moving to be close to my family. We won't be moving into our own home for several months, as we will be staying with my parents until we find the right house. Fortunately, that means there is no rush on anything except clothes and favourite toys which will come in suitcases.

All of this has been so helpful! We will definitely cut it down to the bare minimum shipping-wise, but DH seems to think we'd do better to ship than buy new/used. I will look into the bed thing!!

We moved from Singapore to Australia about 15 years ago with a 20ft container. Cost about $10k including insurance. BUT when I created a spreadsheet for insurance purposes it came to > $100k. There wasn’t even that much furniture in there, mainly household goods/DVDs/CDs/toys/books. We used Pickfords and was all smooth but organised the insurance directly with the underwriter, someone recommended by British Expats. Can’t remember the name (begins with L?) but was way cheaper than doing through Pickfords.

We moved UK to Australia and used Crown also. They were fab. They pack everything up just like normally moving house. They also let you know what you can't take (depending on where you are going to)

As we didn't have a house to move into in Oz straight away they just put the Australian arm of their company as the address and it stayed in storage in Australia until we rang and said we were ready for it. We then just paid a monthly storage fee. As we were paying to ship it anyway we took the electrical stuff too and just changed the plugs when we got there.

I have shipped a full household of furniture 5 times. I’d much rather do that and keep items I like, plus all the random stuff I’d rather not part with than have to buy a whole new household full of stuff. We also took each chance to declutter too.

As far as I remember, shipping containers were either 20 or 40 feet. So see what your estimate is. No point using a 40ft if you only need 25ft. At that point, get rid of enough to fit into a 20.

We moved long distance each time and it always took approximately 2 months. Had to claim a couple of times on insurance, but all fairly minor. I’ve also used Crown and Pickfords and maybe a couple of others too. Shop around but pay attention to reviews at each end.

It doesn’t matter if your destination is not near a port. Your containers get driven to your final destination anyway whether it’s long or not (obvs a cost implication though). I do think Toronto has a massive port though.

My friend did this move recently and used Richardsons. Hope this helps!

It's really easy to use a moving company. They just bring up a container, pack it, and we organised for it to be delivered to our new home the day after we moved in. They then unloaded all the boxes (which I asked them not to unpack, because I wanted to do that). They put all the big furniture in place. To save space, the only thing I didn't bring was the beds. We bought new and I got them delivered the day we moved into our new home. I don't think anything got broken either. Took about two months total.

It's actually very straightforward. We did it UK to USA three years ago. Hire a good shipping company and they will come to you, size up your furniture and how many boxes of stuff you have (it's always way way more boxes than you think) and give you a quote. They have to pack it up for you in order for their insurance to cover it. They then arrange delivery at the other end. Ours took 8 weeks. That's about average. A full container cost us £11k I think.

I disagree with posters above saying to start again - it would cost far more to completely refurbish a 4-bed house. And then you'd still have to pay to ship out boxes of your valuables, clothes, toys etc.

I’ve done it. It wasn’t a whole house because there was no point bringing electrical appliances or some items of furniture. But I brought a lot of books, kitchenware, rugs, soft furnishings, etc. I used a company that arranges the container and everything for you. It took 4 months from the driver picking up all the boxes and things from the house in the UK to the container being cleared by customs and unloaded here. The company I used wouldn’t pick up the stuff from the IK until I had my immigrant visa in hand. I was hoping they could get it earlier to give me a head start with the time it would take. But I got my immigrant visa and moved here less than a week later. They picked everything up the day before I flew here for good. The house was completely empty except me and 2 suitcases. After they took everything I went to the airport hotel and the next morning I was on the plane.

We used Pickfords. They were great, did all the packing for us.

You buy the space within the container, so you pay for it whether you fill it completely or not. We shipped a few special pieces of furniture and our household belongings but no bed frames or white goods. We even brought a piano - no extra cost at all!

There are services that organise this.

Things to remember:

• UK electronics may not work well/at all abroad. No point shipping them.
• you may have to pay import duty
• sea freight can take a while ie if you ship stuff it might not arrive for a month.

Whether it's worth shipping really all depends... if you have things you'd never let go of (beloved clothes; books etc) then you won't be managing with suitcases and may as well organise shipping. Cheap furniture probably isn't worth shipping, unless it's hard to come by at your destination.

My advice, meant kindly op, is don’t!

Only keep a very few precious items.

I would sell as much as you can and start again there. It’s hardly the back of beyond and you will need slightly different things because of the weather.

I've done this twice, it's fine and it's nice to have your stuff. Took 2 months for it all to turn up.

Yes, check the voltages on your electrical appliances. An increasing number are dual voltage now and work between 110-220v, so will work in both the UK and North America.

Your tumble dryer won’t (have had a U.S. one in storage in the UK, the frequencies aren’t compatible).

Good point about the voltages. Anything with a heating element won't work in North America - we brought a fridge, microwave, KitchenAid etc and none of them work. You can buy converters (which we had to do for our printer) but they are over $250.

If you bring a piano into North America you have to remove the ivory keys and buy replacements here as you are not allowed to bring ivory into the country.

My sister did the same this year! Not an entire family home worth of shipping, but key items of sentimental furniture, a shop worth of clothing and kitchen stuff. Cost 2-3k I believe, they picked it up from the storage locker, shipped it, then delivered it to her in Canada. Let me know if you want me to message her and ask who she used.

Yes please!!