How many suitcases did you take on the plane when you relocated? And how big?

[feckity]

We move in a month. I need to buy suitcases for the move - we only have a couple which DH has used for work travel.

For DH, me, and two dcs - 7&5. 35kg luggage allowance each. Air freight and shipping following us.

The last time DH went away he weighed his full (but not to bursting) suitcase and it was 18kg. I can't imagine lugging almost twice that per person to the airport. Having ditched most of my winter clothes and bought new climate appropriate stuff I think I could pack my whole wardrobe in one medium sized suitcase.

We'll take some of our towels and bedding with us, but will put most of it in the air freight stuff. And I've stocked up a bit on things like suncream and toothpaste which I've been advised to bring from the uk.

What else aren't I thinking of that we could use the luggage allowance for? How many/what size suitcases should I buy?!

Don't forget that shoes weigh and wash kits weigh the most. I wouldn't put more than a bottle or two of sunscreen in your cases, they weigh a ton and tend to burst (double wrap them in ziplock bags in the middle of your case). If you have air freight coming and will move to serviced accommodation you only need what you would take for a couple of weeks of holiday. You can buy everything overseas anyway.

We just relocated with 3 year old twins and took 14 suitcases. It wasn't just what we needed to survive in a hotel for a month before our shipment arrived; it was all the stuff that can't be shipped (medicines, aerosol cans etc).

It's really not an issue to have loads of luggage as you don't actually have to carry it physically - most airports have a porter service which takes them off you at the passenger drop off and loads them onto a massive trolley straight from your car (NB you may have to book more than one taxi to get it all to the airport) and likewise there is usually a porter service in the baggage hall at arrivals (and many companies pay for VIP meet and greet but if not you can also book and pay for it yourself).

We took 5 cases between the 3 of us. It just contained clothing that we would need, footwear, a few favourite books, DVDs & toys for DD. We bought all toiletries and things there. Oh and jewellery, iPads, Chargers etc.

Where are you moving to?

Don't buy massive cases as there are weight restrictions on cases re staff lifting them.
We took 6 cases with us - 80kilos in total and packed:
Clothes, medicines, paperwork, bank details, birth certificates, games and books for kids, DVDs, jewellery, chargers. Dh's company gave us an allowance to buy bedding, kitchen stuff, towels etc so we were fine until our shipment arrived.

Blimey, 14 suitcases? I don't know where we'd even store 14 suitcases, let how we'd fill them

Thanks for the tip about weight restrictions for porters handling cases. And thinking about it, it would make more sense for us to have smaller cases for when we travel around the region rather than having to use massive cases for a weekend away.

We're going to Singapore. I know we'll be able to get everything we need there, but I've heard it's worth bringing sunscreen and toothpaste. I won't bring loads though.

Buy the tarp storage bags and tape them up once you're packed. That's what we did when we moved. Had 30kg each allowance. We had 3 or 4 tarp bags and 2 or 3 hard cases between two of us, plus our carry on allowances.

The storage bags are cheap (I imagine you can get them from Amazon), don't take unnecessary weight from your allowance and can be thrown out rather than stored at the other end.

Pack them with stuff that's hardy - shoes, clothes, towels etc and save your good cases for the more fragile bits.

Like this:

1 X EXTRA LARGE STRONG LAUNDRY STORAGE TOYS STORAGE REUSABLE BAGS ZIPPERS https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00ADU5AAW/ref=cmswwrcppapi_DlRAxb2R8TNPW

We shipped about five boxes of stuff as well. Most is still in storage at home, as we chose a furnished flat to live in.

The maximum baggage allowance (two per person up to 26 kilos, I think, plus carry on)

We had a six week wait at least for our sea shipment, and needed things like clothes, toys, books DVDs to keep us occupied in an unfurnished flat. Also basic kitchen utensils like a tin opener, scissors, the pets' food bowls....

I live in Singapore and have never heard of having to bring toothpaste and suncream from the UK! There is toothpaste and suncream in every ColdStorage and Guardian. If you were in Australia then I'd say yes, bring the big tubs of suncream you can get there, but the UK has only normal size containers so I can't see the point of buying it to bring over.

I think it was more the sunscreen wasn't very good and the toothpastes all taste funny, rather than you can't get them. I've had too long to think about this move, read too much advice and I'm having to try hard not to forget that they have shops in Singapore too

The storage bags are a good idea.

I would buy hold-alls rather than suitcases. Then 5 will all pack inside one suitcase you have for example once you arrive.

I wouldn't take much either. You will know what season you arrive in so can pack the majority of not needed stuff to arrive later

And things like kids jumpers. You might own 15. 5 is plenty really so pack 10 in airfreight and just 5 in cases. Same with everything. 3 pairs of shoes is plenty for 1-2 months. Any extra pack in with stuff arriving later

The thing that really caught me out was what the removals company couldn't/wouldn't put in a shipping container. That's what took up most of the room in our suitcases!

The max limit per bag in terms of baggage handlers being allowed to handle them is normally 32kg. But your airline will have specific allowances which are probably below this anyway.

If (and you probably will) have excess baggage, then use a third party agent like the Excess Baggage Company to send it - you can pre-book and drop off with them at the airport terminal. It is much cheaper than paying your airline's excess baggage fees.

Chopsticks all the toothpaste in SE Asia tastes weird to me. It reminds me of mothballs. I always stock up at home to avoid having to buy the local stuff.

feckity We brought one case each when we moved to SG. The only thing I wish I'd brought was our ski gear, which didn't arrive in time for a holiday we were taking. Pack your DCs favourite books and toys which will probably take up a bit of room.

I don't like those tarp bags. They don't really hold up well once they're full. I've had them split and the handles come off. The suggestion of holdalls is a good one, or some rolling duffel bags. They're easy to store and good for trips home or where you know you're going to do a lot of shopping, so you can pack one inside another or a suitcase.

When we relocated recently with BA we could take 3 x 32kg suitcases per person (I think they've recently reduced this to only 2 per person though). i think in the end we took 6 giant cases between 4 of us (and dh left 3 cases worth of stuff out there when we was commuting). We decided not to use any of our allowance on air freight though because it wasn't cost effective. If you have air freight it's probably not worth the hassle to take so many suitcases.

We had 40kg allowance each x 6 worked out we took 11 largish cases and were just under allowance. Im glad we did because we arrived 8 weeks before our container despite it setting off 8 weeks before us. Dh packed his fecking desktop computer in one case because lord forbid he should be without the damned thing. I nearly moved into singapore airport since our youngest screamed that first leg and I was loathe to get back on plane. He also managed to finish all the formula. Cue me trying to find a substitute at Singapore and getting it wrong and buying some flavoured milkshake type mix instead.

We flew with BA and had 8 extra large suitcases for the four of us.

We bought a couple of really big rolly suitcases that I don't think we've used ever since, and I had those together with pull along ones for the flight, at the airport one of our bags was too heavy so we had to buy another one and do a bit of repacking (dh went ahead, and I had the 6 and 7 year old). I think mostly it was toys, books and games. We didn't have any air freight though. Our shipping took almost three months so we were glad of everything.

We relocated with 6 of us and took 2 large suitcases and 6 carry ons. Each carry on was each persons "things you can't live without for a month" case.

We did four of us with four cases at 30kg each. Included favourite toiletries, medicine, one set of bedding each, kitchen utensils, various bits of food (many oxo cubes) and clothes. Cases were full to bursting. We stayed in a hotel for the first two nights and I couldn't actually get them done up when we left so had to chuck a load of stuff in carrier bags.

Im in Singapore. I would really advise bringing a few sets decent swimsuits and goggles for all of you, and socks. Suncream and toothpaste seem fine over here to me.

worrying about funny tasting toothpaste should ne very very low on your list of priorities right now

Check your airline for maximum allowance per bag. It's usually 23kg.

We brought 8 huge ones -- our full allowance for 4 business class tickets. Clothes, some linens, and lots of toys and books for the kids. It took almost 3 weeks for our air shipment to arrive and 8 weeks for our sea shipment so we were glad to have our stuff.

13 items of luggage on our last move using up our entire allowance of 160KG in business (4 x 40kg each) - that included 6 suitcases (one contained the kids' scooters, helmets and soccer stuff) 2 boxes (just standard packing boxes), a bike bag and 4 soft holdalls......we needed 3 luggage trolleys and just used porters both ends of our journey

DH came out on 2 suitcases, and took another one back after a visit.
Me and 2 kids went out on 6 suitcases. And 4 bits of hand luggage.
What are you doing about carseats???
We packed the holdall and suitcases we already owned, and then bought some large ones.
Don't forget kids toys. I told the kids one holdall was for toys. Pack what they wanted, but the bag was it.

I had one carry on size suitcase packed with all the paperwork etc, which went as hand luggage, but wasn't opened til we got there. One hand luggage of stuff to use on plane, ditto for kids, in a travel carseat rucksack thingy.
Pack a spare set of clothes in hand luggage!

I can categorically state that this thread hasn't helped . The full range from a suitcase each and buying everything out there, to packing up entire lives to take on the plane, bikes and scooters included. There isn't even a consensus on the toothpaste issue!

I'm going to have to make my own damn decision, that's not how MN is supposed to work at all...

For carseats we were going to take ours for the taxi to the airport, pack them up to go into hold and then use them again from airport to the apartment. We have high backed boosters that will convert to just the booster section, I thought we might ditch the back bits at the airport. We're not going to have a car in Singapore, so I thought the bottom bits might be handy to use in taxis out there. Ideally they'd still be in high backed seats, but can't be taking them along on every taxi journey, so at least the boosters would be better than nothing.