What do we pack airfreight in?

[cyclingtowardsbethlehem]

I need the collective wisdom of you international relocaters! Last time I moved overseas it was just me and a 75lt rucksack.

We're moving overseas at the end of the month. We have 680 cft of shipping (which is supposed to be for stuff minis furniture) PLUS 220kg of unaccompanied airfreight (2 adults and 2 kids).

The shipping is packed for us, but what do we pack the airfreight in? Boxes? Or do we need some sort of giant soft sided bags? We're going into a serviced apartment and will have a basic 'float' of stuff, plus our plane luggage.

I'm really rubbish at guesstimating volume and weight- how many boxes would that be?!

Suddenly realised it is all very imminent, argh.

*minus furniture

We have a trunk we use. But anything secure and robust will do.

Ours was packed (by the freight forwarders) in cardboard boxes and lots of tape.
I've also done a friends into cardboard boxes with catering cling film ontop of the tape.
Plastic storage tubs have been used in the past - use cable ties to hold the lids on through the holes, and include spare cable ties right at the top incase it is opened by customs.

Or suitcases/soft bags/whatever else yoh have lying around and arent taking on the plane with you.

If you want a picture of our 400kg of airfreight, DM me your email address. I dong want it public, but happy to share privately. It was 9 LARGE boxes. The boxes weren't far off square, with each side aprox 50cm. They used LOTS of packing.

Ours was also packed in cardboard boxes with lots of tape. The movers just made three piles when they packed our stuff - sea freight, air freight and the stuff we'd take ourselves.

If you're doing it yourself I would get some sturdy boxes from Amazon and a roll of parcel tape on a dispenser, as that's what the movers use.

Oh yes and lots of paper packing if you're taking anything breakable. Every single item we took was carefully wrapped in paper, plus you need to put some in the bottom and the top of each box.

As for what does 220kg look like - depends how heavy the stuff is!

If you're taking duvets - light - if you're taking cooking pots and glassware - heavy.

Strong cardboard boxes, lots of tape completely around (not just on top). Labels on outside and inside. Keep an inventory of both air and sea freight as things are likely to go missing (just one box for us). If taking precious items like photo albums I strongly recommend posting or air not sea.

Oh god yes, the labels!! And FGS carry anything valuable! I took all my jewellery out of its boxes and put it inside a jewellery roll that I carried on me. Our laptops, ditto.

Double boxing for fragiles even slightly breakables. So pack them carefully with plenty padding into a single box with no movement inside.. Put that single box into another box lined with cardboard, no movement in that 2nd box. When wrapped, It should feel like you could toss it down the stairs & nothing inside would break because nothing inside can move even slightly.

You're at mercy of movers for big things. I successfully moved a 1000 lb piano (so huge heavy fragile item) from California to Britain via Panama Canal; I'm sure it only arrived well because of good packing and handling by others, nothing I did made a huge difference.

The packers packed all our freight in cardboard boxes. We kept it in a separate room in the house while they were in packing, along with our suitcases for flying, passports etc. Basically anything we didn’t want in the sea freight. They then weighed it as they packed it so we could keep adding more to it if we wanted. Make sure you use your full allowance, these things are so useful when you are in a serviced apartment or if sea freight is delayed. Every time we move we under estimate just how much stuff you can get in the air freight!!! Good luck!

Thank you all! All super helpful. I think we'll do a mix of boxes and random plastic storage boxes and some of those big laundry bags taped up.

Check out the quarantine arrangements for your destination country. Au-UK was just tape top and bottom. UK-Au was taping every single seam, gap, crease - everything. As to what to take, a good packing list from the camping section might be a good place to start.