Moving overseas: Can you tell me how to best move our belongings?

[QuintessentialShadow]

We are not taking furniture, but personal effects, clothes and toys and some china. I dont even know where to start. My friend suggested shipping a crate, but I cant find anyting about that on google which seems relevant...

sorry can't help as ours was organised for us. However, I'd start sifting through all your stuff as its amazing how much stuff seems important but isn't.When you are limited by space it becomes important. Having said that there are things in storage that I wished we'd taken!! Also do check boxes you take contain what you think they should. We opened a few empty boxes....argh!!

You can ship half a crate, or a crate. Or you could airfreight which is more expensive. It depends how soon you need it and how much you have. Where are you going? Shipping can take up to six weeks depending on how far you go.. Most big moving companies should be able to give you pointers and information on international moves and I think they should be your first stop.

Sometimes a crate is called a container. You can ship of course less than half a crate but by item might be more expensive. If you get the movers to pack up rather than you doing it, it should mean the packing is also insured, so they can't get out of a claim by saying something was broken during packing or before packing. So while it might be tempting to pack up yourself think carefully.

Having the same problem Quint. So bumping this along for you!

Most moving firms will come out and do a quote. You can ship a smaller amount than a container as part of what they call a consolidated load. Containers tend to be either 20ft or 40ft.

To give you an idea we shipped a 20 foot when we moved from Vietnam to Bulgaria and it took all of our possesions (read lots!) and some furntiure.

I have had a quote from a removal agency. £1645 for 6 cubic meters. That is equivalent to 40 boxes, and includes the full wrapping service, and unpacking at destination.
I said i would need to bring 2 adults bikes and a childs bike, a large wooden trunk and a shelf, but wont need so many boxes. Possibly also 2 Junior beds. He said by adding the beds we increased to 8 cubic meter, and up to £1845. i dont think that is bad. It takes a week to drive to my parents.... Taking petrol into the consideration would be around £400 alone if dh should drive a van with ours stuff up!
Also, because the van takes 20 cubic meter, if we have more stuff, they just invoice for more stuff.

I also spoke to a cargo shipping/courier company, 10 boxes, 50x50x50, the two bikes and the trunk and the shelf would be £710. But we pack, they pick up and drop off at destination.