Miss Clinique

We have been in international moving for 30 years, immigrants from the UK tend to bring very little when they move, I don't think they really want to spend the money, unless its a corporate move. We obviously handle shipments from all over the world, nearly all of them, with the exception of the UK, and India are 40ft. 40 high cube are not so common, we will get on average 2-3 a month, more in the summer months.

Do you feel you can trust me a little bit now

james.mc

Completely....

Pem

Bring the minimum...they confiscate any outdoor/gardening equipment too. As for the car, I brought my Corvette Stingray to Canada from England when we moved 10 years ago...owned the car for 23 years. Drove it 10 miles in Ontario to get its Safety Test...it fell off the top of the ramps in the garage...8 feet to the floor, and was immediately written off. No point in bringing a car, even if it is very special to you (as was mine)...

Almost Canadian

What nonsense. None of our outdoor/gardening equipment was confiscated and we still use them now, almost 6 years later.

We still use all of our chests of drawers in all of our bedrooms. Such quality cannot be purchased in Canada for anything like the cost we purchased them for in England. The received wisdom on this board appears to be: if you are going to take a container, fill it. I agree with that advice.

DandNHill

It's not just a case of quality and price when looking at replacing your furniture over here.
The styles are quite different and to start with I didn't like anything in the furniture stores...now I'm getting used to it but to start with yuck!!! lol
Also having your belongings around you will help you settle in my opinion...

We self packed a 20ft container and were amazed at how much we got in. We were told we needed a 40ft when we got quotes so had an A list and B list... we left behind a chipboard bookcase and the garden chairs... that's it. Otherwise we squeezed in a 5 bedroom house into a 20ft container with no room to spare...

We moved from West Sussex too and used EwePack to Halifax... It's was 2500 GBP all in door to door incl insurance and we were quoted an extra 500GBP for a 40'.
The main difference also to consider with self pack is they can't lower a 40' to the ground whereas the 20' was put on our drive and we could simply walk in and out of it...

Pem

Not nosense, but fact! They (Customs) took our Stihl strimmer, 2 Honda mowers, shovels etc. If I remember rightly, I think fear of Foot and Mouth was the reason.
Our container came in vis Halifax NS...maybe they were just more diligent? No big deal, just saying what happened to us....use your own judgement.

Kaye5

How does insurance work if you pack yourself? We have been told anything we pack ourselves isn't insured for breakage (but is for loss in other ways). We have a few bits of valuable china that we would not want to be uninsured for breakages. The rest is tat from IKEA .

We would definitely look at this if they will come to Scotland - to save nearly £2k for us at the moment would be well worth the hassle (considering we will pack a lot ourselves anyway while taking apart furniture, and we have a big driveway which could take a 20ft container).

Anything else you would say to be aware of with self-pack?

Cheers

DandNHill

Well we only had one broken plate/cup, can't quite remember and a chip out of a piece of furniture.
We had 2 friends help us so there were 4 adults packing it which was plenty as otherwise you're just falling over each other.
I did get a little concerned when our friend started climbing over everything including things which weren't supposed to be climbed on, so that's something to watch for: "over zealous helpers"! Also there are lots of different grades of bubble wrap on ebay. The cheap stuff which pops as soon as you touch it and the stuff that actually protects your belongings... We learnt from experience...

As far as insurance was concerned, we were only covered for total loss. So the container had pretty much to fall in the sea for us to claim.
I would call Steve at Ewepack to ask about Scotland. I think they went anywhere and it just depended where you lived to which port it was shipped from. In our case it went to London and out to Rotterdam first! lol

How many valuable bits of china do you have? Could you bring it as hand luggage? I ended up bringing my bedside light in my hand luggage as for some weird reason it never made it to the container...

As far as space is concerned, every little nook and cranny was filled with stuff. No piece of furniture was empty so we gained huge amounts of room there...

Oh, the only weird not so funny thing was that when it arrived in Halifax my OH was told he had about 3/4 days to clear it and get it delivered otherwise they would start charging us $100 per day!!!!! Which seemed rather excessive... nobody else we knew had that problem so it might have been OH misunderstanding but worth checking out to be on the safe side...

Hope that all helps

james.mc

A sad story I'm sure, but the fact that your corvette lasted as long as it falling off the car ramp in Canada, and being written off, hardly justifies the statement that there is no point bringing the car, even if it's special to you. He said.... fully intent on bringing his left hand drive 1989 almost fully restored 'special to me' built in Canada Jeep It'll go in the 20ft container with the rest of the stuff, including some garden tools and a whole bunch of my workshop tools. I feel you might as well pack cleaned/pressure washed garden tools. If they get through great. If not.. hey ho!

MillieF

I brought all my pressure washed garden tools, pressure washed workshop tools and pressure washed much loved left hand drive car. Nothing was confiscated, and nothing fell off the 40 footers ramp. I'm glad I brought it all, as whilst we may not need or keep it all, we didn't have to go out and stock the house anew immediately.

Kaye5

Thanks - yes, that is really helpful!

We have moved ourselves a couple of times and TBH it hasn't been fun.... but we then had very heavy old wardrobes to get down stairs (yes, we are talking Laurel & Hardy AKA my OH and his friend). Now we will have lots of boxes, IKEA stuff which we have to dismantle anyway and a few sofas which our friendly next door neighbour could give us a hand with. And now my 15 y-o son is 2 inches taller than me, I see no reason why I should have to lift, ha ha.

Not sure if we could manage the china as hand luggage but worth looking at. It is not irreplaceable - a 1950s British set - you can get pieces off Ebay in the UK but not really in Canada. But if they smash the lot, then it wipes out the self-pack saving!

In a way, I would much rather pack and load myself, then I know where everything is and as we are not taking everything, I can avoid them chucking in what's not supposed to be going.

How many days did you have the container before the move?

I will give them a ring. If they don't do Scotland there is probably a similar firm.

DandNHill

It arrived at 8:30am and was picked up around 2pm. It was packed solid. I know people who had a 40' and it took them less time as they didn't have to worry about every tiny little space... It was hard work but worth the huge saving IMO...

kirstyp

Garden/outdoor equipment is not confiscated as a rule, however, Canadian border services have cracked down on goods entering Canada that are contaminated with soil (even the smallest traces) so best advice is if you're taking it make sure to scrub clean any items that have been used outdoors or contain traces of soil to avoid costly and stressful procedures should your goods be inspected and found non-compliant. These goods will be refused entry and you’ll be responsible for the costs of return shipment / cleaning or ultimate disposal. Think about garden furniture, shoes, garden tools and equipment and bicycles/sporting equipment...

Re: furniture what we hear a lot is that in Canada furniture can (Whilst often being of high quality) be expensive and Canadian houses are on average slightly bigger than in the UK so more space to fill up!

Our tip is to try to have a look at furniture retailers (either during a scouting trip or online stores) and see what it would cost to replace items you’re thinking of leaving behind, and compare this with the cost of shipping them, also, It’s very common for homes in Canada to have built in wardrobes so it is probably not worth shipping wardrobes to Canada unless you can check first that your property doesn’t have them built in.

Hope that helps?

Kaye5

Thanks - I've spoken to Steve and he's going to send through some prices. Main thing we're bothered about is we'd have about 3 hours to unload at the other end - not so easy without friendly neighbours to lend a hand. But certainly worth looking into depending on the cost savings.

We decided we won't bother with garden stuff, with the exception of bikes. Ours is all old and was cheap to start with, so we don't think it's worth the hassle / risk.

A bit the same with furniture - we'll prioritise the good stuff and the cheap rubbish can go to the tip if it doesn't fit in the container. Our stuff really isn't worth the difference in price for the extra container space, although if I had quality furniture I'd be taking it.

DandNHill

Well we had the realtor and his son helping. The boys and I were still in the UK and most landed on the driveway...
This is when you have to recruit local expats to help