Seems a tad pricey! But shipping by sea simply isn't practical for us as we were only taking clothes, bed linen, shoes, a small selection of photos etc, and probably about a cupboard's worth of kitchen utensils if the furnished flat we get doesnt have any.

For that, been quoted in the region of £1,100!

I would buy shed loads of suitcases and just take extra luggage on my flight if I could
a) carry that many suitcases
and
b) have a place to keep that many suitcases!


I guess to be fair - I have ALOT of clothes and shoes. Methinks the vacuum bags will be getting a lot of use soon

Shipping by sea probably is practical. Im fairly sure you can take just a part of a container, or else just box it up and ship it "surface mail" or similar?

Gotta be cheaper than air freight anyway... talk to some freight forwarders I guess.

That does seem spendy. I'm taking all of that same kind of stuff but only for one person.

I'll have two checked suitcases on my flight, i.e. the free one and then also the first relatively inexpensive additional paid-for bag. The paid suitcase is costing me £34, that is with BA. Further paid-for bags come out more like £70-something and aren't worth it for me. I would say it's definitely worth taking advantage of the first sensibly-priced additional bag, if you've already got enough suitcases to make it work.

The remainder of my belongings will be boxed and likely sent through www.transglobal.org.uk which seems to give very good quotes for the big name services. Four 18x18x20in boxes filled to 30kg and a 3/4 sized guitar (in hard case) of about 5 kg are coming out at about £275 on one of the UPS services there.

I'll have to investigate surface mail. I don't know why but I felt uneasy 'mailing' stuff :s

I remember you mentioning transglobal before. I'll have to extract a quote from them!

What size is the bed linen? will it fit the beds here?

OPs brain now explodes Yes air freight is expensive compared to surface mail. If in no rush for some of the items then consider using surface mail.

A friend did this (Moving Vancouver-London) a couple of years back and I think it worked out cheaper than even surface freight. They asked friends & family to donate all their old luggage that was almost (But not quite) dead - it only has to last one trip, after all...

Hehe, luckily I did research bed size! We were going to take duvets and pillows with accompanying covers. Our duvets are kingsize so fine for queen or even smaller (we don't mind a bit of overhang!)
The only things that should leave us to get over there would be mattress protectors and bed sheets. Fingers crossed

I forgot to mention we'll be returning after about 18 months as going on a temporary intra-company transfer.
Though I will very likely invest in some nice hardwood furniture (I know it's meant to be expensive but I've been doing my research and for comparable stuff over here there's no competition! My godmother lived in Toronto for two years 20 years ago and the stuff she brought back is fantastic). So I was thinking we'd do shipping for the return portion as we'll be coming back to our home in London.

Which makes your suggestion actually good if I don't need suitcases on my return!

Don't bother with that stuff. This is Canada: a couple of sweatshirts, jeans and a pair of sneakers is all you'll ever wear.

But......shoes ...dresses.....


(admittedly I wear approximately 4% of my wardrobe, but still!)

Seeing as you are heading to Vancouver then no need for winter parkas, snow boots etc etc Pack an umbrella and wellies and hoodies are quite acceptable over here.

Yes, I'm wondering how I'll cope with all the rain! A transparent umbrella is on the list so I no longer walk into people in driving rain.

Some new Wellies would be fun!

Maybe I shouldn't be using this as an excuse to go shopping...

Walmart is your friend.

IKEA so good cheap bed covers, duvets and similar.

Get furniture off Craigslist. We purchased some quality stuff for a quarter of what most Vancouverites spend. They really will just fork out anything.

If you only wear 4% of your wardrobe, just bring that. I think you're coming across as a bit of a twit actually. If 96% of your clothes are unworn even in London, why are you bridling at a cost of 1000 pounds to airfreight it? It most likely has cost you many times that already in wasted money.