cancov

I am having a really hard time getting quotes from any of the shippers since I decided we are not going to send all our furniture and so don't need a 20 foot container.

They are telling me I have to tell them EXACTLY what I want to ship, dimensions, and weights, before they can tell me how much.

The thing is I am going to want to ship a "million" little things and really it will come down to what I can fit in the set amount of boxes as I go along and sort through my house and pack.

When I moved from UK to Canada I *think* I shipped 75 cubic feet which if I recall correctly equated to 15 boxes. And I think that I couldn't go over a certain weight on each box. Like I said, I sorted as I packed, and wrote an inventory list as I went along.

Does anyone have any suggestions on what I should be saying to these shippers to get a quote from them?

Any of you BE members that shipped boxes of personal "stuff" only, how did the pricing and volume work out for you?

Thanks!!!1

Mummy in the foothills

Have a look at http://www.upakweship.com/index.php you can ship usng a u-box or u-crate some in different sizes and you get to pack it full and they show you the prices online.
Also I read somewhere, (on the site maybe in the FAQ sextion) if you do a shared container and it's more than you thought it's a set amount per sqft and less means you pay less.

Bluegrass Lass

When I called around to a couple of places, I gave them an estimate of 150cuft, but I asked them to also include a quote for any additional cu.ft. that we went over. See if they would accept that approach. Or ask if they can do a quote for various levels of cuft.

cancov

Thanks, did you end up sending 150 cubic foot and if so what were you able to send for that amount of space? Also how much did it cost? Thanks

cancov

Thank you, I did contact this company but they said they aren't servicing Canada right now because of some problems they are having with getting stuff from Canada to the States for export. No idea what that is about. The guy forwarded my info to someone at Brytor.

In any case thanks for th elink because there was some useful info and calculators on their website that I fund helpful.

Bluegrass Lass

I went with Stevens International here in the US. We ended up going well over the 150cuft. I think we ended up at just over 200. I tried to keep alot of our boxes the same size, so I think I would up shipping about 15boxes that were 18x18x18inches - packed kitchen supplies like glass serving dishes, casserole dishes, some kitchen tools, lots of ornaments we have collected over the years (such as glass paperweights, pottery, african carvings, etc), photo albums & scrapbooks, and my jewelry making supplies. Also shipped about 4boxes that were 12x12x12 of books and dvds. Then were 2 boxes that contained a large metal & wicker pet bed and my framed university diplomas and my vacuum-sealed wedding dress. Then another box that contained a painting (~40"x36"x4"), and one box that contained a wall mounted jewelry armoire, and one last box that had a wooden cabinet we didn't want to part with (~36"x28"x28"). Extra clothing was spread out amongst many of the boxes and was used as padding as opposed to bubble wrap. All of that wound up costing us about $3700 IIRC.

We ended up shipping it all back to the states last Dec, and it cost about $4700 to bring it back. And now, here we are 9months later, and it looks like we are going back to Scotland again. This time, we are not going to take anywhere near as much stuff with us. We are going to be pretty damn brutal on what we take as we just don't have the same budget we had last year. I hope we can keep it all down to less 100cuft.

Have a look at www.movingscam.com forums to get an idea of shipping companies, and which to stay away from! I'm not entirely sure, but there might be info on Canadian shippers.

cancov

Thanks! I have gone and bought boxes from home depot-150 cubic feet's worth, all the same size (32 of them). I start packing tomorrow.

When I shipped 75 cubic feet from UK to Canada 6 yrs ago it was only 600 pounds give or take.