rebeccajo

Let me first say that DH and I are just in the preliminaries of deciding if moving back to Northern Ireland is something we want to do.

I'm pretty good with money (he's not) but I've really got no idea how to go about some things that are on my mind.

I know that if this gets to be a serious discussion, I need to contact a few moving companies to get 'real' estimates. We live inland a bit on the eastern seaboard so I imagine our costs of shipping anything substantial back to the UK would be a lot higher than someone living in - say - New York City.

OK, all that foll-de-roll being put out there, I wonder if anyone could give me some very basic common sense advice. We own some lovely high-quality custom made furniture. Our house in the US is small-ish so the pieces we would consider taking with us would 'fit' in a UK style house.

Is it completely stupid to consider shipping over a small 7-foot sofa; two smallish side chairs; one coffee table; three small end tables; and a five-foot long dining table and four chairs? Or are talking about spending a LOT of money on a container?

PS - I know it's just *stuff*. If any of this comes to pass, we want to make good decisions.

cathy22w

Not stupid. I live in Scranton PA, and am planning to ship about 400 cubic feet.. this includes 2 couches, dining table (that can be disassembled), a mattress/box spring and of course a load of boxes. Should cost around $3000. Cheaper than refurnishing.

My quote is from Omega Shipping. It seemed to be the best offer.

rebeccajo

Interesting. Thanks for that. I thought it would be a lot higher.

meauxna

Hey r-jo, check in the USA forum too; seems to be a few discussions lately that include going that direction. And some otherwise good tips about shipping.

dunroving

Also check out Wheaton Worldwide, they do partial shipments and did a good job for me (twice!)

rebeccajo

Thanks guys!

Here's part of my quandry - I don't know what it costs to buy household items in the UK. My husband isn't much help as he led a bachelor's life with hand-me-down stuff. He hasn't a clue how much a decent sofa or dining table costs back home..........

cathy22w

You can look up stuff online. I looked up a 3 seater and 2 seater recliner sofa set... that was going for around 1000 pounds. I figured it was worth just shipping my existing ones, since it would be more expensive to replace them than to ship them. Not sure what sites to point you to... but I would have a look around.

rebeccajo

Thanks cathy2ww.

There's really no women in my husband's family I can ask about these things. And the men..........they don't care.........