meauxna

Yes, but just think.. over here it is special *foreign* tat & therefore special!
You'll get a good price!

Sally Redux

We were pretty much picked clean by friends

No idea why we left a very good lawnmower and now have one that had been left on the kerbside with a 'free' notice on it.

Weeze

We ran down our food so only had a few boxes that family took (at one point there was almost a fight about who was taking a half full jar of marmite, I said we needed it just to end the discussion). Booze was either drunk in a alcohol haze filled last week or put in cases. Electricals were taked by friends and family. Books we didn't want went to charity and we had a few runs to the dump.
Our stuff is on the container ship now so I'll probably find all sorts of crap I don't need here. The packing guys packed everything in sight, even stuff that we were told we couldn't ship.
Good luck!

Master_Bulldog

I too am facing this packing malarky. I've decided that the essentials to bring to the States when the time comes are: My music collection, my Star Wars collection (proudly put on display, I've already claimed the OH's office!), my clothes and my books. I'll also take the lappy over and I have to take my study folders and work related paperwork. I'm dumping or selling various other stuff including my beloved Gibson SG guitar and Peavy amp, a techno keyboard, a electronic drum kit (yup, boys toys!) and a TV I only bought this June for the world cup! I'll probably try an auction it all off on Facebook!

Luckily for me, my beloved has pretty much everything I need already and is a devout "minimalist" so no clutter.

As a side note....I'm currently undergoing a strange phenomenon where I am buying anything with a Union Jack on!

Madelina

Ooh i thought that was just me! So far we have: rug in kids room, tea towel, two cake tins, tshirt and a bandana for my son

Master_Bulldog

I feel found! LOL

I have a nice collection of union jack T shirts and various British bulldog toys!

Oh yes...I have England socks as well!

katybluewater

Haha - me too! I would never have all the union Jack stuff in the UK - but here I have a pendant on the kitchen wall, cake tine, trays, and I have just found a new accessorize shop in DC - so went in and bout a bag and a keyring as well !

Master_Bulldog

I'm trying to convince the missus that a Union Jack flag would be cool...so far she isn't buying the idea...

Hubcaps

We've a 25ft container coming. One third is our videogames collection, one third is furniture, dvds books and clothes and the final third is arcade machines.
We brought nothing electrical with us (except game consoles). We've taken the opportunity to get rid of a lot of our old stuff and buy new here, giving all our plates, pots and pans etc to neighbours and the in-laws. We were brutal in our clearing out, only books, DVDs and all the game related stuff was packed intact. Everything else was picked over item by item and ruthlessly binned/donated or kept.

taffie77

Seeing as this thread has been resurrected, I thought I'd update with how our move went. We were in furnished accommodation paid for by my husband's employers for the first 3 months. So, we had our things collected about a week before departing the UK, stored for a while (in Swindon), before shipping so that the container arrived in Minneapolis a couple of weeks before we were ready for it, and allowing for delays at customs.
The most impressive bit was that nothing at all got broken in the move. Actually, it's a tie between that and how quickly the movers got the stuff into our apartment on moving day We were quite bemused by some of the items we discovered when unpacking - a sandwich toaster that is no use to us, and a hairdryer. There were a few other items we would have chosen to leave or throw out if we had been packing ourselves, but never mind.
We shipped some stuff by air freight, mostly my husband's MBA books, some laptop related electronics and some shoes. If I had to do it again, I would include some kitchen utensils - despite the fact we were in furnished, I found we were missing items like a potato peeler, masher (so now we have 3 plus a ricer ) and measuring cups. It was definitely worth putting the DVDs in the air freight, as the cable package we have was quite bewildering at first.
In terms of getting rid of stuff, we managed a combination of selling and giving away to family and friends. The CRT television went to my mother's in the end.
Good luck to everyone else preparing for their move!

ETA - stock up here for Union Jack stuff - http://www.dotcomgiftshop.com/
I'm still kicking myself for not buying the doormat before we left.

Malashaan

Not sure if I should semi hi-jack this thread or start my own, but here goes. Mods feel free to move

I'm having a dilemma about what to take and what to leave. I am in the somewhat enviable position of living with my parents here in England right now, and it's no problem for me to leave stuff here long term, so decisions aren't as final as they could be.

What I'm wondering about is what the import duty laws and people's actual experience at POE are? I know as a visitor I had a very low threshold for things I could bring in which were going to remain in the US. I've already made use of my previous visits to get some clothes and odd items across. Now it comes to the big move, what happens? Seen a I'll be entering with the intention of staying, are there different limits and if so what are they? I'm particularly worried because I am (or at least was at one point) a semi-professional musician and some of the stuff I'm intending to take has a pretty high value - if they want to charge me duty at a percentage of value I could get really badly smashed.

Hubcaps

I thought duty was only on stuff you'd just bought and were bringing in so if it's items you already own then there's nothing to pay? I brought my iMac over as checked in luggage and no-one batted an eye lid at customs even when they asked what was in the box.
Wouldn't people get stung every time they brought their laptops over or ipods, cameras etc if it wasn't that way?

I'm only guessing and wondering the same here, I don't know the actual rules.

Bob

I think it's for things within 12 months they can charge duty, but as long as it's clearly not brand new in the box it generally won't be a problem.


As for limits on bringing stuff in because it's the big move, no difference there, so whatever the airline allows plus excess if you go over.

Malashaan

I'm just wondering because I know the regulations say a USC can bring in $800 worth of things they bought abroad when they return, with various restrictions on that. Added together my electronic equipment would definitely be worth more than that. I'm totting up and I don't think it's going to be a huge amount of money regardless, but now I'm curious as to what the rules actually are.

meauxna

No, no.. they make it easy for you. Go up to the wiki and find the US article Immigrant Visa arrival. Even if the visa details are different for you (you're a K, yes?) look for the Customs link I put in there. It explains how you're an 'arriving immigrant' with a different allowance.

The packing of your fragiles? Well, I'll leave that one to you. Our only real casualty was a broken headstock on the Martin acoustic.