Twist

Hello everyone,

After 8 long years in Canada, we're finally headed back to UK this summer, if I can wait that long! Have a 10 year old daughter who has been producing copious amounts of paper and cardboad creations for most of her life, some of which we need to ship back, along with some other small items (lamps, tables, books, kitchen equipment, soft toys, etc). Would be interested in hearing from anyone who has had similar experience shipping small amounts of stuff, how much it cost, is it done through a shipping company, how big are the packing cases etc? Or perhaps it might be worthwhile taking all our big furniture too (beds, desks, bikes) if the cost for a container is not that much more? Any advice, recommendations greatly appreciated!! Thank you!!

us4now

Hello,
Sorry I cannot help with costs at all. But the few times we have moved I have sorted out a selection of my children's art work (ie a couple of pieces from each school year) to bring with us. The rest gets 'recycled' The first couple of times I felt bad doing this but as you say copious amounts of 'stuff' is produced in school and really it is impractical to take it all along. As they have gotten older I have asked them to choose their favorite pieces, then I choose mine and that gets packed. Chances are it will gather dust in the attic and never see the light of day again to be honest!

In terms of your furniture and beds etc, I guess it depends on what size of house you are going back to. There are pieces of furniture in my U.S house I would like to take but I know they would unfortunately not fit well in a standard UK house. The kids beds I will take (they are loft style beds which they love) Our bed probably not. The dining table and chairs again probably not. It is meant for a large dining area and would look daft crammed into a small living room.

A move is a brilliant excuse for a clearout, either goodwill shop or garbage bin! I love how 'light' I feel afterwards!

So it all depends on where you are going back to i think...

Good luck with the move!

lilybilly101

My experience from Vancouver was to ship the lot or nothing. To ship a few small boxes was going to cost a fortune compared to nearly our whole house! We opted to ship our furniture and a few boxes for $5000. We went to Bekins and they were great! Let me know if I can help you.

anne55

We had a bad experience with a shipping company from Florida to the UK, too long a story to go into!! on our return to the U.S we used Crown relocation who have offices throughout the UK they use reputable companies in other countries that deliver when your goods arrive, I am sure if you contact them in the UK they could put you in touch with the company they work hand in hand with- I highly recommend Crown and they charged us by the cubic ft, and give you an approx idea of the cost of a consolidated container based on example a 3bed home, apartment etc, if you have your own container which is what we did when we returned to the UK you can put as much as will fit into that 20ft container, so if you plan on taking everything that could possibly be more cost effective, but take note of what already has been posted not everything is going to fit into an English house. I just wish we had been able to find a reputable company like crown on our first jaunt across the Atlantic, I also have a friend that used them to emigrate too Australia and she too had a great experience with them. Good luck. P.S I can get you the Leeds U.K office number for Crown if you would like. And most of your Electrical's will not work in the U.K they will just blow with the higher electricity output there.

Bevm

We brought back most things from Canada (no appliances, and not most electricals, of course.)

We haven't had trouble with things fitting, or with getting them through doors etc, though this house has a quite tight staircase. Fortunately we didn't want anything really big upstairs.

It does depend on what sort of house you imagine you'll have. We've had two rentals, 3 and 4 br house and a bit bigger than average. Big leather sofa has fitted in just fine, and I see them around a lot, so they must fit in a lot of places. Our dining table can be large but has three leaves. In the first rental, all three leaves would have filled the dining room, but we just had it in use here and it was snug but okay.

If you've a king sized bed that doesn't break down into pieces, it could be tricky, but I'd say a queen that comes apart a bit would fit most places.

Just our experience.

We're buying a house that's 4 bedrooms, but the rooms are all quite small. That suits us fine, but we might have to get rid of some living room furniture just because it'll be too cramped.

We don't particularly like shopping, and we'd gradually accumulated stuff that suited us -- which isn't all that easy, so part of the calculation was the cost of hassle of finding new stuff as suitable.

Bev

Twist

Thanks Us4now, Bevm, Anne55 and Lilybilly101 for your help and advice, all of which is very useful and helpful. Will let you know what we decide nearer the time. A big move seems very daunting and it's good to know so many of you have been through it and lived to tell the tale! Thanks again for the info.

auntmint

Hi Ann55, I'm moving from Florida to the UK and notice you said you had a bad experience. I'm looking for a moving company right now... can you tell me who to avoid please??!! Thank you :-)

anne55

Global overseas moving company out of pembroke pines was who we used and had a bad experience with them. I filled in a request for quotes on line with details of our move and that's who we chose, of coarse they had raving reviews on there web site They ended up costing us additional fees for our things, because they did not pay the UK port charges and our stuff was being held hostage, fees being added everyday they were being held. We finally sucked it up and paid the fees ourselves. Like I said on my post to this thread Crown relocation in the UK was the company we used to move back and they were very professional, maybe Google them get in touch and see who they use in Florida that way you are not choosing one company that does not know anything about the other company involved with your move. Hope this helps!! and good luck with your move. P.S I tried to google global in Florida and cant find them so I guess they have either gone out of business or have changed company name

Guinness

good luck Twist, we are also moving from Ontario to the UK this Fall. Yes it is a very daunting task!

auntmint

Anne55 thank you so much for taking the time to respond! I will contact Crown relocation to see who they use. So far I've got a call into Suddath for a quote, they get some good reviews. I'm thinking of getting three quotes altogether.

Best of luck to you Twist. I don't have the moving experience yet but will be sharing along the way. We had a huge garage sale last week. The first of two we have planned. We did really well and like us4now said, we feel much lighter now. I've found it much easier to let go of things than I thought. Especially when you make a bit of cash. I've sold a few things on Craigslist too. I'm keeping a list of things that I'd like to buy when I get over there. But I'm thinking that some of these things might not be so important once we are in our new situation, but in some way it helps when parting with them. I'm going for lighter and more nimble.

:-)

anne55

[QUOTE=auntmint;9262184]Anne55 thank you so much for taking the time to respond! I will contact Crown relocation to see who they use. So far I've got a call into Suddath for a quote, they get some good reviews. I'm thinking of getting three quotes altogether.

Best of luck to you Twist. I don't have the moving experience yet but will be sharing along the way. We had a huge garage sale last week. The first of two we have planned. We did really well and like us4now said, we feel much lighter now. I've found it much easier to let go of things than I thought. Especially when you make a bit of cash. I've sold a few things on Craigslist too. I'm keeping a list of things that I'd like to buy when I get over there. But I'm thinking that some of these things might not be so important once we are in our new situation, but in some way it helps when parting with them. I'm going for lighter and more nimble.

I sprang for the American style dryer when we got over there and the larger refrigerator with ice and water Thought the dryer made a lot of sense as you can dry 3 times the amount of clothes at once but on the down side had to make do with the way out dated stove without the self clean option you get here. As long as you are were you want to be its all material!!