Boldilocks

We are moving from Upstate NY back to Northern Ireland in June. We aren't going to be taking a tonne of stuff - clothes, kitchen items, some books, soft furnishings, personal items. No furniture items apart from a small decorative chair. I'm going to get a storage unit over the next few weeks and start putting things in there little by little. My husband knows we're going, but doesn't quite believe it so it's being done on the quiet. This used to be a domestic violence situation and is now a partial coercive control situation (he has less and less control as time goes on, but I still want to keep things as quiet as possible. As a social worker, working in DV, I know that when women leave is the most dangerous time. However, he's a lot older than me [25 years] and is just not able to do much about it really).

Anyway - my daughters and I will be putting stuff in storage. I have questions about the moving/shipping companies people here have used - and whether they have had them pick up their things directly from storage facilities. This is what we need to do, as we need him not to know when our stuff is being picked up. It can't be from the house.

So are there recommendations for moving companies to the UK, and especially have you used moving companies who picked up from a storage facility?

So excited to be finally moving home - had to wait until my daughters were of an age where he couldn't stop us! When I tried to leave when they were little he had me put on a terrorist watch list so I couldn't fly - because I'm from Northern Ireland! It took years to get that removed!

bats

What an awful situation you are in, i hope your plans work out safely
We used Worldwide Move Management to move our boxes. They did pickup from the house but i dont see why they wont pick up from anywhere, you'd have to be there to sign everything off. I dealt with a vague but helpful man and a woman who was organised and helpful. Message me and I will give you her email address. Is sure they would help

Boldilocks

Thank you for your warm words, I appreciate it. We have brought our move forward to May because the situation is so bad here and my mother passed away. I will look into the the company you suggested and would appreciate that email address if you have it?

Pulaski

Shipping companies of all sorts make pickups and deliveries at storage facilities all the time - they absolutely won't bat an eyelid. We had our things from London delivered to a storage facility. In fact if everything you're taking is going to be in the storage unit it will make things easier as it will be easy to estimate the volume.

So the question is just a matter of choosing a shipper. For a modest amount of stuff, especially if you have it already packed/ boxed, is to look for a "freight forwarder" - a freight forwarder is a local shipping agent that will collect your things, do the shipping import/export paperwork, send your stuff to an international shipping company and arrange for delivery at the other end (to an address or another storage facility) - think of a freight forwarder as a post office for the freight shipping business.

What you should do to find a freight forwarder is to Google < freight forwarder "your city" >, and look for one that offers domestic service, not all do.

I hope all works well for your move. Stay safe!

Boldilocks

Thank you for this - I'll look into it!

jjmb

to the OP, do you have an address in the UK yet? I am just thinking of the ToR01 paperwork that needs to be filled in before anything is shipped. Maybe Pulaski will have more information. I am a bit vague on it myself but I know when I sent over some personal effects to my Son, just after that legislation was passed, he had pay nearly £900 before they would deliver it. At the time, the legislation was new, so I never chased up the shipping company about their mistake, as they did get me to fill out some customs forms, which clearly stated it was personal effects.

Boldilocks

I do have an address. I'm working through quotes from 4 or 5 places now, and will ask about this. Thank you for the input!

Pollyana

Just be aware that filling in the TOR paperwork is down to you, not the shipping company. They will need to be supplied with the reference number when its granted, but you are the one who needs to do the actual application.

Boldilocks

I'm working on this now and wondered how precise you need to be. Like how many items of clothing??? Is it better to overestimate rather than underestimate?

Boldilocks

One website I'm looking at for tips on filling in the ToR says you can be very generic and list number of boxes. For example, clothes (10 boxes), books (20 boxes), etc. Has anyone found this?

Pulaski

I have never needed to complete a ToR, but when dealing with government/ tax paperwork, I would always be as precise as reasonably possible, neither under nor over counting, and definitely avoid using words like "estimated" or "approximately". .... And given the hundreds of shipments, maybe thousands, every day into the UK, there is no chance of your box being opened for the purpose of counting the clothing items. ..... I doubt there is much chance of your box of clothes being opened if, say a metal object was found by X-ray, but it is more likely than someone opening a box to count if there were 15 shirts in the box, or actually 16.

I would say there is no need to describe each item, but something like "Used clothing: 20 women's tops, 5 pairs women pants, 10 girls dresses". .... There might be no need to specify "used", but makes it clear that it definitely isn't boxes of merchandise.

I might be wrong, but I thought I read recently that some clarification had been published that descriptions on a ToR needed to be more than just "clothes", "linens", "books", etc.

Per above I would use at least one adjective for each, and be more specific that just "clothes", "tools", or "electronics". So I would say "15 womens tops - used", "10 used hand/ bath towels", "50 books - fiction", "20 used tools - screwdrivers, pliers, chisels", "used gaming console plus 20 game cartridges".

Boldilocks

Good call on the "used"! Couldn't hurt to preface everything with that, right?

Pollyana

Mine went something like this:

Clothes 300
Books 500
CDs 100
Kitchen utensils 100
Crockery 50

etc

Went through fine🙂

Boldilocks

Thank you! I'll get a little further on with the packing and then do it and try not to worry so much!

Pollyana

I was honestly surprised teyy accepted it with such basic details, but it came through in only about 3 days.

Good luck