rbradst

Hi! I’m new here, and very glad to have found these forums. I have lived in the States since 1990, and am ready to move back home to Scotland, with my husband who is American.

We are trying to figure out the best approach to moving household items from the USA to the UK. I’m really trying to figure out where the break points are between the cost of moving household goods (not furniture though) and just getting rid of things and starting from scratch.

For example, I’m very attached to some of my kitchen things (think several Le Creuset cast iron casserole dishes etc). They would be very expensive to replace. and based on the quotes for moving some boxes, it seems as if that they would be worth moving. Moving clothes (the good ones anyway), and special artwork seems to be in the same category. But moving more than a few books seem questionable, and same for dishes. I also have musical instruments I’d like to keep.

Does anyone have any rules of thumb? My inclination is to get rid of a lot and downsize in the process, but I don’t want to spend a fortune on things when I get there either. I haven’t seen a lot of discussion about factoring the cost of replacement. We plan to rent our house furnished for a while, so don’t plan on moving any furniture. Depending on how things go at some point we’d possibly move back, or just come back for a visit to sell the house and furniture. We’l probably be able to carve out a space in the house to leave some things that we would want if we came back.

I might be in the process of answering my own question here, but curious if anyone else has been in the same boat, and how things worked out.

Thanks!

verystormy

yellowroom

I moved my whole house from the UK to the US as my company paid. I paid for my return so I was a lot choosier, and also I was moving in to my fiancees fully furnished house, which helped. My general rule was - do I use it/will I use it, or does it mean so much to me and/or I like it so much that I am prepared to pay a lot of money to move it. In the end it boiled down to:

• Sentimental items that aren't valuable but mean a lot to me - artwork, photos, momentoes, ornaments
• Clothes - but after a good sort out to remove anything that didn't fit or I hadn't worn in over a year, or I wouldn't wear due to change in climate
• Books - kept favourite/gifted/autographed/family/photo books. Bought a Kindle and allowed myself a budget to replace other "ordinary" books I left behind/gave away as cheaper than shipping. Still had enough to fill a big double bookcase back in England.
• CDs/DVDs - hummed and hahed and kept in the end (ripped them to my computer so I had a copy, but couldn't bring myself to get rid of them, I do like my music and films!)
• Computer - Apple iMac - advise is often to sell in the US and buy again in the UK, but thanks to exchange rates and features that are now obsolete in new iMacs (like DVD drives) I decided to bring it back. Just needed to buy a new lead and its still going strong nearly four years later.
• Kitchen items - brought back all non-electrical items, apart from a few baking trays that would not fit in a standard UK oven. Many pots and dishes were old ones handed down from relatives and so qualified as "sentimental"
• Furniture - only two items, again old and sentimental that had originated in the UK. Bear in mind that the scale of houses and furniture is a lot smaller in the UK, and many US pieces will just not fit in UK houses/flats. Conversely, my UK furniture that I took to the US looked like dolls house furniture in my US house.

I sold/gave away virtually everything else. It is quite liberating to have such a clear out and realise you don't really need so much stuff. Best wishes for your move!

michali

holly_1948

Keep your handyman tools if you have any. It's not just the money, over the years you will have thrown away tools that "don't fit your hand" or don't work for you in whatever way. And the ones you have have more than sentimental value.
Not garden tools however, they are easily replaced and get customs men excited.

1jerusha

Try to work out what it's costing you to ship, per cubic foot (or your preferred measurement). Our shipping company has quoted us around $10/cuft, so everything is measured against that. Once you do that, you'll find that almost the only things that aren't worth taking are stuff like loo roll! Almost everything you own is worth more than that in terms of its volume. Obviously we have cleared out and got rid of clothes that don't fit, appliances and stuff we no longer use, but otherwise, almost everything is going.