Hi all,

So we are in final countdown phase, T minus 19 days. Woohoo. The wiki has been an amazing font of knowledge, so I think I am most of the way there. But what I wanted to ask was how many suitcases people normally took on the plane...and what you packed?

Our situation is that the movers came yesterday and our stuff is on the slow boat over (6-12 weeks, exclusive 20ft container). We have kept out essentials (clothes, kids cutlery/plates, 4 mugs, 2 wine glasses, etc) as well as duvets and duvet covers. We will be in a serviced apartment (condo) for 2 weeks but will then likely have to move into unfurnished accommodation (more choice of that) and 'camp out' until our stuff arrives.

So my plan was to vacuum pack our duvets, covers, and pillows (so that's 1-2 additional bags?), then have another box with all our kitchen essentials to take with, then DH wants to take his sub (apparently it's essential in our first 3 months in the US to have), and then all the normal toiletries and chargers (phones, laptop, camera), and then a very small amount of toys for my two boys (board games x2, mini dinosaur figures, and some books). This seems like an inordinate amount of stuff.

Bear in mind, I am a bit of a hoarder - so I am aware that I will consider things like 10 books per child essential (I know it's wrong...but we could be without our books for 12 weeks - oh the humanity of reading the same 4 books incessantly)

I've checked with BA and they'll allow you additional bags (up to 9 apparently) for £55, so I'm hoping to get away with just four additional ones.

Is that what everyone does? And by everyone, I mean everyone with kids as I know as a singleton I would have happily gone with just one bag and bought new there...

All advice appreciated!
Cat

Dispose of the books and invest in a Kindle Fire HD or iPad. You can also reduce the number of games needed as well!

I took the maximum allowance without having to pay more. Of course, they "randomly" chose me to have my stuff scanned by their super-scanner, so I had to lift all 8 at maximum weight allowance onto their scanner.

How are you going to move it all around? I guess if you get a big enough car.

That box of kitchen stuff you'll pay 55 pounds to haul over - you can buy all of it new for about the same in $s at Ikea or Bed Bath & Beyond. I wouldn't bring any of that on the plane. Also, serviced apartments usually contain all the essentials, but check first.

At t-19 it's still not too late for some air freight.

We funded our own move, comprising a "main load" sent by freight container, four suitcases (back when economy tickets across the Atlantic allowed two suitcases each), and then we sent two trunks by airfreight with the sort of stuff you described (bedding, kitchen utensils, a few books, extra clothes, winter coats, etc.) to tide us over until the container arrived, and which were ready to collect the day after we arrived.

This

I was contemplating this but, in the end, we managed with just 4 cases - one for clothes and 3 packed with my son's toys. I managed to get about 15 of his books in those cases!

When we came over I managed 5 large suitcases, a pram, 3 car seats, and 5 hand luggage bags. Pretty much all on my own as my wife was pregnant and not well.

Don't forget there are luggage trolleys and... you only have to make the journey once!

When we moved over (2 adults 2 kids) we had 8 large suitcases, 4 lots of hand luggage plus two laptop bags. We looked like Americans going on a two week vacation!

The worst bit was getting the luggage and us to the airport in the UK, needed a minibus to transport us then four luggage trolleys to get into the terminal, twas a nightmare. Once we landed in the US it was a whole lot easier, guess they are used to people with excessive luggage here.

10 large checked in bags for 5 of us, all of them just about under the limit for lufthansa so no charges. hand luggage as well.

Don't forget to bring all your important documents with you on the plane. And don't leave that bag lying around at the gate as you board the plane, he who shall remain nameless has yet to be allowed to live that one down.

Oh yes, then there was the dog.......

We were camping out for approx 8 weeks. We brought blow-up beds, duvets and pillows so everyone would feel a bit at home but just about everything else for the camping out time I bought at IKEA.

Two suitcases, one was a regular hard shell, the other was a massive soft case one that weighed around 35Kg or there about but I wasn't charged excess baggage fee at the time as the flight wasn't busy, plus my sister worked for the airline.

I packed everything, including a computer and a flatscreen monitor, but then I didn't have a family and kids at the time.

I'd ditch the books except any that might be sentimental. There's this amazing thing called a library that surprisingly has books you can borrow for free...I don't know if such a thing has caught on else where, but you should be able to join one after a few days :/

Toothbrush and credit card, sorted

We have our own, that we take with us, probably a couple of thousand books by now, some that I have had since I was a child that I have started to introduce little Miss P to. We have bookcases in just about every room: the bedrooms, the living room, the den, the office, the upstairs hallway; little Miss P has two, we have at least eight, and will need another one fairly soon. Books everywhere!

Very nice.

Yes, but you didn't bring them all in a suitcase did you?

Those things, you can ship on the slow boat and won't need immediately, for that, there is a library...