catlover3

We've obtained a quote from PSS for 413 cubic feet to ship our stuff to LA in April. Obviously we'd like to keep the amount we ship to a minimum! Does anyone have any advice about items we should sell?

I was thinking items that plug in - hairdryer, telly, kettle, coffeemaker, etc would be worth selling and rebuying over there. Hubby has a precious lamp given to him by his father that we need to keep though!

Also bulky breakables such as our full length mirrors.

Twinkle0927

Is the move permanent or just for a few years? Depends on what type of living arrangements you will have when you arrive and whether you are getting any sort of relocation expenses or assistance (if you are coming on work visas, for example). Definitely don't bring anything electric. They likely won't work anyway and the cost of shipping a TV or similar compared to the cost of buying one here isn't worth it even if they did work. Most things are not worth bringing unless they hold sentimental value or cannot be replaced under any circumstances here. I brought 2 suitcases on the plane mainly clothes. It wasn't many clothes because I moved in the middle of winter to Washington state so once I'd packed jumpers, cardigans, fleeces there wasn't much room for other stuff! I have boxes on a container ship making the journey over as we speak. They are my books, photo albums of my family, and other sentimental items. Everything else was sold/donated and repurchased.

Pulaski

Sell all electrical things unless they are either dual voltage (will be marked on the back something like 100-250v, or similar), or have sentimental value. How to use/ get service on a British TV in the US is a whole separate discussion, but suffice to say when you can but a 50" 1080p TV for $400, I wouldn't bring a TV anyway!

Much of your furniture will likely look twee in an average American home - we brought a drop-leaf dining table and other than serving as a stop-gap desk, has had little use in the US as it is simply dwarfed by our two American dining tables. The chairs that match the British dining table are similarly twee, though both the table and chairs looked perfectly fine in our 700sqft, 2 bed, terraced house in London. .... If we were living in a small apartment we might think differently.

BritishGuy36

You have immediately grasped what it takes others posting this question some time to absorb - it's a crazy idea to bring stuff that only works on 230v and attempt to power it with transformers etc. Sell it all.

How were you planning on powering the lamp?

In times past I would have said bring chocolate (since Hersheys tastes like sick) but Amazon do a nice selection of "real" chocolate now, I ordered a box of Cadbury fruit and nut, a box of Crunchies and a tin of Quality Street over the holiday period.

OldJuddian

Even dual voltage equipment can have issues. It was harder than expected to get a UK Wii working with a US TV. My BluRay player didn't work, and a multi-region new one was very cheap..
However my wife's nice espresso machine did come across and the cost of a transformer was worthwhile.

The company provided a whole container so I was not space limited, but still used it as a great time to purge the house of 'cruft'. Most furniture was donated along with an extensive book collection.

Don't get rid of everything though, you will need to buy replacements and it adds up. For example I didn't ship my kids bicycles as it was a good excuse to buy larger ones here - but I did ship my bike and my wife's.

Final thought. I left 5 years ago, and moved state whilst here. I still have a number of unpacked boxes in the garage. So obviously I could have donated even more.

Wintersong

The volume taken up by packaging for breakable items such as mirrors will mean that it's not worth bringing them.

Obviously you can bring the lamp, but if there's any likelihood that the move isn't permanent, I'd recommend asking someone in the UK to keep it safe for you instead. Transformers are massively bulky and quite expensive. I had a lamp with sentimental value that I brought, but I've never used it over here.

I brought some items of furniture which were particular favourites, but other than that just personal items. You will likely arrive well before your belongings do, so it's pointless shipping anything that you'll need during that interim period as you'll have to have replaced it before it arrives anyway.

A word of caution: on the customs form you have to list everything. I was advised to group things of a certain type (e.g. ornaments - quantity 20, value £200 or whatever) but when you do that, each item is insured for no more than the average price of the group. Anything which is worth significantly more than the average should be listed separately. I learned this the hard way, when an antique Hornsea pottery ornament was broken and I couldn't claim anything like its true value.

tom169

Check luggage for clothes, bring sentimental items in hand luggage and ditch the rest - sell if possible.

Move on and buy USA sized and compatible stuff.

catlover3

This is all useful - thanks everyone. Top tip about the customs form, thanks @wintersong.

I would like to lock everything in our shed (we'll be renting out the house while we are away), but nothing of value, just in case. I think we will sell as much as we can and take the rest!