whistlestop01

Hi there

Does anyone know the easiest way of shipping Household goods to the States? I have a lot of stuff to take, and was curious to know what shipping companies were good to use etc.

If anyone knows it would be much appreciated.

I am a UK citizen.

TIA

Gisela

Gaylord

    > Does anyone know the easiest way of shipping Household goods to the
    > States? I have a lot of stuff to take and was curious to know what
    > shipping companies were good to use etc.
    > If anyone knows it would be much appreciated.

Sorry to tag onto this post, but I have to high spec pcs which I would like
to ship as well can anyone recommend someone to move those, I was thinking
of selling and rebuying but the systems are configured just right and It
would take ages to redo them as I want.

Thanks

Simon&Vik

Well that is the 1st thing you need to address. I know it's hard, but get rid of stuff. If you have paper stuff to bring, scan it and bring a CD-ROM. Other stuff, toss, sell, etc. It is quite expensive to ship stuff over, so your first thing has got to be to reduce it to as little as possible.

whistlestop01

i cant as they are mainly gifts for our new house!!! lol so we do need a shipping company!

thanks

yorkshiregirl

We shipped all our household contents from Yorkshire to Seattle in August 2003. It was an expensive business!!!
I went through the yellow pages and got several quotes first but it still cost £4500 for a 20' container. The cheapest quote was £2700 but that was to fill the container ourselves (they are about 4' off the ground and we had, amongst other things, a piano) also, they would not insure anything for breakages if packed by us and we decided to use people who knew how to pack properly. A few firms said we needed a 40' container but when our 20' one arrived here it was by no means full. The most expensive quote was £6800!! There is an option to share conatiners but if there is a problem at customs with part of the load, your goods will be delayed as well. Our conatiner took 5 weeks to arrive.
As for packing, most firms will not insure goods which have been not been packed by them however, if you have anything which cannot be replaced it may be worth packing things yourself. The reason I say this is that the people who do the packing use tissue paper or equivalent but if you pack yourself you can invest in top quality packing materials which should prevent the items getting damaged in the first place (but obvioulsy no come back if anything is broken). You can also insure them separately. A word of caution- I packed all our things myself and packed the most fragile items first in numbered boxes. When our container was unloaded, these boxes had been packed first and were underneath everthing else and the most squashed! Luckily only 2 glasses were broken.
Finally, whether you pack things yourself or not, keep a detailed inventory of ALL your things and make sure your inventory is the same as the shippers and ask for the customs forms before everything is packed to make sure you don't pack anything which may cause a problem.
Good luck!!

whistlestop01

Thank you for such a detailed explanation. Wow what a deal in shipping goods but it has to be done!

Looks like I need to start getting things sorted asap as I leave on the 1 March.

Gisela

Simon&Vik

You're not leaving till March 1?
Wanna trade interview dates?

SidAngelika

Whatever you do in shipping... Dont use the slow boat to China..
We shipped some of my wifes German porcelain over, and almost half of it was damaged from someones carelessness.

The next time when I went over, I hand carried everything over when I flew back. Some porcelain we had bought when I was there.. I wont trust anyone to handle anything of value that can be easily broken.. Even if you put "Fragile.. handle with care" I wonder if they can read?
Sorry for venting here, but we didnt have any good luck in shipping over seas! Good luck!

whistlestop01

Fortunately most of the stuff isnt breakable. There are 6 glasses mind but most of it will be ok. PHEW!!!

whistlestop01

My case was sent mid December and I mailed my forms on the 22 December so I am sure your interview date will be up soon from what i can see on your timeline. Tho i didnt receive my packet 3 forms till 2 weeks after I sent my downloaded ones off.

I wish I could go earlier than that but alas i cant. My fiance has found an apartment for us to live in and I cant wait to see it!!! YIPEEEEE

yorkshiregirl

I think we must have been really lucky as we did have a lot of breakable (some of which is antique) stuff.
Even if you don't have fragile things you should make sure that any shipping company you use will "export wrap" your things.
If you decide to get quotes, make sure someone visits you to assess the amount of things you have rather than you give a guestimate over the phone.

sibsie

I used GB liners from London to Spain. I can't rate them highly enough. I'll be using them from Spain to Boston again and got a very reasonable quote.

whistlestop01

Thanks! That will be one of the companies I shall call?

Simon&Vik

Hopefully, but my hubby could come before March 1, so, ya know, we should trade dates.

Anxious?! Me?!?!?! Never!

whistlestop01

No can do I'm afraid!!! There's no way I'm going to delay my interview date as I'm nervous now let alone having to wait even longer. Of course 1 March all depends on if i get approved!! Hope I do!

Good Luck to you anyway

Gisela