joewilson

Hi everyone!

Moving to NYC with my wife in July, and we're having a bit of trouble finding ways to ship some of our stuff over from here in London.

So, for anybody that has made the jump, do you have any suggestions or recommendations to getting stuff over the pond?

Thanks!

Pulaski

What are you shipping, and how much?

From personal experience and what I hear, leave all your electrical stuff, and appliances, and most of your furniture - you won't need the wardrobes and the beds are not US standard sizes, so getting bedding to fit is difficult (except a UK king which is almost identical to a US queen).

Apartments in NYC are not generously proportioned, even by British standards, so only bring what you need, and store, or get rid of, the rest.

Sally Redux

The subject comes up a lot but I think the BE search function isn't working very well. I just tried it for you and it wasn't great. I think you can use google and add BE to the search terms.

Anyway, you can get quotes from shipping companies, or if you just want to send a small amount there are other options like air freight. We used Pickfords to come here, and had a shared container. Going back, we have a 20ft container and are using Rainier.

Bob

Though the wiki, up top is a decent starting point.

Danoz

From recent experience:
- Dont ship electrical items unless they are both power rated and hertz rated for here. As a result this typically only includes a few things, typically computer/phone based that will work. We bought way more than with grand ideas of using step converters, but... well.. yeah.... dont bother.
- Alcohol is not cheap to transport, but in our case we had a small collection of reasonable expensive bottles (average 50gbp per bottle), so was to expensive to leave behind. We found a place called wineflight, who were very reasonably priced compared to many others. A lot of places wont even transport alcohol as it will invoke a customs search.
- We used BTR international to pack and ship our stuff. Cannot rate them high enough.
- Electrical items are pretty well priced here. So you are not going to really save much by trying to bring your stuff with you. Where you will save is on furniture like sofas, beds etc... I found that to be pretty pricey new.
- As Pulaski indicates, pretty much all places have a stack of inbuilt storage. Its great!

Bigfootmum

We were relocated from the UK to New Jersey by my husband's company who used a removal company called 'Delahay' who were truly AMAZING.

We brought pretty much everything - after a jolly good clear out, massive ebay sale and some gifting of elecricals to friends and family. The bulk of the stuff came by sea container and took 6 weeks (they said 3-6 weeks as it only actually takes 9 days at sea, the rest of the time is customs and general sitting about in Southampton/Newark) but we did do it over xmas AND it was during those terrible storms.

They also arranged 10 boxes of air freight for us so we could camp out in the house before the rest of the stuff got here. We chose to live in the unfurnished house rather than a short term furnished rental so we could get the kids into the school district we wanted right away.

Anyway, their team packed everything, helped us with advice on the things we could/couldn't bring. Their removals guys were fabulous and courteous and the guy that managed the whole project for us, Shaun, was super helpful. We couldn't sing their praises enough. TBH we don't know how much they charged as it was all sorted for us (very lucky, I know) so I'm guessing they charge a lot... but defo worth a call for a quote as I know they'd look after you and your stuff.

Their website is pants but don't let that put you off. http://www.delahayemoving.com

Oh and good luck!!

H Bomb

We are also moving from London to NYC in July. The relocation company we have been given to use is Sterling Relocation.


We plan on taking just what we really need. The biggest thing we are probably shipping is our TV (have checked - is dual voltage).

We have two cats to come with us - still working out which pet relocation company will suit us best.

All of our furniture stays in our house as we will be renting it out.

Going to get a small storage unit for the few things we really want to keep and don't necessarily want with us over there straight away (collections of various things, photo albums, golf clubs, bikes). If we decide to settle there longer term and go down the green card route will ship it all over then.

Everything else is getting sold or given away. Currently have about 400 DVDs listed on ebay and a couple of car boot sales planned to attend.

Danoz

Smart move. We wish we had been stricter on what we brought with us. Not we have a pile of crap here!