Move back to US from Europe

[dutchgirl678]

We left the US for Europe in 2014 and are contemplating a move back. When we moved, my new job paid for the moving expenses and it was about $10k. But when we go back, I don't think we'll be as lucky. We don't value our furniture too much, since most of it is from IKEA and could easily be replaced once we are back. But I was wondering if anyone had any information on whether you can move a smaller crate with just books, movies, clothes, etc. instead of a whole container? Is that possible? Does that go through a moving company as well, or some other shipping company? And would that end up saving us money? Just wondering if anyone ever had to deal with this.

[dorothyinAus]

I moved from the US to Australia with just books, movies, clothes and one smallish piece of furniture. I could not replace most of the books and did not want to abandon them, knowing that I would re-read them.

I used a moving company and they came in packed up everything and unpacked (and took away the trash) in Australia. I didn't have any issues and the shipment arrived earlier than the quoted date.

I'm not sure it would end up saving any money, but off you are attached to the books the way I was, it was worth it.

[pittpurple]

We moved about 15 boxes of stuff from the states to the UK and used - upakweship.com/
It was a bit of a hassle in paperwork and packing and whatnot (you pack it yourself), but it was just books and household stuff and some personal things. And actually the hassle was that our families did most of the packing and we had to keep deciding what to send from a distance! I think it took about 6 weeks to come? They quote based on volume, not weight.

Just checked the invoice and it was $1250 for 100 cubic feet which was around 20 boxes I think.

[dutchgirl678]

Thanks for the tips. That is super helpful. I think we may consider selling our furniture here and buying there as needed. We will probably rent for a while anyway. And we mostly need to ship books and lots of bluray movies (that were from the US) and some other items.

[pittpurple]

dutchgirl678, unless it's really fabulous / sentimental / compact furniture it's almost never worth shipping. There's so much used / IKEA stuff around that you could replace far cheaper than bring. I've only really known people on expenses to ship stuff like that.

[dutchgirl678]

We have a ton of IKEA stuff ourselves that we could easily rebuy. We just shipped it last time because work paid for it.

[pittpurple]

RockNVoll, we were only shipping stuff we didn't 'need' so could afford to wait. It wouldn't work if you actually needed to set up your home.

[cottoncandy]

When we moved back, we started the process before my husband told his company he was quitting. We did not think they would pay to move us home so we went with the cheapest option. We did not have any furniture, but had clothes and household stuff. The moving company packed it and then stored it until they had enough stuff from multiple people to fill a container. It was a much better deal, but we had to wait a bit longer to get everything. We did not need everything right away, so it was not a big deal. His company ended up giving us money for the move and we made money on the deal bc this was a more economical way to ship our stuff back. It was a U.K. moving company, but I'm blanking on the name.

[doctoranda]

A lot of international moving companies also let you ship a partial shipment with them. UTS does for example. Usually you'll come out somewhere between 1500 and 3000 for something like that. We moved a cubic meter once for about 1500 (some boxes with books, some bedding and clothes).

[dutchgirl678]

It took a little longer than expected but DH has a job and starts Dec 18. I get to keep my job and work from the US but they would like me to stay here Jan-Mar to train a new guy who is starting next month.

Now we have to find a rental there asap. How strict are rental companies about having a full month's of pay stubs or having your gross annual income be more than 40x the month's rent? We can afford a lot of these places but since I am still working here and getting paid here it may be tricky to show DH makes enough for some of the places we are interested in. We would also like to settle in quickly so the kids can go to school after New Years. Any tips?

[dutchgirl678]

Update for those who are interested. We went back to the US in December and in two weeks time we found a rental house, bought a car, bought furniture and got the kids enrolled in school and after-school care. DH started his job Jan 3 and I flew back to Europe Jan 4 to finish the sale of our house, pack smaller items and mail them (movies, books, some kitchen stuff) and I am still working at my job training a new person. I will keep working for this company after I move but they asked me to stay on to properly start this person off since it will be a bit harder with a 9-hour time difference. Being without DH and kids is really hard but I am going in 5 weeks time for 2 weeks and then it is only 4 weeks after that until I move.

[kaybee85]

Which shipping service did you choose, dutchgirl678?

Good luck with the rest of the transition!

[dutchgirl678]

I am going to use UPakWeShip as someone mentioned here. I have to get a wooden pallet to put the boxes on, and wrap them in plastic. I also ordered special book boxes and moving boxes that don't need tape to close and they are all a standard size. Still in the process of packing them but hoping to stick to 18 boxes (3 layers of 6 boxes).

[dutchgirl678]

Just to update people here. The pallet with boxes arrived yesterday. They were picked up on February 14 so 9 weeks ago. We would have had them last week but the local moving company was a bit unorganized. They called and scheduled delivery for last Monday and it didn't arrive. I was out of town last week but my husband came home from work and it wasn't there. He called and they said Tuesday. Then it still didn't come but they assured us it would be delivered on Wednesday. Of course it didn't, so then my husband scheduled it for this Monday as I would be home again. I called them in the morning to make sure they would actually put it on the truck and it came. All was still wrapped up and in seemingly good condition. A few of the book boxes at the bottom caved in a little bit, probably because they weren't completely full.

The people from UPakWeShip did a good job, we got the tracking info from the boat once it was on there. But I had to email them several times to ask for updates as they weren't proactive about giving them out. Still, we ended up paying 1200 euros for the whole shipment, so I thought that was pretty good.

I actually also sent two boxes by regular mail just before I left. They both took almost three weeks to get here by air and the tracking didn't work until just before they arrived. To top it off, one of the boxes had become soaking wet so they wrapped it in plastic. It contained a combination of clothes, books, and toys. The clothes stank, so I washed them. Of the books some were ok, some got partially wet and a few just have to be thrown away. I am kicking myself now for just taking track and trace, and no additional insurance.

[pittpurple]

dutchgirl678, I had a great experience with upak as well so really glad it went (relatively) well for you.