Shipping and freight from UK to US?

Hi,
Just curious if anyone has experience with this. We may want to move back to the US at some point without the help of our company (who moved us over here).

What kind of costs and how expensive is it to move things using a shipping/freight company? I know this could greatly depend on what specifically you were moving, but we don't have anything valuable or huge (no cars or anything). Say we were moving 10 large boxes of pots/pans/kitchen stuff, 5 boxes of clothing and baby stuff, some fragile boxes of keepsakes, and 3-4 boxes of dvds/books. (No huge pieces of furniture or anything).

Has anyone done anything like this? What company did you use? And how much did it cost you to move? I know this is quite vague, but just trying to get some preliminary ideas.

Thanks!

Hi. We're planning on moving next June/July, and I've stressed over shipping things more than anything else practically.

This forum has some information, recommendations and a blacklist, but it's not as active as here, so you have to take it with a grain of salt whether it is still acurate.
http://forum.diveintoamerica.com/forumdisplay.php?f=71

I have contacted UPakWeShip, and have been very happy with their customer service via email. Their website http://www.upakweship.com/ has an estimator form http://www.upakweship.com/online_estimate%20Form.htm which really helped me to comprehend how much to estimate. Thinking of things in terms of square feet is just not easy for me. They broke down their pricing for me.

Door to door pickup/delivery.
£6.50/sq foot for 100sqft and over.
£10/sq foot for under 100sqft.

I've been working on different lists, what we must take, what we want to take, what would be really nice. Then I'm writing in how much individual furniture items cost, or what a box of mugs cost. If it costs less to buy new ones when we arrive, we aren't taking them with us. We're only taking one furniture item, a desk that my husband has had for 20 some years.

We've already started getting rid of things too. I am feeling worse than my husband about him throwing things away. I don't have much here (just moved in March) but I got rid of most of my things when I moved here - we didn't think we'd be moving back so soon. Anyway, I kind of figure if we go through and throw away bits and bobs starting now, it won't be a major getting rid of project at the last minute.  Which I am hoping will ease the pain of parting with things. But that's what they are, things.

With your smaller amount of things, I don't know if it would be easier to ship them via fedex vs sea freight. As far as the pots and pans, unless they are super high quality/specialty items, I imagine it will be cheaper to buy new when you get there than to ship them. I've seen people quote their shipping at $3000-5000, but our estimate was about $1700, which is a little easier on the pocketbook.

Hi there 'upmarket' neighbour!

I was going to also suggest that if you have stuff that's relatively light and can be packed quite densely, then consider using normal couriers with special USA rates. I've often sent boxes of stuff to the USA when they've had to be left behind for being over the weight limits at Heathrow for check in luggage. I think I've sent 12KG of clothes, books, knick knacks etc to the USA for around £68 inc all taxes etc.

Please check www.parcel2go.com and www.p4d.co.uk

Cheers! DtM! West London & Slough UK!

Interesting answers, both.

Hokie97--that is way cheaper than I imagined. I do feel like this will require quite a bit of research if and when the time comes (like you say, debating whether to take or buy new), but that site is helpful.

Dennis--I'll look into those sites as well. We have some keepsakes and stuff that don't need to be here as it is...I might send those back sooner rather than later just to be rid of excess stuff.