Couple of questions about packing

The most daunting part of this whole experience for me is the packing and moving part. I'm a packrat. Deciding what stays and what goes is going to hurt, lots. So, even though our housing situation is up in the air, I want to get started putting things in boxes as soon as possible.

One of the things I'm bad about collecting is...empty boxes! Is there any problem with using an assortment of unprofessional-looking boxes, or would I be better buying boxes from a moving company?

I know there's an inventorying procedure you should go through when you move anywhere, and I'm sure there's some sort of manifest you have to file with Customs...how meticulously do I have to inventory everything? Can I get away with "box of figurines" or do I need to say "six inch porcelain statue of a badger playing the banjo" etc.?

About half my move by weight is books (still debating how to send them). I'm assuming, at least, "box of paperback books" is enough?

Sorry for the odd questions, but it's the odd ones you never find in the FAQ, and the strangest things can hop up and nip you in the butt, when you're on unfamiliar ground.

The first question is: are you allowed to pack your own stuff?

We weren't.  I had packed up a bunch of ornaments, etc. and they all had to be un-packed and re-packed by the moving company.  It has something to do with the company guaranteeing that the shipment doesn't have dangerous or illegal goods in it.

That was Nippon Express, and they are available in NA.  Amazing service, no idea how much they charge.  We had an army of them in the house for three days... and they re-assembled all the furniture in the UK.  Oh, the shipping company I contacted in Canada also has to pack everything themselves (if I ever get around to moving my stuff out of my parent's house..)

The shipping documents were pretty exhaustive (ing) but NE let me guess at the number of spoons and books and stuff.  As well as the value.  I'd think about value a bit... I put down purchase prices, when I probably should have put down replacement cost.  Had no idea how much the TV and stereo were worth, either.

Probably not helpful!

No, that is actually very helpful. I was going to pack some of my stuff myself, and let the moving company pack the more difficult bits, but that doesn't sound like it's going to work.

The real job is sorting out what I take from what I leave. I can't just have them sweep in and pack everything because a lot of it is crap, and a lot of it I'm leaving because it's not worth moving.

Shoot. Have to think this over.

Stoatula, I don't have any advice about packing, but I have recently helped a friend rid herself of a lot of stuff, and she is one of the biggest pack rats I have ever seen.

My best advice is: If it's not a family heirloom and it has been in a box/back of a closet/not looked at in at least 6 months (aside from looking at it when moving it from one place to another), then donate/toss/garage sale it. There is no point to keeping "sentimental" things that you never look at to enjoy the sentimentality of them. You do miss those things when you know you've gotten rid of them, but you don't need "things" to still keep the memories, especially when you don't really think about them on a daily basis anyway. I have also thought of friends who were not pack rats and thought to myself "do they still have 2 dozen stuffed animals from when they were kids? If not, does it effect their quality of life on a daily basis? Nope! I am a recovering pack rat, and this line of thinking has really improved my life. Also, it helps to watch shows like "clean sweep" to see other people who are pack rats and how they manage to part with stuff.

From everything I've seen on this website, a move to the UK means one must expect significantly less space to store things.

I'm a packrat and I have to just become brutal and get rid of stuff in the way Someday suggested and get rid of it quick. I can't do yard sales because I would talk myself out of doing it then. I have to go straight to a Salvation Army or Goodwill.

I would be more detailed in the inventory just for your purposes as well. I would want to have it inventoried in case something got misplaced or broken. I would label them more generally, but have a list that I keep myself of the details. I haven't moved yet, so I don't know how detailed customs wants it. If they would want a more detailed list, I'd keep one copy and give customs the other.

I got rid of stuff by donating to the Big Brothers/Big Sisters of Rhode Island. The best thing was that they came to collect things at my house, so there was no need to lug it all to them. Is that an option for you?

I also had a small yard sale, but didn't get rid of too much that way, to be honest. It was more of a headache than anything else.

For my actual move, the movers did all the packing. Those were the requirements - not sure how it stands for you. They supplied all the packaging, etc. They also prepared all the customs forms, which was a godsend. I did have to count things, but that wasn't too onerous.

Best of luck to you! 

I hate, loathe, and despise yard sales, so I didn't bother with one. I sold the good stuff on Craigslist (which is still a nuisance, but we needed the money), donated a bunch of stuff, and still had to chuck out a ton. And this despite the fact that we were leaving most of our stuff in storage--I didn't want to have to mess with (or pay to move) all the junk later. I found that making an international move really changed my perspective on what to keep and what to get rid of. I'm not a pack rat for the sake of being a pack rat, but I am a bit of a guilt-motivated pack rat, as I hate putting potentially useful stuff in a landfill.

My OCD side got out of hand for this move, and I kept an exhaustive and minutely detailed list of everything that went into every single box. I kept it on my laptop, and typed up what was going in as I put it in. This was as much for me as for insurance and customs purposes--I wanted to know where everything was when I unpacked the stuff from storage in three years! So when it came to shipping stuff (we only had 10 boxes, so we just sent them through UPS) I just printed out the contents of those boxes and took it along. The UPS people loved me! They just attached those ten pages or so to the customs form.

Try to not think of the weeding-out process as one big job. Break it down. Take one drawer, pull everything out of it, and start sorting. Do you want to pay to move it? Can you think of somewhere that could use it? Are you going to be happy to see that thing in a box on the other end (this was really helpful for me!)? Then move on to the next drawer. When the drawers are done, tackle a closet. I found it helpful to have one room set aside for things to get rid of and another for things to take.

I've moved a lot (6 times in the last 6 years!) and I finally got sick of lugging around a bunch of rubbish. This was a good chance to get rid of all that. I made a real effort to keep only the things that were genuinely useful, meaningful, or beautiful, and that I would be happy to see again. But it's definitely not easy--you have to do some serious mental reprogramming.

Good luck!

I come from the other side of the pack-ratting crowd.  The stuff I have... I like it, it's mine, and I'm keeping ALL of it.  For sea shipping, you pay by the space used, and you get a lot.  I regret selling every book/40-year old toy/whatsit that I did.

Sure, some stuff shouldn't/can't be moved.  All the houseplants, bags of used shopping bags and rubber bands... pens that don't really work.. and of course, most of the food.  I'd keep everything else!

The stuff I have... I like it, it's mine, and I'm keeping ALL of it.  For sea shipping, you pay by the space used, and you get a lot. 

Amen, sister! 

I'd already decided a yard sale isn't for me. Any small monies I made would be totally drowned by the hassle and grief. And...people touching my stuff.

My first question to a prospective mover will be, "what would it cost me if you tossed the whole lot into boxes and took it over?" I've lived here a long time, though, so there's probably stuff in the basement growing hair that I really ought to deal with.

My house will sell for a first home, most likely...it's a low-end sort of neighborhood. I was kind of hoping to stick the new tenants with some of my stuff...lawnmower and things like that. As a new homeowner, I would have been grateful. Or, at minimum, not sued.

I'm having the hardest time working out what order I have to do things in. At what point can my stuff come over without being considered commercial goods? Do I have to be married first, or will the fiancee visa be enough?