What if I don't have a lot to ship? And taxes?

So I'm really new to all of this.  I'm getting married in August to a Brit and then will be moving in November (as long as all goes accordingly).  I don't have much to ship to the UK as I've been trying to downsize.  Has anyone else not shipped much?? What's the most cost effective way to move it?  Still to find a shipper?  Anyone have one to recommend for Upstate NY??  I can always get my stuff to NYC or Boston.  I moved it all from CA to NY a few months ago.  If you fold down the back seats in a Ford Explorer and completely fill the back, that's how much stuff I'm talking about shipping. 

And next question, besides how do I get it there is will I have to pay taxes on it??  It's all stuff I've had for awhile (of course I can't verify that... no longer have receipts, etc).

Thanks,
Jessica

It depends on how fast you want your stuff, too.  You can check out companies like upackweship which will put your stuff on a boat and it usually takes 2-3 months, you can pay the excess baggage fee to take it all on the plane with you, you can cruise over on the Queen Mary 2 (with no baggage limit), you can mail/fedex/ups stuff...there are loads of possibilities. 

Are you planning on taking absolutely everything with you or do you have room to consolidate?  Do you have housewares/fragile items or is it mostly books?

If you've got a lot of books, you might want to look into M-Bags through USPS. We discuss it at length here: http://talk.uk-yankee.com/index.php?topic=53427.0


There's some great advice about packing into suitcases here: http://talk.uk-yankee.com/index.php?topic=53409.0

People also completely forgo suitcases all together and just pack into rough totes for the flight, as long as the rough totes fit the airline size limits.

And if you can, try to take extra clothing over on visits and leave it, so you'll have more room in your suitcases for other things when it's time to move!

I shipped 6 boxes. I think it cost about 700 dollars .

This place did a great job for me and it arrived in about a week.

www.whitegloveexpress.com   



As far as the taxes , You will do a very detailed inventory and on the boxes AND the customs forms I wrote "used personal and household goods. No commercial value"
We did not have to pay tax on any of the stuff we shipped. It was also delivered right to our door in the Uk.

                                                Good luck!

Thanks soooo much!!! I'm impressed at how quickly yours arrived!!!