When one moves “definitively” to a foreign and very distantcountry, the question arises of what is most profitable between leaving all their stuff behind and buying everything up there, and bringing all their stuff.
It was really necessary for me to calculate what I absolutely wanted to keep, what I would need more or less immediately, and everything that could wait or was easily replaceable. Having reduced my things a lot in two years, I have to say that it is quite hard for me to still have to make a selection in what remains.
I tried to assess the fees if I used a company by reading expat blogs and checking out websites, but inevitably, you have to make a request for an estimate to get a price, and to make that application of estimate, you have to know exactly what you are taking… while I was working in reverse: depending on the price, I would see what I could take. Given the prices I saw online, it seemed to me that sending me a few boxes would be the most reasonable way, financially. I went back to the solution I used to repatriate part of my things from Denmark to my mother’s in the South of France, while I dropped the rest to storage by truck.
I had fixed a budget of about 1000 €, with a list of essential things to take to make this budget profitable.
I then made 50 simulations of numbers of boxes/weight on packlink.fr.
Even if I leave a lot of things in France, I find that I didn’t do too bad, with a first shipment of 6 boxes (I wanted to do it in two times to test the passage at the customs and not lose EVERYTHING if there was a problem) and a following 6 boxes + a cardboard wardrobe (only boxe that could hold my drums’ stand, + hop I have a wardrobe on arrival lol).
Unfortunately I miscalculated (or I had more difficulty to abandon certain things than expected…) and an extra box will have to follow me. All this would have costed me about 1250 €, and all boxes arrive within a few days.
Of course, I also leave with two full suitcases. 😱
edit 07/31/2017: So the packages are well arrived but I don’t tell you in what state! I went both times through UPS, and the first round was taken care of by UPS directly and arrived in good condition, however the second round came with the boxes all ripped open. It seems that the boxes are open in Bordeaux for verification of the content, before being sent to Paris, then the USA, except that they are not closed back! The wardrobe box arrived with all the bottom torn down, it’s a miracle that nothing was lost. For the second time, there was an intermediary who came to pick up the boxes at home, why, I do not know, nor if it had any impact on the process but I can say that the guy was absolutely not careful (Vs Mr UPS who had taken my things carefully). In short, I guess I still made a deal but all the DVDs contained in the last boxes have broken boxes etc. When you know how careful I am with all my stuff and that everything seems perfectly new after several years, it hurts to find yourself with damaged goods after having paid so much.
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