Bringing Your Things

Hi and welcome to the Forum.

My initial response would have been to pay for excess baggage and take it with you, that was until I got to the word "books"; books in bulk are heavy.  I'm assuming these are just run of the mill books and not high value works of art that the Feds may have an interest in you taking out of the country.  The major benefit of taking it with you is you don't have to go through the hassle of paperwork, you make your declaration on the spot (should they even ask you).

You have your flight accompanied baggage allowance; how much baggage allowance you get will depend on the carrier and route you take; most airlines will allow you to take excess baggage (at a cost); I just checked the American Airlines website (link); they quote $150 p/extra bag and there is a lot of extra information there for you; other airlines will have similar webpages.

So my advice is to take it with you and to speak to the airline you're booking with and book the excess baggage when you book your seat.

Hope this helps.

Cynic
Expat Team

If you can weigh and up everything that you need to take, that might give you an idea roughly on what you might have to pay after taking Cynics advice.

There are some companies that send boxes overseas that might be a cheaper option.

Have a look at Send my Bag as an example.

SimCityAT wrote:

If you can weigh and up everything that you need to take, that might give you an idea roughly on what you might have to pay after taking Cynics advice.

There are some companies that send boxes overseas that might be a cheaper option.

Have a look at Send my Bag as an example.

Hi,

I used something like a "Send my Bag" service to send an Ipad back to our Head Office in Chicago.  It was a quite clever use of existing resources; it was picked up by an Uber driver in Leeds, he took it to Manchester where a courier who was going on the flight took it from him; he put it in his carry on bag and at the other end, an Uber driver met him from the flight and took it the final leg; they provided photo tracking evidence all along and it was there the next day - expensive, but very good service.

I've traveled around quite a bit living in a few countries. I would seriously consider how important it is to bring all that stuff, especially books, stuffed animals etc and try to pack it into a carton box and leave it with a family member back home rather than paying for excess baggage or transport costs. But of course, do check how much your items weigh and how much it would cost for both excess baggage and Send my Bag to see if it is really worth it.

I kind of see moving overseas as an adventure where you can start buying new things, books, whatever. I certainly wouldn't bring plastic dishware and things like that. I would probably hand-carry as much as I could without paying for excess baggage, but if the excess baggage isn't too much then I'd bring the most important things.

The UK is full of secondhand bookstores and charity shops and and flea markets and jumble sales where you can find all kinds of books and everything else for near to nothing.

Well, the stuffed animals and figures aren't just bears or whatever. They're Pokemon plushies, Tails from Sonic the Hedgehog, Hello Kitty, etc. I used a vacuum bag to reduce their size.

Some of the books I'm talking about are actually art books from games; expensive or rare things that you can't just pick up again. Those are the thickest, to be honest.

And the plastic dishwares are something I got with a gift card given to us by friends to help us in our future home together. All the gift cards were given to us in US dollars.

I don't have anyone I trust here to leave my stuff with; and the one person I do is eventually going to move out of the state anyway.

I'm going to look more into sendmybag.com.

I understand what you are saying and didn't know about their value to you. I did pretty much the same thing when I moved from the UK to Malaysia, I actually used a freight forwarder to send about 2.5 m3 of personal effects like my collection of antique carpets, ornaments, books, all the things that I considered valuable to me. And I also didn't have anywhere to leave them as it was after a divorce and I was sleeping on people's sofas for a couple of years.

So sure, check out the options for bring those things with you. If you plan to stay here eventually permanently then of course that's different and I'd want to bring my things.