Shipping from London to the States?

[dirtyrosewater]

Hello. I've been in London studying for the last few years and am getting ready to move back home. A friend told me the cheapest way to send all my stuff (books, magazines, clothes, shoes, and some other odd bits and bobs) would be by freight (air or sea). So I wanted to ask if anyone could recommend a good company? For the right price I wouldn't

Comments

Packing material ...

[the_magician]

... the best place is FreeCycle as there are always people moving and there's often bubblewrap and moving boxes being offered (or if you ask you'll find people have been holding on to it as it will "come in handy one day")

After that there are some excellent companies on ebay that will sell you boxes and wrapping material cheap ... you can get packing materials from places like (larger) Tescos, Ikea, Staples, Argos and local stationery shops but they tend to be more expensive ... and finally the most expensive places will be the storage unit companies (Big Yellow Storage, Safestore, Shurguard, Lok'n'Store etc.) which all sell boxes, tape etc. but with a high price premium. E.g. a roll of brown sticky wide parcel tape: 69p in Tesco, £1-£1.50 in a stationery shop, £2.95 in Safestore.

There are lots of student moving companies that will freight stuff for you ... I did a search for them a few years back, but I don't have a particular one I can recommend as I didn't use them in the end.

Re: Packing material ...

[bigyell]

Thanks for the mention.

At Big Yellow, along with providing packing materials you need, we also provide safe, secure and cost effective storage units across the UK.

Have you visited http://www.bigyellow.co.uk before? Check it out for further info, You can get an instant quote online and also use the online chat service along with a whole host of different features.

The new Big Yellow Sheffield has also just launched. You can claim one of 10 signed footballs by Sheffield Wednesday by being one of the first to sign up for storage.

Best, Mike.

Re: Packing material ...

[the_magician]

Thanks Mike (and well done on tracking down the mention!)

I like Big Yellow, very friendly people .. the only reason I didn't consider them when I moved is that I moved to Cambridge and there isn't a local Big Yellow here yet!
And the only reason I didn't use the one in Hounslow when I lived in Feltham is that even with the extended access hours of 5am-11pm it meant I couldn't put the band equipment away after a gig as the unit had closed and I didn't want to leave it in the van overnight. Otherwise your prices were very competitive and your staff were very friendly and helpful.

[ladyynara]

We moved from Berkshire to the US earlier this year and used www.doreebonner.co.uk, it cost us about £700 including insurance to ship 16 boxes, they packed it all (included all packing materials) and it got to us in the US about 8-10 weeks later. We had a good experience with them, they kept us up to date with info on when the ship was sailing, and when we'd get our stuff.

[licon]

We used excess-baggage.com and were very happy with them. (They also provided all packing materials.) We sent our stuff by sea, no problems.