If you are moving overseas, you have to decide what to take and what to leave behind. The answers about shipping personal items are different for everyone. A student going abroad for a year will have different needs than a family relocating permanently. Much also depends on where you are going. You won’t need a lot of woolly jumpers in a tropical climate! But what you decide to bring can also depend very much on your new home itself.
While the climate is important, so are the details of exactly where you will be living. The more you know about the town and the actual house or apartment itself, the better you can gauge exactly what you should send via overseas shipping and what you can replace.
Questions to Ask about Your New Home
It won’t always be possible to get all of the information you’d like to have before shipping personal items. But you can learn much about what life is like almost anywhere online, including what stores are nearby and what the price ranges are for things you are considering replacing. If you are working with an estate agent or property manager, you should be able to get some basic details about your new home and any regulations or policies that could affect what you bring.
- What exactly is in the home? Unfurnished can mean the place is stripped bare, without even kitchen presses, or it could mean that everything except actual furniture is there, including large and small appliances. Furnished can range from just the basics such as a bed, couch, table and chairs to everything including linens and a policy that you cannot bring in your own furniture. Ask specific questions and try to get photos of the house or apartment as it will be when you move in – not ‘dressed’ to impress. If you want to include some pieces of your own furniture in your overseas shipping, ask in advance if there is any issue with that.
- What will fit? Getting the dimensions of each room is usually not difficult, but also remember to get the measurements of doorways and corridors too. You need to know how easy or difficult it will be to get your items into your new home. Are you moving into a multi-story house or an apartment? Are there stairs? A lift? Will your things fit? Is it possible to bring things in through the windows?
- Is it appropriate? This isn’t about how well the colour of your sofa goes with the curtains in your new place. It’s more about the feeling of peeling your flesh off your leather sofa in tropical heat or worrying about your cosy overstuffed armchair succumbing to mildew in monsoon season. Before shipping personal items such as furniture or decorations, ask yourself if they will fit into your new life and climate.
Shipping personal items is a wonderful way to bring the things you treasure with you. The cost of overseas shipping can even be less than the cost of replacing everything. But it is important to know if your belongings will fit – literally and figuratively – into your new home before you send them.
Here at Spratt, we can help you with everything in regards to your shipping process, providing you with a quick shipping quote and answering all your queries about it. Get in touch today and check which solution will suit you better.
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