Hey guys,

I am relocating to San Francisco in the US in March next year.

I've been trying to work out the logistics of moving all my stuff over, but I'm at a bit of a loss.

I have a bunch of clothes, books and other general stuff with me here in Bangkok, and a whole bunch of other stuff boxed up in Sydney. I won't be taking any furniture or large items over to San Francisco, mostly just my personal effects.

From my understanding, most international movers won't even consider shipping stuff for you if it's under 1000 pounds in weight (about 470kg), so what are my options? Box it myself and mail it by post? Or get a courier company like Fedex or TNT to manage it?

Cheers,
- Aaron

Hi Aaron,

I know that some shippers offer shared containers but I'm not sure if there is a minimum weight limit there. The only issue there is that the shippers wait until the container is full so that may take a lot longer.

When we realised that we would be over weight we sent a case through a company called Excess baggage (Excess Baggage, Excess Luggage and Baggage Services Specialists Companies Company UK). I just had a look at their website and they mention different places that they ship to and from. It may be worth getting a quote from them to see how much that would cost you.

Regards,
Karen

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Thanks Karen. Excess baggage seems to be really reasonable on rates - I'll get in touch with them and see what they can offer.

I've tried contacting a couple of more mainstream international movers, but most of them have minimum weight / volume requirements, which far exceed what I need.

Cheers,
- Aaron

You should be able to go groupage in a container with others. We do that all the time from the UK, it should be the same worldwide.





Look here

When you look into mailing it yourself or sending it by UPS or whatever, check into special rates for books. If they make up a large part of what you are shipping, it might make a big difference in cost.

But it will be a minimum of at least 1000 kilos / 1 cbm

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Not sure what you mean by this stravinsky??

Household goods/personal effects cargo doesnt weigh that much, our caculations would put a cbm at approx 227.5lbs or 103.4 kgs.
So even if you doubled the actual weight because of books etc, it still aint a tonne.
Forgive me if i am missing something here, i am obviously talking from the inside and not as a member of the public.

Maybe it's a minimum? You run into that just using the mail. Most parcel rates are for at least 1 kilo, sometimes 2. Mailing a T-shirt will cost as much as mailing a 1.5 kilo collection of souvenirs.

I used a company called Seven Seas - SevenSeasWorldwide

We only sent "excess luggage" if you can call 40 boxes that! I don't think there is a minimum. We shipped from the UK and it arrived very fast in Argentina.

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Thanks Michelle. I'll check them out too.

Excess Baggage got back to me once but then disappeared once I provided them with additional details. Maybe it's just slow over the holiday season