Some movers treat TVs like any other piece of furniture, wrapping them in quilted furniture pads. Plasma TVs, though, require special wooden crates for shipping if you don't have the original box and can be ruined if you lay them flat. If you're packing yourself, double-box your TV, setting the box containing the TV into another box that you've padded with packing paper.
Better weather, different food and a new job are all very exciting, but there are some things that you just can’t leave behind when you move. Children and pets are (hopefully) first on the list, followed closely by your furniture.
When moving furniture overseas, it’s vital that your belongings are given the utmost care. After all, you don’t want to arrive in a new country to find your furniture has got damaged during the transportation process.
Luckily, this guide gives you a complete rundown of how to ship furniture overseas, so read on to find out everything you need to know.
It’s hard to give you an exact price, but you should expect to pay anywhere between £1,000 (GBP) and £5,000 (GBP) to ship your furniture overseas. How much you’ll pay will depend on several factors, such as how much furniture you’re moving, where you’re moving it to and from, and whether you move it by sea or air.
Speaking very generally, it will cost about £2,445 (GBP) to ship the contents of a three-bedroom house by sea from London to New York, while it will cost around £2,000 (GBP) to ship a 100 cm x 100 cm x 100 cm pallet on the same route by air. The table below gives you a rough estimate of how much it costs to move your furniture abroad from the UK by air and sea.
Want a better idea of how much it’ll cost you to move your furniture to your new home? Thankfully, there’s an easy way you can do this. Join the thousands of people that have used our easy-to-use quote tool to find the best offers on shipping items abroad.
All you have to do is pop some quick details about your trip in our short form, and put your feet up. We’ll take care of the rest.
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*Bear in mind that an air freight pallet is only 100 cm x 100 cm x 100 cm, so can carry much less than a 20-foot shipping container.
Please note: these costs are for moving the contents of a three-bedroom house and exclude add-ons such as door-to-door delivery, professional packing/unpacking and basic insurance cover. Our shipping suppliers normally incorporate these services into their prices, so expect some discrepancy between the rates given here and the quotes you receive.
What other costs are there to consider?
When shipping furniture overseas, there are other costs to consider including: the disassembly and reassembly of your furniture, the packing and unpacking of it, the loading, unloading and transportation of it to and from the port/airport, and even the cleaning of your possessions and your home.
Professional removal companies offer all of these jobs as part of their overall service, but of course they come with a fee. The table below shows you how much removals companies typically charge for these add-ons. Prices are based on a three-bedroom house that’s moving its furniture abroad.
As you can see from the table above, you can save a lot of money by disassembling and packing your furniture yourself rather than paying a removals company to do it for you. In fact, doing your own packing can cut costs by as much as 50%. You just need to make sure you a) buy good quality packing materials, and b) pack your furniture properly. Read on to get our top tips on what packing materials to get and how to pack your furniture, whatever its shape or size.
Once you have all the packing materials you need, you should create a plan for your packing. Here’s our plan for how you should create your plan. There’s no such thing as overplanning.
1. Check all the details of your new place. Make sure you know about any furniture that’s over there. There’s no point dragging a wardrobe across the ocean if your new home has already got a built-in one. You also need to know the exact dimensions of your new home, especially the doorways. After all, there's nothing worse than arriving to find your sofa can't fit through the front door.
2. Create an inventory of your furniture. Grab a pen and paper and list all the items of furniture in your house. A nice, clear list can really help you get a better understanding of what you need to bring with you. Once you’ve listed everything, you can go through it and cut it down. Look for any duplicates or items you don't use or no longer need, cross them out.
3. Inspect your furniture. If you’ve got small children or pets, then you probably inspect your furniture fairly regularly for damage. You need to check the condition of each item and take photographs of any existing wear and tear. That way, if anything gets bumped in transit then you can prove it and claim on insurance (if you have it). You should also be inspecting your most delicate pieces of furniture and deciding whether they need professional packing.
Visit4. Choose your packing materials. There’s more to this than boxes and sellotape. Overseas packing presents a whole world of wonderful materials, such as corrugated cardboard sheets, furniture blankets and plastic stretch wrap. Once you’ve decided on which items you want to bring, you should consider the materials you’ll need to pack them (see below for more information). Write it all down and then add a bit more for good measure.
5. Find some strong friends. If you’ve got friends with big arms who are happy to help you, they can be a lot cheaper than hiring professional packers. Just don’t leave it until the last minute to ask them. Decide on the date(s) you’ll be packing your stuff and tell your pals.
6. Get started. A proper plan will make sure you don’t waste any time or money packing stuff that you shouldn’t or can’t bring. It will also prepare you with all the right materials and assistance. Then all you need to do is get packing!
You need to wrap and pack your furniture properly, but good luck wrapping and packing properly without the right materials. Sturdy packing equipment is essential if you want your furniture to arrive in one piece.
If you’re using a professional packing company, they will provide you with all the necessary equipment and include it in the overall cost. However, if you’ve decided to go it alone then there are loads of options when it comes to finding packing materials.
There’s certainly no shortage of packaging wholesalers online, such as U-Haul, Kite Packaging or Amazon. You could also try your local hardware shop or visit a nearby supermarket to see if they have any spare boxes lying around. There will always be things at home you can use too, such as blankets and duvets (for padding) and sandwich bags to store nuts and bolts.
However, you must not skimp on the quality of your materials. If your furniture is important enough to come with you, it deserves to be wrapped up safely and properly. Large corrugated cardboard boxes typically cost between £1 and £2, while standard 10-metre rolls of bubble wrap cost around £5.
A free moving overseas checklist to download
Make sure you're well prepared before you move
The less you bring, the less you pay. Obviously there will be some pieces of furniture that you just won't be able to leave behind, but you'll probably find you can part with some of your stuff. Have a think about these questions before you prepare your final list of items to ship abroad. To find other ways to cut costs when moving furniture overseas, check out our guide to the cheapest ways to move abroad.
Will it be cheaper just to buy it again in your new country? Some things are irreplaceable, but other things can easily be replaced (like an IKEA desk chair). Consider the cost of shipping something versus the cost of buying it new.
What will the weather be like? Wooden furniture is actually very sensitive to the weather, and so is leather. If you’re going somewhere humid then your antique pieces might suffer, while very dry weather is not good for fine furniture. New, thick furniture is your best all-rounder here.
Will it actually fit? Make sure there’s space in your new home for every item you want to bring. Checking the width of your new doorway is a must.
Do you really need it? Has a bulky kitchen appliance been collecting dust in the back of a cupboard? If you can think of a friend who might make better use of something than you are, maybe it’s time to hand it over. Likewise, selling stuff on websites like Gumtree and eBay is super easy.
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None of your furniture should be exposed or loosely packed. Give all your boxes a good shake and if anything rattles, then you’ve done it wrong. If you can see the leg of a chair or the corner of a table, start again. These tips should help you avoid all the common packing errors.