# Shipping Furniture/Stuff Costs vs New



## me_slack (Jan 6, 2016)

Hi All,

We are about to embark on a relocation from the UK to Spain. We will need to ship over all our worldly possessions, however I am concerned that the cost of shipping will be more than some of it is worth.

Does anybody have any advise on how to best optimise the cost of shipping? Any shipping companies who can offer some advise would be appreciated. 

At the moment my thoughts get a quote for one large van, elite-european.com looks good (and is in the classified section) see how much would fit in it and try and reduce our contents to fit that.

Does that seem like the most logical route to take?


----------



## 90199 (Mar 21, 2010)

I have been down the same road, I now live in the Canary Islands. We priced how much it would cost to replace our furniture and other items, much to my surprise it was far cheaper to ship the goods than to buy new.

Re locating to a remote Canary island involved, three road journeys a Container ship and a local ferry, all items arrived safely.

The firm that moved us from Yorkshire was Shires, you may wish to contact them. 

Good luck with your new venture :fingerscrossed:

Welcome to Shires Removals and Storage - Removals Company, Overseas Removals, Moving Home, Self Storage, Shires Removals, West Yorkshire, UKRemovals Company, Overseas Removals, Moving Home, Self Storage, Shires Removals, West Yorkshire, UK | Local, N


----------



## Alcalaina (Aug 6, 2010)

The only furniture we brought over were a king-size bed (hard to find here!) and a nice dining table and chairs. We hired a small removal lorry (I think it's called a Luton) which was mainly full of musical instruments and 60-odd boxes of books. I wish we hadn't brought them all, they just gather dust and I only read e-books now!

We were lucky in that we bought the house ready-furnished and it was good quality stuff. We sold all our white goods to the people who bought our UK house. 

Electrical goods used to be more expensive in Spain but now that the exchange rate is good, things cost about the same here.


----------



## AllHeart (Nov 22, 2013)

I sold everything back in Canada and it was really, really difficult, but a necessary evil! The costs of shipping to Spain and lugging things around until I settled was ridiculous. I pared down from a 100 m2 apt filled to the rafters and just came with four suitcases. It turns out I settled in my first apartment, but I didn't know whether I would even stay in the city. 

You haven't said whether you're renting or buying. Most of the rental apartments are furnished here, so that's another reason it didn't make sense for me to bring my stuff (I rent a furnished apt). Even if you're buying, like Alcalaina, sometimes you can buy the house with everything in it.


----------



## Madliz (Feb 4, 2011)

> The only furniture we brought over were a king-size bed (hard to find here!)


A standard king-size is 150 x 198 cm. We bought our 160x200cm bed in Ikea here.


----------



## eagletwelve (Dec 17, 2015)

The most thorough thing you can do is get 3 quotes from shipping /moving companies for both the total load, and then the load minus that which you might want to buy new. Then get prices from three relevant stores near the locale you are moving to for the items in question, and see which of the options, shipping or buying, is cheaper.


----------

