moving from chicago to london: recommend a cost-effective storage/shipping company, please...

August 16, 2007 12:27 PM

moving from chicago to london: recommend a cost-effective storage/shipping company, please...

it looks like I'll be moving from chicago to london soon and I'm searching for a place to store a bunch of moving boxes, I am thinking 15 should do, until I have a place secured and am ready to ship them. I want to pay these folks to both store and ship them without me having to come back to the US but alas, there are a bazillion shops on the web. I'm confused. anyone want to recommend someone?

also: what's a cost effective shipping method in the first place? sea freight? the boxes would be filled with mostly books and magazines, so they're going to be rather heavy.

posted by krautland to travel & transportation (5 comments total)

I don't have experience with that move, but the forums at the Moving Scam website are a great resource for + and - reviews. Here's the international move forum.
posted by sharkfu at 1:21 PM on August 16, 2007

I've used Golan's moving in Chicago for a relatively shorter-distance move (to New York) -- but I really liked their service, and they were cheaper than some competitors. They have a storage business, and might work out a deal to ship overseas...
posted by rdn at 2:06 PM on August 16, 2007

US Post Office "book rate" for books is about half the price of anyone else, last time I checked. I think it's called an M-bag (you can stick anything booky in the bag so long as it fits and isn't overweight). A moving box will fit. You'll need to segregate printed matter from the rest of your stuff. Magazines should qualify for book rate.

Once you've segregated out the books, using a store-and-forward company is probably lots more expensive than asking a friend to help you out and hand stuff off to FedEx, USPS, UPS, DHL when you want it, even if you have to get a storage unit for a month or two.

Sea freight much cheaper than air freight, of course. Can take six months, but in my experience it takes a few weeks. They don't want to sit on it longer than they have to. This is still probably the cheapest way to get stuff "over here" apart from asking a friend to squirrel some of it away in one of their suitcases when they come over for a visit.
posted by sagwalla at 4:22 PM on August 16, 2007

I used Sevenseasworldwide.com when I moved from Australia to London last year. Their freight pricing was competitive, and I believe they do storage as well as shipping.
posted by hot soup girl at 7:04 PM on August 16, 2007

I used a removalist that did international (well, had reciprocal agreements with movers abroad).
They were happy to store things either end for a fee, and I don't think it was too expensive all up, although we had more stuff.
One thing to bear in mind is that the UK has a sucky second hand market. I expected to be able to buy a second hand couch, table, fridge etc. for peanuts if I wasn't picky, but I found the UK wanted lots of money for used gear.
I think I would have made a profit if I had shipped my whole house of furniture to the UK and sold it when I left, the markup was so high.
Also, do you really need to move magazines internationally!?!?
posted by bystander at 11:47 PM on August 16, 2007