University move.

March 1, 2011 7:13 PM

Help me avoid reinventing the wheel? We're in Vancouver and our daughter will be attending University in Quebec in the fall. We're flying with her (driving is not an option) to set her up in residence but of course we'll have to ship many of her belongings. Would anyone who has already gone through this "move" offer any suggestions, tips, cautions or any other advice on how to best do this?
posted by Neiltupper to Travel & Transportation around Vancouver, BC (16 answers total)

I moved back to Mtl after living in Vancouver and sent a lot of stuff through Post Canada (about 6-7 big carton boxes full of clothing, CDs, well-wrapped electronics and decoration, some sturdy kitchenware, etc.). All I had left fitted in half the trunk of a car.If you do it in advance and take the slowest option, it is going to be quite cheap (can't remember now but it didn't even cross my mind to look at other options). It all depends how much you have to send of course! And once in Montreal (if this is where she's going to study) craigslist but also lespac and kijiji are great option to get furniture.
posted by ddaavviidd at 7:30 PM on March 1, 2011

Is there a reason she needs to take enough to ship? Max out your luggage allowance if the three of you are going together, and limit what she takes. If she's living in residence, there's not a lot that she'll need that won't go in your suitcases, except maybe a desktop computer. A laptop solves that and you're done.

My friends in university who came from the other side of Canada all just brought what they carried. I've done cross country moves since then (and international ones) and unless you think it might be permanent, the less stuff you take, the less that needs to go home at the end of the experience. And that's not even counting the surprising amount of stuff that she'll accumulate while she's there.

If there is something that you really need to ship, don't forget about the bus - Greyhound ships and at least within province, it's pretty reasonably priced.
posted by scrute at 7:36 PM on March 1, 2011 [2 favorites]

I've never lived in Canada. But I moved Philadelphia to Oakland not long ago; shipping stuff by the cheapest US postal service rate was pretty reasonable, and took about a week. That being said, use the maximum of airline luggage allowances.

Also, if you do ship something, how is she going to receive the packages on the other end? I know that the students who worked the front desk at my dorm in college got mad when people would ship multiple boxes cross-country and expect them to be held until pickup, because everyone would do this at the same time (the beginning of the academic year) and there was only a limited amount of storage space.
posted by madcaptenor at 7:51 PM on March 1, 2011

I moved to university in Massachusetts across the country from California. I brought two large suitcases, one carry-on luggage, and a backpack with me. They mostly contained clothing, a laptop computer, maybe a few trinkets (but very few). Everything else was purchased new on the other end.

A few reasons for buying things new:
1. I needed different supplies for dorm-living than living with my parents. The dorm bed was a different size. I didn't need any cookware as a freshman (the dining hall took care of all my needs).
2. It was nice to have duplicates of toiletries for when I went home for break. I knew I had a hairbrush and a hairdryer and an alarm clock and underwear and everything else I would have needed still at home.
3. Disposable items (like toilet paper, Kleenex, and school supplies) didn't need to be carted across the country.

Honestly, I didn't need many of my high school items. Plus, there wasn't much room to store anything. Anything that I ended up needing throughout the years, I just bought new (eventually, I did need a pot or pan). Could you perhaps tell us what belongings your daughter wants to take with her? We might be able to give some insight as to whether it'll be a waste of valuable space, easily/cheaply duplicates, or is worth to ship.
posted by watch out for turtles at 7:58 PM on March 1, 2011 [2 favorites]

I moved from California to Florida for college and my experience basically echos watch out for turtles's. I also brought things with me every time I went home. Assuming she'll be out at college for a few years, she's going to need to need a lot of things anyways and bringing them from home won't be practical.

Make her think extra hard about some things that may seem extraneous too. For example, I shipped a lot of my books over to Florida after I moved, but in the end, they just ended up being placeholders on my book shelf. Paying to ship them back home seemed like a punishment for not really reading any of them (but actually buying many more).

And finally, if you do ship a lot of things, make sure your labels are on tightly. I lost a box of books because the tape was kinda loose and the address labels fell off.
posted by Geppp at 8:17 PM on March 1, 2011

When I moved from BC to Montreal, I packed everything and shipped it on a pallet. I don't remember the company I used (this was 11 years ago), but it was affordable and efficient.
posted by Felicity Rilke at 8:20 PM on March 1, 2011

I've shipped things a couple of times between BC and Saskatchewan. I usually use Greyhound. It takes less than a week and costs about $60-100 for a box, depending on size. I don't know if it's more expensive to go further, but I think maybe not. You can also ship luggage articles, which can be handy. They will deliver to your door, but I think there might be a small extra charge for that.

But yes, she should think long and hard about taking any more stuff than can be fit into her luggage allowance and yours. It's all going to have to be moved again later. Blankets and similar can be purchased cheaply in the new location--you might even spend less than shipping, especially if you count shipping twice.
posted by equivocator at 8:28 PM on March 1, 2011 [1 favorite]

Having done the opposite move, Ontario to B.C., to live in residence, you should absolutely be able to do this without shipping anything. If you and your daughter both take 2 full suitcases, you should be fine. My mom just had a carry on for her personal stuff.

I can't stress it enough that she shouldn't bring too much stuff, her room will be furnished, and she can buy anything she needs when she gets there. We went to Ikea for bedding, and that was about it. Don't bring high school notes or a lot of books. You can buy school supplies, cleaning supplies, decoration etc. in Montreal. You basicaly just need to take clothes.

Also, upon graduation, my friends who moved back across the country actually sold boxes of their clothes for like $10 each. They sold literally everything they had accumulated. It might help to consider that she will likely need to move again, and doesn't need to actually "settle" and buy tons of furniture etc.
posted by piper4 at 8:53 PM on March 1, 2011 [1 favorite]

I found that pretty much everything except my clothes, my computer, my bedding and some pictures was useless and was stupid to bring with me when I went to college.

Things that were useful/fun not in the above list. [*less useful]
a small pot with lid for raman
a plate
a spoon, knife, fork
pocket knife w/ screwdriver
can opener*
a baseball glove for playing catch / softball with dorm mates*
small maglight flashlight
music player + headphones

I wish I got a bike as a freshman

Things that were useless:
_every_ book I brought and man I brought a ton
most of my dress clothes
non-baseball glove sport equipment (I ended up getting a frisbee but didn't have one before - but someone always has a frisbee)
posted by bottlebrushtree at 10:07 PM on March 1, 2011

This depends on your connections, but if you know anybody in Vancouver who's got a business that regularly ships heavy stuff, you can see about paying them to slip a few boxes into their outgoing mail pile to take advantage of the business rate at Canada Post. I was working at a bookstore when I moved from Victoria to Toronto and was able to send 10 boxes of books and sundries (very heavy) for very little cash.
posted by Beardman at 5:03 AM on March 2, 2011

Also, don't ship anything via CanPar: they do this neat trick where they'll gladly ship personal items, but when they arrive destroyed, they'll retort, "We don't ship personal items, so your insurance is null." (Badgered them until they paid up, but it was a hassle.)
posted by Beardman at 5:05 AM on March 2, 2011

I and friends have done this a few times. For a few small, heavy items, Canada Post and the bus companies work well. For shipping large or lots of heavy items, like furniture or a few thousand books, I've found that the cheapest option is a rail shipping company, similar to Felicity Rilke's suggestion above. Rail means figuring out pick-up and drop off at the depos (rental cars). Vancouver and Montreal are both easy for rail, if you go that route.

The trick really is to send as little as possible. It's almost never worth the pain to ship cheap furniture, for example. A day in the second-hand stores might well cost less than shipping her old bedroom set 3600 km. Likewise, household goods are best bought there rather than sending. Price things out before you ship. For less than $100 you can outfit her entire kitchen/bathroom/cleaning supplies.
posted by bonehead at 7:31 AM on March 2, 2011

If you use your luggage allowance to pack things for her, either use a set of suitcases that will pack inside each other for your trip back, or use garage-sale suitcases and just trash them when you get there. I worried about checking empty soft-side suitcases on my return trip - seems like they would be more likely to be damaged. I thought about buying a huge pack of paper towels to stuff into them just to hold their shape, but I ended up using old ones and throwing them away when we were done unpacking.
posted by CathyG at 8:23 AM on March 2, 2011

greyhound courier express will ship stuff and they have a student rate. I sent around 10 boxes for under $250 vancouver to toronto. Of course pack carefully, they do get tossed around.

But really, don't bring too much stuff. It generally works out the same to buy there and then sell it when you move.
posted by captaincrouton at 9:37 AM on March 2, 2011

Even if her dorm has a kitchen rather than a meal service, it's going to be way cheaper for her to just buy new stuff (especially if you can thrift it) in Montreal than to try to ship it. I've moved several times across the country and I've almost always found this to be the case.

Same for bedding, etc. I took only one big suitcase when I did my MSc in Scotland and it was really all I needed. If I were smarter, I could've avoided airline fees for an overweight suitcase by bringing fewer books, as I didn't ever open half of what I brought. You really don't need very much stuff to live.

Maybe, maybe, if your daughter needs to bring sports equipment like skis or other difficult to pack things, you'll need to ship, (in which case Greyhound is the cheapest most often), but otherwise you really shouldn't need to over your bag allowance.
posted by Kurichina at 12:28 PM on March 2, 2011

Nthing the fact that you should not have to ship anything beyond what you can fit in the luggage allowance. Think about it this way: she's moving from one big cosmopolitan city to another; she's not going camping. Anything you can find in Vancouver you will be able to find in Montreal, and stuff like heavy-duty winter gear she'll probably have to pick up there anyway.

I moved cross-country (California to Connecticut) to attend college and when I moved there, all my stuff was in three suitcases, two with me, one with my dad. I ended up taking a lot of stuff home, like my HS yearbook, over winter break. When I graduated and moved cross-country again, I ended up wondering how I had accumulated so many things, the vast majority of them during college and had the same moving problem.

If you're going to be able to do any kind of shopping in Montreal, I'd suggest that even bringing the bedding is unnecessary -- you really just need her computer and her clothing. Bedding, toiletries, furniture, kitchen stuff, books, supplies can all be gotten there.

And don't forget about summers. Unless she's going to be living in the same place for four years, she'll have to pack up her stuff and put it in storage if she ever wants to leave Montreal to intern or study abroad or whatever. She won't have the luxury to complain about her parents being overbearing as they show up with multiple huge minivans and endless boxes to cart the stuff off and instead will have to deal with packing all her stuff herself (a little residual bitterness on my part? Perhaps...)
posted by andrewesque at 9:07 AM on March 4, 2011