moving questions

[danaeris]

So, I've never done a huge move like this, and I'm faced with a weird question:

How do you decide what to ship to your new location, and what to sell/ditch?

I have no idea how much it will cost to ship my sheets, towels, pillows, etc., vs. how much it would cost to buy new ones in Toronto. I'm currently planning on ditching all the furniture; I got it cheap and most of it is only okay (except for the dresser, which I will mourn).

Bah humbug, I say!

I just trimmed large portions of my wardrobe. Oh my. I have more than a garbage bag full of clothes I'm giving away or selling. I see a clothing swap/garage sale in the future. Left: the clothes in my closet, under the bed, and in storage. After that, books. Such a painful process, but trimming your possessions occasionally is a worthwhile endeavor.

I'm also concerned about shipping my toybag. Will it have trouble getting through customs?

Tomorrow I will be camped out at brainwash doing Humongous Loads of Laundry. Weee!

Comments

[deedeebythebay.livejournal.com]

hmmmmmmmmmm, I know you need the money so sell your clothes first if you can, but I'd be willing to hold a clothing swap here......

Bedding. Yes, ship your comfortor and matching accessories. Sheets are up to you. Are they new? Do you love them? Are they sentimental? If not, ditch them and buy new up home. Same with pillows, towels, etc. And it also depends on how much money you really ahve to spend on shipping. When my grandmother shipped her belongings to Tennessee, she spent a fortune, forgot insurance, lost a TV and some china and lost tons of $$. It is something to be very careful of.

[thespian.livejournal.com]

sheets also cost an arm and a damned leg in Toronto.

[mikz.livejournal.com]

Do Canada and the U.S. have the same size standards for bedding? I know that when I moved from the U.S. to the Netherlands, none of the pretty, silky pillow cases I brought would fit the pillows there. And when reddragdiva moved from Australia to the U.K, he found that a U.K. king-sized bed was smaller than an Australian queen-sized bed, which I've found is a centimetre or two narrower but also a centimetre or two longer than an Ameircan queen-sized bed...

[thespian.livejournal.com]

I have yet to find a standard, electrical, sizing or otherwise, that's not completely identical in canada and the US - we're essentially the same market.

[mikz.livejournal.com]

You're joking, aren't you? Canada metricated a long time ago, while the U.S. still uses a variant of the old Imperial system—even before metrication, Canada used different units. Canadian English is much closer to U.K. English than U.S. English is. The currency is different. Censorship standards are wildly different. So are curriculums—doesn't Canada, or at least Ontario, have an extra school year?

So sorry, I don't buy that. Maybe beds are the same size, but I think it would be a mistake to assume they are.

[thespian.livejournal.com]

So sorry, I don't buy that. Maybe beds are the same size, but I think it would be a mistake to assume they are.

well, then it's a good thing that you're not the one moving here, to ignore everything I'm saying, right? :-P

thanks for double guessing me, but oddly enough, having grown up in canada, lived in the US for 12 years, then moved back to Canada, I sort of know what I'm talking about.

Everything is the same. You just get told the measurements in cm or inches, according to the country.

btw:
Canadian English is much closer to U.K. English than U.S. English is. The currency is different. Censorship standards are wildly different. So are curriculums—doesn't Canada, or at least Ontario, have an extra school year?

Spelling is British, usage is very American. The currency is different because we're a different country and all, but except for the two dollar coin in Canada, it's all the same units and terms; penny, nickel, dime, quarter, dollar, 5, 10, 20, 50, 100 (there is, legally, a $2 bill that the US Treasury is allowed to print; it's still legal tender. They just don't). Censorship standards are different, though but that's changing, as Canada loosens up a *lot* and the Americans clamp down. As to curriculums, every freaking county in the states has a different curriculum, so that's not really an argument that they're different *markets*. But Ontario got rid of 5 years and went fully to 4 in 2002, after a merging period that started in 1997.

I've moved across that border bringing beds and more a couple times; I do know what I'm talking about. An item will be sold in Canada as being 200cm wide, and in the States at 79" wide, but they're the exact same thing.

[plymouth.livejournal.com]

there is, legally, a $2 bill that the US Treasury is allowed to print; it's still legal tender. They just don't.

Actually they do, just that most banks don't order them so you don't see them often. I know someone in the boston area who has an arrangement with a specific bank to order them for him. He then hands them out to friends in exchange for equal value in 20s (or 10s or 50s). Whenever I see him I try to stock up. I suppose I could make a similar arrangement with my bank but I am lazy.

[thespian.livejournal.com]

nifty! I should get someone to get some for me (also in Boston), so I could get a couple at Arisia. Will your friend be there to hit him up for one or two? :-)

[mikz.livejournal.com]

Actually, I used to just go down to the bank and get about fifty bucks worth. No special ordering or anything; it was just a withdrawl. I put them in the ashtray and used them to cross any of the Bay Area bridges. I continued this until they brought in toll passes. (It now costs $3 to cross the Bay or the Carquinez Straight anyhow, and a fiver to cost the Golden Gate. Ouch!)

[plymouth.livejournal.com]

I guess it depends on the bank then. I have asked at two different banks and a credit union and all three told me they didn't have any and would not be getting any.

[mikz.livejournal.com]

I guess so. Others have told me the same thing so I suppose I was lucky to have the bank that I did.

[mikz.livejournal.com]

I guess I'll take your word for it, then. I didn't realise you've lived on both sides of the border, and many Canadians I've known have gone to great lengths to convince me that Canada is a very different country, including, to a certain extent, danaeris. (To me, it feels a lot like the U.K. when I visit there while living in the U.S, but it feels a lot like the U.S. when I go there while living elsewhere.)

I'm not quite convinced about what you say on censorship standards, though. I find U.S. standards prudish and Canadian standards more reasonable—it's a pet topic of mine; I often compare them on IMDB, along with Australian and other standards. The U.S. has nice constitutional protections against outright bans on pulp media, but if standards are to become more compatible in general, it's the U.S. that needs to losen up, not Canada. I may not have lived in Canada, but I've visited there often enough and paid attention to enough media for my opinion here to be worth something. =)

[mactavish.livejournal.com]

When I move, I ask what the tradeoff is, especially about heavy things: Will I need it there? Is it that sentimental? And will I be able to replace it more cheaply there? That's a big reason I don't keep many books, but give them away. They'll be cheaper to buy again at used bookstores than to move.

(anandav mailed a lot of her stuff at book rate. I'm reasonably sure it wasn't all books.)

[thespian.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure how you'll find it, because I'm not familiar with SF costs, but it was actually cheaper for me to bring a lot of my things from Atlanta, rather than buy them here. Of the furniture I see around here though, the coffee table (loved because it's VERY wide, and wheeled, the kitchen trolley, the tv stand and the desk (bought to match each other at Target, and just well loved) were brought. The bookcases wouldn't have been, but I found Uhaul was cheaper than shipping (lots and lots of books), and the bookcases were actually really good for organizing the truck.

Bookcases and furniture and such are slightly cheaper here in Toronto than they were in Atlanta or Boston. They usually have the same tag price, but it's canadian dollars, so you're set. Electronics are MUCH pricier, so you will want to bring in any DVD players, computers, tvs, etc. (and should it come up, journalism students are expected to watch nightly news, etc., and apparently things like CBC's Passionate Eye are assigned as homework, so no 'well, I'll be a student for a few years, so I won't *need* a tv argument').

The other argument in favour if carting over shipping is that when you ship, they will assess all your objects - you can only ship something like $2k. Bringing it across the border means you can bring $10k at once, if you're coming to reside, plus a car. Also had the advantage that I literally assessed my box of toys as 'toys', and threw them into the middle of a collection of boxes that contained stuffed toys and such, and when they opened a few boxes randomly and found they were filled with exactly what I said they were, they assumed that I was truthful about the whole collection, and did not look into boxes I'd prefer not having to explain...

I used http://www.cbsa-asfc.gc.ca/E/pub/cp/rc4105/rc4105-e.html pretty frequently, and all the forms that you need can be found somewhere on that site.

[japlady.livejournal.com]

As someone who's done it a few times: you look at how much it would cost to ship it versus to buy a new one... TV's for instance are rarely worth it unless you have a a flat panel or some such. You also consider emotional value.

[mikz.livejournal.com]

Heh—I suppose I've always had it easy, because I've always travelled between places with different power standards. Therefore it would never make sense for me to take any appliance. (I did ship a few small appliances between Europe and Australia, though—240V is close enough to 220V...)

[elf]

Lightweight things (which includes bedding & clothes) are cheaper to ship than replace. I've heard a rumour that the cheapest shipping is through *Greyhound*... that you'd have to pick up your stuff at a station, but it's much cheaper than postal rates.

Books can be shipped at the book rate. This is important; books are heavy. If you want to trim your book collection, that's fine... but don't get rid of books you're just going to want to replace. In the moves I've done, it was more important to figure out how much space I'd have for books than to worry about shipping costs.

Toybag might have less problems if it's split up; pack a little bit in each of the other boxes, and then you don't look like a Perversion Market. (I have no idea how many toys you have.) Customs does not, traditionally, open & search each-and-every box that crosses the border, and even if they scan them all, they won't be upset at a few odd things.

Check online for relevant laws: I've been told that a large portion of my book collection is illegal in Canada (they don't like Loompanics), and that many of my weird objects & wall decorations might be illegal. I have no idea if they've got restrictions on things like sex toys.

[thespian.livejournal.com]

very few of your comics are actually illegal to own in canada, unless you have a large collection of child porn manga or something.

Issues with things like Loompanics comics and more like that or whatever is based on it being illegal to *bring in for sale*. There have been issues of illegal for trade import comics and magazines that I've brought in and actively declared just to see what would happen (a few of the issues of XXXenophile have been banned, most of my Cherry Poptart are, too), and even when they've looked at them, they pass them through, after asking me if I'm intending to sell them - personal use isn't the problem.

[elf]

Nice to know; last time I looked at it, it might've been "we won't be able to *buy* any of these Loompanics books" rather than "we can't bring them."

OTOH, I've got a large collection of quasi-military books: how to make guns, how to make bombs, Kitchen Nukes, How To Kill, vols 1-6 (I had an ex who had, umm, odd tastes), some XXXenophiles & Cherry PopTarts, and a few similar things. Nothing I think of as "hardcore porn," or even extreme kink, but what do I know about what the straight people think these days? For all I know, printouts of slash stories could be illegal.

[mikz.livejournal.com]

For me it's never been so much what as when. The stuff I need straight away goes in luggage. This includes seasonal clothes (two sets for nights out, two sets for interviews and four or five for everyday stuff, and maybe seven sets of underwear), books for my profession (although those make it very easy to go over the 35kg limit), laptop, etc. Divide everything else into what can wait a week or so and what can take a month or two. All my CDs went as slowly as possible, because I ripped them all. Half my CD collection is currently still in Australia, and it will stay there.

For me, to send five big boxes of clothes, photos, books, stationery, sex toys, etc. to the Netherlands cost me about US$250. To send the same stuff back to Australia cost €300. You'll be sending a lot more stuff, of course, but not nearly as far, so you might end up paying about the same.

Do you have a computer? You should at least take the drives, so you can put them in a new computer when you get there. Or you might consider taking the whole thing since Canada has the same power standard as the U.S. It's definitely not worth taking the monitor, though.

As for how to pack, I get boxes made of the thickest cardboard I can find, amd make sure that the outside 5 to 10cm is rags and clothing and plastic grocery bags. (I have plenty of empty padded bags and stuff that I use for this purpose, and I'd be happy to let you have some of it.) I go absolutely ape shit with packing tape—I pack it so everything will survive if the box is thrown from a truck. I don't put anything fragile or vaulable near corners. Boxes often arrive in a terrible condition—punctured, torn, corners bashed in, etc. I plan for it, so all my stuff survives. Oh, and I make a very detailed, itemised list of everything. This makes it easier for me to find stuff when it arrives, and it makes customs and insurance easier. A word to the wise: always undervalue stuff. It means you'd get less if you had to claim any of it on insurance, but it also means you'll pay less duty, which is a hundred times as likely to be a factor. And make sure you make it clear on customs forms that these are all personal belongings. (I write 'novelty items' for sex toys—it stops the Americans from freaking out.)

I agree with everybody that it doesn't make sense to ship furniture. It makes sense that you've trimmed down your wardrobe as well, but I keep finding myself wishing I hadn't trimmed mine down as much as I did. Remember, you might not have a job for a while after you arrive, so paying a fraction more for shipping now will save you having to put off buying stuff due to lack of funds later.

As for that dresser, maybe if you ask on CraigsList, somebody who's moving all of their stuff to somewhere like Chicago or New York or Boston or anywhere else where somebody on your friends list lives wouldn't mind throwing you dresser in. That way, when you have a free weekend, you can drive there from Toronto and pick it up, and visit somebody from your friends list in the process. It's a pity you didn't know about this a couple of months ago, when banditknight moved from here to Chicago and had a bit of space left over in his truck. I'm sure he would've been fine with doing that.

When are you leaving? We should get together before you do.

[plymouth.livejournal.com]

As for that dresser, maybe if you ask on CraigsList, somebody who's moving all of their stuff to somewhere like Chicago or New York or Boston or anywhere else where somebody on your friends list lives wouldn't mind throwing you dresser in.

That's a great suggestion. When I moved from CT to CA I moved a desk out for fyfer since her family was nearish to where I lived in CT and work was paying for my move up to some weight which I wasn't even CLOSE to being at. So she got her desk here for free and all it cost me was some space in my living room for a week or two while I waited for friends to be able to move it up from sunnyvale to berkeley in their truck.

[isara.livejournal.com]

wait.. what? I missed something.

moving??