Four-poster beds, exercise bikes, framed artwork, or a collection of wine are all hard enough to move from one city to another. Adding to that, the challenges of international shipping and customs regulations are more than any expat should have to coordinate. Here's the behind-the-scenes on how to move some of the biggest and trickiest items from the experts at Sanelo, an international moving company with over 100 years of experience who move over 35,00 expats a year.
A good move starts with a thorough survey
At Sanelo, learning about your household and what you need to move has been made easier thanks to advances in streaming video and Artificial Intelligence.
To get started, you will conduct a home survey with the camera on your phone or tablet using a custom app. A survey technician will talk you through capturing video of every room in your house to make sure you get clear footage of everything you plan to move.
Then, the technician will use A.I.-assisted software to categorize everything in your video to create a visual checklist of every item you plan to move.
Once your survey is complete, your dedicated Move Coordinator will compare your inventory to the published guidelines for customs and import regulations for your destination country. These guidelines are like an international cheat sheet for what is allowed in each country.
Whether your household survey includes wines, wicker chairs, or guitars with rosewood necks, the guidelines let your coordinator know what will require special attention. Your coordinator will inform you about any special restrictions in your destination country before your removal date. Your customs fees will be calculated for you and included in your estimate.
Then, on the moving day, your movers will know which items from your survey require special customs declarations once they're packed. Every box will need to be accounted for, so your container can move through customs inspections and approvals without delay.
That's a wrap: Boxing, carding, wrapping, or crating everything you own
In a local move, many things get loaded onto a truck just as they are in your house. Couches don't need a box! Chairs get stacked on top of each other, and a trashcan might slide between their legs.
Things are different when loading a shipping container for an international move. Everything in the container also needs to be contained in its own box or wrapping. An experienced international relocation company will have boxes of every possible size and shape, plus plenty of bubble wrap and acid-free tissue paper... but some things just don't fit in a box!
For smaller items, your movers will pack them with the same care you would use for a local move. For example, bottles of wine will be placed into boxes with custom dividers to keep them secure.
You'd be surprised at how many sporting and hobby items are “standard” for an experienced international mover like Sanelo! Whether it's bicycles or golf clubs, they'll be identified on your survey, and your movers will have a special box ready for them.
Many of your large items can still be boxed, like dining room chairs or even small sets of drawers. There are several options for unboxable household items.
Some items that don't fit in a standard box can still be wrapped in cardboard to give them structure and protection. That might be the solution for something like a small appliance or a pair of skis. This is called “carding” - building a custom box out of several standard boxes.
Most larger pieces of furniture will be wrapped thoroughly in thick, padded paper (sometimes called "export wrap") and sealed at the seams with tape to prepare it for your shipping container. This is how large items like couches, tables, and box springs will be packed. Your movers might add padding on the corners of the wrap to make sure your items don't sustain bumps along the way.
Finally, there are some truly huge or heavy items with high value that your move coordinator will identify for crating. Crating means building a custom-sized box for an item before your moving day. This might be the solution if you have complex hobby equipment or valuable artwork.
The only item from your household that won't get wrapped in some way is actually from outside your house: your vehicle! Cars and other motor vehicles will be driven directly into your container and then braced so they will not shift during shipment.
Don't worry: Everyone moves televisions!
Sanelo shared that for the majority of expats, the #1 large and valuable item they are most concerned about moving is their television!
Many people have spent time and money picking out the perfect flatscreen television for their favorite screening room, whether that's a living room or a comfy den. As TVs have grown bigger and bigger, they've gotten trickier to move safely.
Luckily, an experienced moving company like Sanelo deals with one or more flatscreen TVs in every move over 30,000 times a year. That means it's the one thing you don't have to worry about if your mover has done a thorough survey. Your mover will have boxes ready for every possible size of television, up to the biggest and best.
All you need to worry about is getting your TV unmounted and ready to box. This brings us to our next topic.
Some disassembly required
When you get the results of your household survey, an experienced mover should have questions about how large pieces of furniture or equipment come apart.
That's not a unique problem for an international move - that four-poster bed has to get down the stairs somehow, even if you're moving across the street!
What's different about an international move is that you can't just throw the nuts and bolts into a bucket on your passenger seat or make return trips for the drawers of your dresser.
Your mover will account for items that need to be disassembled to get out of your house. Many movers will have a "30-minute" policy - meaning that their teams can do 30 minutes of disassembly of a single item as part of their removal schedule. That's usually enough for items like beds, shelves, or wardrobes.
However, for more complex items, you might want to plan ahead - particularly for gear like an exercise bike or treadmill.
If you have something that will go outside of that amount of time or which requires an expert to take it apart, you'll need to plan ahead. At Sanelo, your Move Coordinator can help you find a handy person to help you with disassembly at your current home or re-assembly on the other side of your move.
Having an experienced relocation company means you're never on your own
When you are planning an international relocation, you want to know that you'll have everything you need to make your new house feel like a home.
You shouldn't have to spend time stressing about estimating the size of your shipping container, researching customs regulations, or figuring out how to move a big item like a billiards table or a bench saw.
Rely on a mover with experience. An expert international moving company like Sanelo can take all of the stress out of the process for you.
