leslie
29th October 2004, 02:53 AM
i have made several trans-a moves over the years. on the last one found pricing crazy and said no to everyone. in that beautiful way life has one of the movers was a straightforward dutchman and suggested packing our own crate. we did this - tons of room - and it was a huge success. we even chucked a bunch of stuff in without wrapping etc! he explained to us that traditional charges are for labour - packing, shifting up to 20 times. breakage and missing items due to this as well. the key thing to diy is to pack crate securely so it cannot shift, heavy bottom, light top. then only serious risk is sinking etc, but you have that with trad methods. these people can customs-clear your crate just like others, and deliver to door. they drop the crate in front of your house and pick it up later. cannot be easier or cheaper. we're taking nearly everything we'll need cause we'd rather be sitting on the beach than running around finding appliances etc. i laugh when i remember how stressed i was diverging from the old familiar, but it paid off in spades...