Seattle to Hilo: car shipping, container shipping, Hilo storage space (Honolulu: fit in, sale) - Big Island - Hawaii (HI) -The Island of Hawaii - City-Data Forum

luckydeborah · 11-23-2010, 03:23 PM

Hi all,
I am finally going to contribute to City-Data Hawaii after getting so much help from you.

I had a successful experience with shipping my car from Seattle to Hilo via Matson.
They ship from Seattle to Hilo only twice a month on Saturdays.
It was real easy to drop off the car. Very well marked and the map and directions to Harbor Island port on the Matson website was fantastic. Well marked with signs all along the way when you get there.
The cost Seattle to Hilo was $1074 for my Honda Element.
My car arrived 5 days early due to favorable seas. No problems at all. they phoned us when it arrived and give you two days after phone call to pick the car up. If you can't get it they will charge you daily after that.

We shipped our household and art/craft business stuff in two "cubes" from ABF moving. ABF has many choices for sizes of containers. You can fill up as much of a container as you need and they will fill the rest with other items going to Hawaii. You get charged for what you use. We couldn't determine how to pack the containers given our stuff, so we chose to go with "pods" or as they call them "relocation cubes". We changed our reservation order three times with no hassles. We changed the dates and how many cubes we were reserving.
ABF will deliver the container or cubes to your home if you live in a city. Then you pack it and call them to pick it up. that's it. We lived way out in the country so we had to bring our stuff directly to the ABF facility in Tacoma, WA. We had reserved 4 "cubes" but only used two. They honored the coupon that comes with the USPS change of address envelope I got from the post office. That gave us $50 off. The total cost was $5200 for tow cubes from Tacoma to Hilo. The cubes are made of the same material as containers and just look like mini containers. You load them yourselves and you put your own lock on. they have no access to your stuff. Your cubes are then put into a container that goes to Hawaii. Ours went to Honolulu first then to Kona. From Kona ABF contracts with Kona Transport to truck it over to Hilo. It then is right by the Home Depot at Kona Transport and you have 3 days to come get it, OR they will deliver it right to the storage place or your home for you. ABF has a website that is awesome and tracks the container the entire way. The 800 phone numbers are answered by real people here in USA (Hawaii and mainland) and they are extremely helpful. they kept in touch and let us know when and where to come get our stuff. Go to their website, it is great. Our containers arrived a right on time.

Storage: we are at Shipman Storage in Kea'au at the Shipman Business Park. The storage is climate controlled and very cool. Real clean, no bugs and LOTS of cameras and security. GO SEE IT. The spaces are 20 feet tall, so a 10 x 10 fits a lot because you can pile it up 20 feet. Hint: get a ladder to help pile stuff. Shipman Storage has monthly specials for new renters and you can schedule your rental date ahead of time. Call to ask about the specials. They also rent uhauls andlet you have your containers delivered right to the storage space for you to unload. Shipman Storage also has a good website.
Hopefully this will help someone. Trying to "pay it forward" here on City-Data Hawaii.
Deborah

mdand3boys · 11-23-2010, 03:25 PM

Nice info.
I am surprised at how much the cost of two cubes was though! Ouch. That's about the cost of shipping a container!

luckydeborah · 11-23-2010, 11:42 PM

yes, almost the same cost, but we didn't want the hassle of packing up to the top of a container and thought our stuff would move about if not really packed in. the cubes are great because you can pack it all tight so any shifting is not going to topple your stuff. That really worked for us and nothing broke. We mainly shipped glass which is what we do (art glass) and wanted to have smaller space to fill to the brim so no problem shifting when the container swings into place. Good luck with your move.

Joliefille · 11-24-2010, 12:31 PM

That's good info! We took a 20ft container from Phx to HNL and it was $5600, BUT....it cost us $600 to have someone load it, $250 to crate the mirrors & pictures and then another $400 to un-load...so we ended up not saving much from the full service movers! And, all my stuff didn't end up fitting, so I have 1500 lbs of boxes sitting in storage, waiting until I can figure out what to do with the leftovers!

hotzcatz · 11-24-2010, 01:04 PM

Will you be setting up an art glass studio? My neighbor does stained glass, but since the art supply place in Hilo closed, he hasn't had any place to get more glass from except by ordering it in from the mainland. Perhaps you could become a glass supplier as well as a studio?

Yup, shipping too much stuff to fit into the smaller Hawaii houses frequently happens. Folks just don't quite visualize the differences between the mainland average house size and the Hawaii average house size. When we bought our little house, one of the neighbors was amazed. His comment was "da house too small, no can fit haole inside!" Guess haole kine get more stuffs than others and he's right, it is a small house and could use some closets, too! Not only got haole inside, but house too old, they didn't put closets in old houses.

Maybe having a yard sale or selling the leftovers on Craig's List might be helpful? Better than paying to keep stuff you aren't going to use? Although, I should be taking my own advice! We have too much stuff but at least we don't have to pay anyone to keep it for us.

luckydeborah · 11-24-2010, 08:04 PM

Don't know where you got impression I had too much stuff. We only moved 2 cubes which are 6 ft. x 7 ft.
so total footage was 12 ft x 14 ft. That is not a lot of stuff let me tell you. Less than half of a 20 foot container (because they are so tall). Our stuff all fits in a 10 x 10 storage space here while we try to find a small house to buy. And half of the stuff was for the business. Anyway, we have very little stuff and hope to get into a very little house. We are actually amazed at how many houses are huge here and have extra ohana spaces. We have not found a lot of small houses with only 2 bedrooms.

Nope, we have no interest in opening a glass store or being glass suppliers. Totally different skill set than being a glass artist.

KoaKine · 11-24-2010, 09:16 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by luckydeborah

Don't know where you got impression I had too much stuff. We only moved 2 cubes which are 6 ft. x 7 ft.
so total footage was 12 ft x 14 ft. That is not a lot of stuff let me tell you. Less than half of a 20 foot container (because they are so tall). Our stuff all fits in a 10 x 10 storage space here while we try to find a small house to buy. And half of the stuff was for the business. Anyway, we have very little stuff and hope to get into a very little house. We are actually amazed at how many houses are huge here and have extra ohana spaces. We have not found a lot of small houses with only 2 bedrooms.

Nope, we have no interest in opening a glass store or being glass suppliers. Totally different skill set than being a glass artist.

Lol thatʻs way not to much! I had so much more from NY

tbone and trillium · 12-09-2010, 09:52 AM

We are also preparing for the big move to the big island. I get there and it is returning to home. my soul is happy there and my body is much more comfortable to live in. my partner and I are landscapers and sculpters,(multi-medium) and are very impressed with the paring down you must have gone through. I know we couldnt fit into the cubes you did. funny,while we are there we only need a bbq with smoking kiawei wood and an uke, but preparing to go for good it is much harder to trim. not the personal crap but the tools, kilns, wheels,you name it are very hard to sort down. we fit in so well there no one believed we were from the main-land. but trying to pare down and lose all this STUFF I am feeling like a haole. I am wondering about buying a container and having it shipped so we have a storage unit on our little spot up the hill. congrats on making it to paradise, hope we can join you in the spring. gooood luck on your new adventure. Mahalo

MickeyE · 12-09-2010, 11:35 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tbone and trillium

We are also preparing for the big move to the big island. I get there and it is returning to home. my soul is happy there and my body is much more comfortable to live in. my partner and I are landscapers and sculpters,(multi-medium) and are very impressed with the paring down you must have gone through. I know we couldnt fit into the cubes you did. funny,while we are there we only need a bbq with smoking kiawei wood and an uke, but preparing to go for good it is much harder to trim. not the personal crap but the tools, kilns, wheels,you name it are very hard to sort down. we fit in so well there no one believed we were from the main-land. but trying to pare down and lose all this STUFF I am feeling like a haole. I am wondering about buying a container and having it shipped so we have a storage unit on our little spot up the hill. congrats on making it to paradise, hope we can join you in the spring. gooood luck on your new adventure. Mahalo

Buying the container might be a good option, depending on the area you put it. CC&Rs, county codes, etc. could give a few problems, but the container could be turned into a great workshop for you also.

Google "container house" or "container workshop" and you will find lots of info. They can be spiffed up so they don't look like just a big box sitting there too. If you need more room, add a second container.

Mickey

hotzcatz · 12-09-2010, 11:51 AM

Yup, containers are really handy to have around. We have one out at the farm to keep stuff in and it seems there's always something more to tuck in there. Putting a roof on them with nice big eaves keeps the sun off the sides so they are cooler inside and it keeps the metal roof from rusting through, too.

For specific art type equipment, you may want to bring it with you. I don't know of any place which sells kilns on the island, although I haven't looked either. Nor much in the way of art supplies anymore. You may want to pack your shipping container full of clay and glazes, too, since that stuff is heavy to ship and a container is shipped by volume, not weight.

General household goods are fairly easy to come by. Anything that can be bought at WalMart is pretty easy to come by either from Wally's world or second hand at a garage sale. On the Kona side, there's a WalMart, KMart, Costco, Lowes, Home Depot and Target. Hilo side has WalMart, Home Depot and Sears. Ace Hardware is found in multiple places and there are quite a few mom-n-pop general stores and hardware stores which have interesting items and usually better quality ones than the big box stores. (Weigh a specific tool from each store, same manufacturer and model number but the one from the mom-n-pop shop will weigh more and be better quality.) Specific items such as kilns, wheels, exotic cookery items, tools for anything other than general construction or general mechanics, etc., are pretty difficult to locate and expensive to ship in from the mainland.

Beds are fairly pricey, although I did see queen sets at Cost-U-Less yesterday for $400 a set. I haven't a clue if that is cheap or expensive since we haven't been shopping for beds for awhile. Costco sells them, too. I suppose one could check Craig's List to see if each large item is readily available and at roughly what replacement cost before deciding what to ship.