For those of you who pared down your stuff to only suitcases to move to Hawaii.... (fit in)

[Sweetbliss]

Other than the usual clothing, toiletries, and other random things I would take on a "regular" trip, what did you bring? I'm working on turning all of our home videos, journals, and pictures into digital form except for a couple of albums (& journals) as well as taking a few other particularly favorite things of ours (if we go the sell-everything-off route). I'm hoping our next employer will just pay for a full-blown move, but if not, what did you/would you bring if you only had a couple of suitcases per person in your family?

[Dthraco]

We brought things three ways:

1. Suitcase on the plane (2)- Clothes and stuff you would normally bring on a trip. We did not pack winter coats or cold weather clothing. The only cold weather clothing we brought was 2 pair of jeans, and a heavier hoodie that I never ever wear.
2. Plastic Bins on the plane (4)- This is where we put our keepsakes...video's, pictures, trophies, a set of sheets, etc.. Basically the stuff we cared about or couldn't fit in flat rate boxes. We got lucky because a couple we are friends with were on the same flight as the two of us, we paid to check the bins under their names. Each bin had to be 45lbs or less.
3. Flat Rate USPS boxes (6) - Tools, silverware, and anything else that we could put in the 6 boxes that didn't need to be with us right away. I labeled each box with a 1/6, 2/6 etc and kept a sheet with the contents with me.

Sold off all our furniture, electronics, etc. or gave them to family. Donated the clothes we didn't need anymore. Sold 1 car and shipped the other.

The advice I give is to think about the stuff you can ship, and how much it costs to replace it. I should have shipped my nice knife set and block in a flat rate box. The knives I had were great, and the $ I got for them didn't come close to paying for the new set.

Kitchen towels, oven mits, cooking utensils, wine bottle opener, q-tips, band-aids, neosporin, soap...all stuff that costs more to replace than to ship in flat rate boxes...even if you factor in the shipping charges and what you can sell them for.

We left no belongings on the mainland. A friend of ours who moved to Maui didn't sell off her stuff. She put it all in storage at her parents place. She labeled the boxes and kept an inventory. She would then ask her mom to send box #4 or get this out of box #8 and send it. Not sure how much of that stuff is still at her parents place 6 years later.

Best of luck in having our future employer pay to move you. That would be a nice treat.

[Galactastica]

I took some clothes, a few books, laptop, camera and 2 cats. That was it! I left a small box at my families house that had a things and it just sat in the attic there.

I'm just not the type of person that would want to ship stuff like kitchen towels, furniture, etc. I saw the less the better. With the massive garage sale I had getting rid of my normal belongings before hand, I had enough money to replace the little I ACTUALLY need and have lots of fun money left over. Starting over like that really helped me be more minimalist, which I've continued to do since then. It's great if it fits your personality!

[mommyofmanykids]

Sweetbliss, we are selling all of our furniture, furnishings and household accessories of anykind or nature. Shipping one car over that's worth taking, that's running us around $2,500-$3,000 because we are in the Midwest. We would lose $2,500-$3,000 trying to sell it here on the mainland anyway, because it's worth less than what we owe on it.

I have filled about 60 of those little flat rate priority mail boxes from the post office (around $15 each to mail one at a time I think) with "irreplaceables" like the childrens' baby books, photo albums, scrapbooks, engraved/personalized items, husband's high school year books, my childhood pictures, our wedding album, the kids' baby blankets that are embroidered with their names on them, basically just memory box / sentimental type stuff....the things you would try to grab during a fire

I am also shipping some large canvases of our family pictures that can't be replaced, large wedding prints that we had blown up for the walls, etc. I had to pay to get a few of these re-sized to fit in the acceptable post office sized boxes because there was a large enough price difference ($35 instead of $100 in shipping fees) to justify it.

We are taking everything to my father's, putting them in his garage and asking him to ship them one at a time as we need them, numbering the boxes 1 out of 60, etc. I have estimated it to cost about $1,000 in total to ship all this memory type stuff.

I have been told it can be done even cheaper by sending stuff to HI in the regular boxes (3-6 weeks) but it was easier for me to just order tons of the free flat rate priority mail boxes (which I think arrive in Hawaii in only around 5 days) from the post office and have my mail lady deliver them to my house at no charge. Then they can likewise be picked up from my dad's house via a scheduled online pick up which can be done via prepaid labels printed at home, saving him a trip to the post office.

We didn't have enough for a container and there's nothing that we need right away upon arrival in Hawaii....so this seemed to be the most cost-effective route that I could think of, unless someone out there has a better suggestion The flat rate priortity mail boxes are quite small though (even though they say "large"), so you are limited in what will fit in them. I had to get a handful of larger ones (Regional Rate C for a large handmade quilt that is special to us, board game boxes for some artwork that would have cost too much to replace/re-order in Hawaii - or I found out the company refused to ship a new one to Hawaii, etc.) These types were from the Post Office too and fit a few things that wouldn't squeeze into the little priority mail ones. But again, the boxes were totally free

[OpenD]

Originally Posted by mommyofmanykids

I have been told it can be done even cheaper by sending stuff to HI in the regular boxes (3-6 weeks) but it was easier for me to just order tons of the free flat rate priority mail boxes (which I think arrive in Hawaii in only around 5 days) from the post office and have my mail lady deliver them to my house at no charge.

Watch your assumptions. In many places on the Big Island there is no home delivery and you will need to pick them up at the Post Office.

[mommyofmanykids]

When I said "have my mail lady deliver them to my house at no charge" - I meant here in Michigan. She brings them to me at no charge, I pack them, and if I need more, I order them for free and she drops them off to me