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Hi, I just signed on to this forum. I noticed alot of helpful advice from people who've moved to Oahu from the mainland. Can anyone offer advice on the best value for shipping household goods from the East Coast to Oahu? I'm finalizing a job offer on Oahu, and as soon as it's negotiated, I will have a very short time to move. I plan on taking clothes, a few small furniture items, irreplaceable souvenirs, small electronics and needed books. All in all, it's about one living room full of items. It's not enough for a container. A friend suggested crating it all. Can anyone suggest a reliable, insured crate shipping company or other method? Thanks in advance.
It wasn't cheap exactly... I think just under $5K for a full cube. But no weight limit (good for books), they were super reliable, and it was secure (you put your own lock on it, and don't even give them the key). And lots cheaper than a full container.
I had a little more than that but not enough for a full container. I used Royal Hawaiian Movers who coordinated with a local (to me) company in Nevada. They came out first and did an inventory of all items I wanted to ship. Based on that they calculated and gave me an estimate which was very accurate after all was done. We set a date for the movers to arrive, they packed up all my dishes etc, a few pieces of furniture, art etc and it filled 5 crates that were 4x4x8. It arrived about 1 month later and another local company delivered and unpacked the crates, taking everything in the house and put it where we wanted it. In January of 2004, that cost me over $6000.
Be sure to keep careful records and all reciepts for your taxes next year if this is a work related move.
Hi, I just signed on to this forum. I noticed alot of helpful advice from people who've moved to Oahu from the mainland. Can anyone offer advice on the best value for shipping household goods from the East Coast to Oahu? I'm finalizing a job offer on Oahu, and as soon as it's negotiated, I will have a very short time to move. I plan on taking clothes, a few small furniture items, irreplaceable souvenirs, small electronics and needed books. All in all, it's about one living room full of items. It's not enough for a container. A friend suggested crating it all. Can anyone suggest a reliable, insured crate shipping company or other method? Thanks in advance.
Crates or containers will probably cost more than your stuff is worth, unless your furniture is especially sentimental. We just moved from the islands and shipped all our stuff parcel post,media mail and flat rate to a rented UPS private mail box. All told our 16 BIG heavy boxes cost approx $400. We shipped 6 large boxes of books and CD's via media. Media is surprisingly affordable, our LARGE boxes of books shipped for around $20 each. All of our other boxes were shipped parcel post minus our tools which we sent in a large flat rate box. Our boxes only took 2 weeks to arrive from Honolulu to Portland OR!
We were quoted $1,000 for one crate and spent a fraction of the cost by doing it ourselves.
Yup, Aliens has it right. Media rate for books, DVDs, CDs and other media. Parcel post for the rest and flat rate boxes for heavy stuff. If you aren't sure of your new address you can send it "General Delivery" to the post office where you will be near. Or see if your new employer will allow you to send the boxes to work? You can also use the clothes as padding while packing the furniture.
Furniture and appliances are easy enough to acquire on Craig's List and more than likely where ever you will be living will be smaller than were you were on the mainland so you won't need as much stuff to fill it up. Garage and yard sales are also a good source for replacement household stuff.
General Delivery does have it's pitfalls though. They will only hold your mail for 14 days and Priority mail for 7 days. You can only use the service for a total of 30 days from the time you receive your first parcel. If you have boxes arriving at various times over the normal 5 week parcel post spread you could have some being returned. In that case you'd need to quickly put in a change of address. I put my Mom's Arizona address as the return address on all my boxes.....just in case.
We also numbered all the boxes. So far we've gotten 1-10 and 16, we've got 5 more to go. And like hotcatz advised we used our linens for packing materials so we wouldn't have to pay extra to ship bulky paper.
Be really careful with your media rate stuff. They will open it up to check. I sent all of my work-related books straight from one office to the other. But apparently I had used pens & other things as bookmarks at various times. They opened the boxes, found the pens, and COD charged me tons more money! Oops.
I had a little more than that but not enough for a full container. I used Royal Hawaiian Movers who coordinated with a local (to me) company in Nevada. They came out first and did an inventory of all items I wanted to ship. Based on that they calculated and gave me an estimate which was very accurate after all was done. We set a date for the movers to arrive, they packed up all my dishes etc, a few pieces of furniture, art etc and it filled 5 crates that were 4x4x8. It arrived about 1 month later and another local company delivered and unpacked the crates, taking everything in the house and put it where we wanted it. In January of 2004, that cost me over $6000.
Be sure to keep careful records and all reciepts for your taxes next year if this is a work related move.
Thanks for the info, sounds like the right plan for Us.
I have a light weight pkg for my mother-in-law with 2 blouses inside for Christmas, should I put the present inside one of those flat rate boxes? Or is it cheaper to mail the package as a regular parcel post box from San Jose, ca to Honolulu? I can't decide which might save me a few dollars in postage.
I have a light weight pkg for my mother-in-law with 2 blouses inside for Christmas, should I put the present inside one of those flat rate boxes? Or is it cheaper to mail the package as a regular parcel post box from San Jose, ca to Honolulu? I can't decide which might save me a few dollars in postage.
Priority Mail flat rate is the only way to go; parcel post goes by ship and can take up to 30 days. Living in Hawaii believe me I know.
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Diy
