When we left Canada we also left a storage unit-load of stuff there! Like when we moved to Vancouver, when we moved away we thought we’d only be gone a year. It costs a lot to set yourselves up in another country, so we worked it all out and figured it made more sense to pay for a storage unit than to replace all our furniture, crockery and kitchenware when we returned. We just didn’t factor in not returning…
Friends kept a few boxes of our most important things in their crawl space (Tom’s computer, and any documents we might – but were unlikely to – need access to etc) as well, thinking it was just a little more secure.
We found out we weren’t able to return to Canada which meant we had to figure out what to do with our stuff. A lot of it we didn’t need here – dining table, chairs, patio furniture, bbq, anything electrical for example was just not stuff we needed. But it was tricky trying to work out how to separate that stuff from stuff we did want – Tom’s computer, my masters folders, notebooks and books, Tom’s warmachine models, our board games and art prints, Maisie’s outfit she wore home from the hospital and lots of other sentimental things we collected over our time there.
Our options were: 1. ship it all back here and just pay whatever it cost; 2. fly out there to sort through everything, donate/sell what we didn’t want to ship, and ship the rest; 3. pay someone to separate things out a little so that we didn’t ship everything back, but definitely got what we wanted; 4. just trash it all and don’t send any of it back.
We worked out as best we could the value of the stuff there, and the cost of shipping things back, and weighed it against the cost of a trip to Vancouver. The logic of us going out there to sort through it all just wasn’t there – Tom would have to take time off work, we’d have Maisie with us so we’d have to take it in turns entertaining her and sorting through stuff, and in all honesty, we were still a little too raw emotionally to return so soon. Trashing it all wasn’t an option when there was stuff of physical and sentimental value there, but it also didn’t make sense to blindly ship everything knowing we didn’t want it all here (e.g. a 3 seater sofa).
I posted on Instagram that we were looking for someone to help us out, and one of my classmates from Regent who lived really close to the storage unit said she’d be happy to assist. The “job” was pretty simple – have a rough sort out in the unit to remove any electrical items and then I had a list of things to look for to also remove. I told her I was happy for her to sell/donate/trash anything on the list as she saw fit, so as well as being paid for the time, she was also able to make a little cash, so it was kind of a win-win for both of us and her flat mate who also helped out.
A friend from school had moved to New Zealand while we were in Canada, and had used a company to move belongings there and back and recommended them to me, so we booked a MoveCube – essentially a large wooden box that you fill with your stuff, then they add your box to a container heading your way, then wait for it to fill up before it makes its way across the world. It arrives at your destination, you empty it, then they take it back! Pretty nifty, and very cost effective!
There were two tricky points to this – one was that without being there, it was hard to know whether it would actually be big enough for all our stuff. Our friends dropped off the stuff from their house and took a few pictures to give us an idea of what was there, but it didn’t easily translate to the dimensions of a MoveCube! Here are the photos they sent us:
The other tricky thing was making an inventory – the shipping company required a full inventory of everything being shipped, including named boxes with the list of what was inside and cost value of every item. With us not being there we had no idea what was there, or what was in a box with what! So I looked through photos of our Vancouver apartment and made a list of everything we owned as best I could and then roughly named some boxes we would likely have packed, and listed like-items together in the hopes that would be good enough. More than anything, this inventory was for insurance and for customs, so we were hoping that customs would see it was just a box of household items, and that a scan of the box revealed what looked like a box of household items and would trust the inventory.
We organised the same movers who took our stuff to the locker to actually shift our stuff into the MoveCube. On the day I had a call from our on the ground helper saying not everything would fit into the cube, and what should we do. You only have an hour to load up your MoveCube before the driver has to go to the next job, so I suddenly had to make a decision on this video call. It didn’t seem worth unloading stuff and what was left was a fair bit of furniture that our helpers could probably sell, so we made the decision that we’d just have to ship a few separate boxes of the valuables that were left and just squeeze what they could into the rest of the MoveCube.
So the sofa, 2/3 of our tv cabinets (one made it into the MoveCube), some other shelving, my comfy chair and laptop table and our dining table and chairs all got sold. We sent our bed, mattress, Tom’s painting desk, one of our bedside tables (the other hadn’t made it into the MoveCube, so we figured Maisie could have this one when we move), a shoe rack, an area rug, a clothes airer, and a large set of drawers were set to make their way across the ocean, along with some art prints, bedding, clothes, cushions, a laptop, a guitar, several warmachine armies, all of our kitchen stuff, and dozens of other bits and bobs we were looking forward to being reunited with!!
Another three boxes would follow about a month later – more clothes, shoes, my ukulele, Tom’s playstation, and a number of other things we deemed too important to lose. Obviously having other people do the sorting for us had its flaws – had we been there we would have been able to say “let’s leave the tv unit til last and prioritise these boxes” but due to all the reasons outlined above it didn’t make sense, and the cost of the MoveCube plus the extra boxes was still less than if we were to all fly out there. The two women who helped us were absolute angels and they did so much for us to ease the process.
On the shipping website you can track your shipment once it’s on the water. The MoveCube arrived in Hong Kong late October, then made its way through the Suez Canal. The boxes however were held in Singapore for 38 days and were ultimately redirected around Africa. So these things of ours have been on quite the journey. (Not going to get into it too much, but just want to point out that I’d much rather my stuff be held up for a year or more en route or lost entirely and see a ceasefire in Gaza – blocking these shipping routes is a way to disrupt the genocide taking place and has definitely got the western leaders’ attention. I don’t want to pretend I understand everything that’s going on, but I do not support the way the UK govt have instantly jumped in when trade is affected, but the thousands of lost lives of children can go unchecked.)
Early in January I got a call to say the MoveCube had arrived in England, so we booked in a date to unload our stuff – it’s gone into storage for now as we don’t have the room for it or to sort through it until we move. It was a very quick process, this young guy in a large van turned up, ripped through the plastic then jimmied open the cube, which was very full! Then the three of us unloaded everything into the storage unit, and he went on his way. Tom and I spent a little time having a look what was there and separating out a few things we wanted now. There was a fair amount of evidence of mice, but they didn’t seem to have done any damage to anything, or made the trip with our stuff.
A few highlights of what we got out – a First Nations decorative blanket that Tom bought me for my 30th birthday, my Bible (figured I wouldn’t miss it for a year), a tiny pair of socks that Maisie would’ve worn in the hospital or on her first trips out, some of our favourite two player boardgames, and Tom got a warmachine army out and played it that week.
I’ve just about washed my way through all our clothes now so am ready for the additional boxes that arrive on Monday! We’ll have an extra little dopamine hit when we see exactly what’s inside them. I’m really looking forward to properly unpacking all the boxes when we move, and merging our Canadian and English homes!
Some of the finer details if that’s the kind of thing you like:
Cost: the MoveCube was £2360 up front (including insuring against any loss or damage), and then £970 when it arrived in the UK (fees and taxes). The boxes were £250 up front, then £254 more in fees and taxes on arrival. So total cost was roughly £3680.
Timeframe: our collection date in Canada was 10th August, and we unpacked it here January 12th, so just over five months in all! I think it was about two weeks wait time when booking a MoveCube. I would recommend the service!
Ellen Wiggins 