Shipping one's possessions across land and sea

[beak]

So, in a couple of weeks I am buying my apartment. This is very exciting! And all a bit mad, given that I never thought I would own property ever in my life. But anyway. On account of a brief spell of homelessness in 2015/16, I've a fair few boxes of stuff at my mam's in Salford, that I'm going to go back and sort out at the end of the month. The first time I moved to/from Amsterdam, there was enough stuff to warrant renting a ran/borrowing a friend with van, and going on the ferry. When I came back in 2016, I didn't have to worry about it as I only had a suitcase full of stuff. Now I need to figure out paying somebody to move the following:

- about half a dozen boxes of books
- a few framed prints/photos, other little ornamental trinkets
- a chest (actually, an old ammunition case) of personal documents, flyers, notes, love letters, trinkets, etc.
- a relatively modest record collection.

Any advice (and given the audience, I am presuming a great degree of relevant experience) as to how to do this, and/or who to get to do this for me would be very welcome. I don't need any of this stuff, so slow (and cheap) suggestions are welcome. I'm travelling by train, and was planning to take the records well packed in a suitcase, but am beginning to think that all sounds a bit of schlep, and I might break and get them all padded up and shipped to. Don't bother asking me how many there are, because I'm shite at guessing numbers, but suffice to say a decently-sized rolling suitcase would fit them. Would it be advised to bubble wrap and box them? I'd rather not buy flight cases I've no other use for. Everything else I'm fairly confident I can pack. Might sack off the chest, seeing as I'd rather not see it taking up space in my gaff.

Anyway. Please tell me what to do.

[MsD]

http://www.shipping-costs.co.uk/removals-to-holland.php

Any help?

[Patrick Thistle]

I like driving vans. My suggestion is hire a small van or large car and find a mate who wants to drive it on a Dutch adventure.

[steveeeeeeeee]

UK to NED? Rent a van, surely is cheapest, easiest and most fun?

Using a company to ship your stuff is a massive pain in the backside, loads of paperwork and you really need to be there when they're packing/collecting. Usually based on weight too, so the type of stuff you're moving will cost a fair bit.

[ursus arctos]

One's attitude towards driving would seem to be a key/determinative factor in such a decision.

For example, if I was driving a van full of boxes from the UK to Holland, I wouldn't be overly concerned about how stuff was packed (I also wouldn't just chuck it in the back). That would not be the case if I was delivering boxes to a shipping service, and certainly would not be the approach if I hired someone to pack the stuff up and then ship it (which is how we always moved countries as a family).

[beak]

http://www.shipping-costs.co.uk/removals-to-holland.php

Any help?

Yes, thank you.

I like driving vans. My suggestion is hire a small van or large car and find a mate who wants to drive it on a Dutch adventure.

UK to NED? Rent a van, surely is cheapest, easiest and most fun?

The main problem with the driving plan is that I live in an alleyway right in the middle of Amsterdam. The nearest place to drop off is a densely crowded street/building site about thirty metres down the way. The nearest place to park overnight, say, without paying an exorbitant price is fucking miles away. I've moved in and out of the middle of the red light district by van, and both times it was a highly fraught experience, and one I'd prefer to avoid doing again.

Ursus: having the shippers pack the stuff themselves isn't something I'd thought of (I perhaps associate that with bigger house moves with furniture etc.?), but might be worth looking into.

[Amor de Cosmos]

This reminds me, we left two consignments of stuff to be shipped from the UK to Texas and BC over a year ago. No word of them yet...!

[ursus arctos]

Dogbeak, my experience is the movers will do pretty much anything if one is willing to pay them, but then I wasn't using my own funds to do so. The ideal situation for you would seem to be finding a firm with another UK to Amsterdam move that hasn't filled the requisite lorry/container completely, and onto which your stuff could piggyback.

That said, isn't any commercial mover or delivery service going to face the same "last mile" issues that you would with a van? How do you get large packages delivered in the ordinary course?

[Patrick Thistle]

That's a good point Ursus makes there. What are the delivery guys going to do?

How wide is the alley? Could you get one of those diddy Datsun vans down it?

[San Bernardhinault]

My only experience was with much larger volumes of stuff, filling half a container and getting it to the US.

For the volumes you're talking about (and with your alleyway issues), I'd probably drive it most of the way, keep it in the cheapest storage locker you can find somewhere on the outskirts of Amsterdam which you'd rent for a week or two, and bring it in piecemeal.

[gavc23]

No use to you but...when we moved everything to Finland it worked out much cheaper and easier to pay someone to pack everything and ship it. Three little old Latvian ladies did the (excellent) packing.

Moving back five years later we did the same thing and three other little old Latvian ladies did the (consistently excellent) packing.

We’re convinced Latvian pensioners have the market sewn up.

[beak]

The ideal situation for you would seem to be finding a firm with another UK to Amsterdam move that hasn't filled the requisite lorry/container completely, and onto which your stuff could piggyback.

This is the most tempting option thus far.

That said, isn't any commercial mover or delivery service going to face the same "last mile" issues that you would with a van? How do you get large packages delivered in the ordinary course?

Yes, but it would then be - in principle - their problem and not mine. I say in principle as, in my old apartment, the blokes who delivered our flooring thought it was reasonable to drop them fifty metres away from the door, and only relented and let me use their hand truck after I kicked off a bit.

As for parcels, I don't know. I generally pick them up frmo the post office a couple of streets away, but the biggest thing I've had delivered since I moved here is a pair of shoes. This is going to change soon, as I need to buy a stereo and some bits and bobs. Trying not to think about it.

How wide is the alley? Could you get one of those diddy Datsun vans down it?

It's about three metres wide, and no. To one side of me there's a bar, and on the other a coffeeshop with outdoor seating. I'm above a busy tattoo shop and facing the door of another apartment building. There's generally bikes parked all down one side. You'd struggle to cycle down. Christ, I find it hard work walking through sometimes.

I'd probably drive it most of the way, keep it in the cheapest storage locker you can find somewhere on the outskirts of Amsterdam which you'd rent for a week or two, and bring it in piecemeal.

This is a canny solution, but I'm absolutely not driving. Aside from the aforementioned, and can't be doing with the foofaraw of finding a place that'll rent a van allowing for international travel, finding somewhere to put it, booking the ferry and etc. And I really don't see as much fun in driving as some of youse!

But anyway. Thank you all again, and apologies if this is coming off as less a request for help than an excuse to whine about life's tricky bits. Once I've done a spot of decorating and that you're all welcome 'round.

[Pérou Flaquettes]

There's got to be companies in the UK that offer that service, there are loads of one-man van removers that do UK<=>France/Continent, many advertise online and on the 4 or 5 UK-based mags on France, all types of shipping and removals, from 1 cubic metre (van job) onwards.

I've only done that once in my life, Dubai-UK, via Pickfords (very dear, I think it was nearly 2 grand for maybe 3 cubic metres, but I didn't pay). Sorry, I can't be of any more practical help but I know people in the same situation as you who've used local companies here in the north east and Yorkshire for small removals (by van or proper removal lorry, via share load system) to the Continent, removers like this man: https://www.smallvanandman.co.uk/man...n-netherlands/, or this one: https://www.smallremovals.co.uk/, or him: https://www.matthewjamesremovals.com/relocation/holland

Have a look at the expats forums specialising in the Netherlands too, they are gold mines of information, you can register and ask Qs too of course. I've used the French ones (UK expats in France I mean) several times for various things, paperwork/préfecture stuff mainly, quick and extremely useful (eg it's where I got most of the practical info about getting French nationality for my wife, from people who'd gone through the process - esp. the 2 language tests, as the official info isn't comprehensive enough; very useful also for pensions, up-to-date healthcare info etc.).

[Sam]

I can offer no help as I left almost all of my stuff at my parents' house and just brought clothes and a few essentials here with me. My mother gets quite irate from time to time about all the books I left, which she's literally set aside an entire section of the garage for. I'd love to have them over here but I've nowhere to put them.

[Ek weet nie]

How much of the stuff can you do without? That would be my first question from experience of living in apartments and small houses. If the photo and print sizes are standard, you may be able to pick up frames in Amsterdam for the price of transportation.

For the books and records, have you personal notes within them? It may be cheaper to buy a new or used copy in Amsterdam than paying for half a dozen boxes to be shifted.

Does it all have to be sorted out in one go? If multiple options are a possibility and you are travelling back and forth somewhat regularly anyway then the suitcase may be the way to go?

Best of luck with it, the last time we moved we threw money at the problem as my wife was heavily pregnant and got movers to pack everything and bring to storage and then to our new house when we were ready for it. They were unbelievable efficient compared to the length of time that we would have taken.

[The_Purple_Cow]

I eventually moved my heavy stuff to Amsterdam after I had lived there for five years or so. Found a shipping company who crated my stuff up for me and shipped it to Amsterdam. I had presumed they would deliver it to my door, but they didn't, so I had to collect the crate from an office in the Westerhavengebied, This involved my then girlfriend hiring a van and us droving out there early one Sunday morning (golden rule of moving in Amsterdam Centrum - always move early on a Sunday morning) and fetching the crate back to De Pijp. We then had to take out my front window frame and block and tackle the crate in through the front window - seriously hard work and scary for me and my neighbours. It was a total pain in the ass, and If I had my time over again I wouldn't do it.

So my advise is, don't do it. Or if you do, do it in small doses over a period of several years.

[Gerontophile]

TPC!!!!

"advice".

Good to see you.

[The_Purple_Cow]

I used the Dutch spelling as I felt that was appropriate for this context. ;-)

[anton pulisov]

I always planned to return to Amsterdam but in my field they only hire ethnic Dutchies. And the housing market is inaccessible.

Was there this week and the yuppification has really accelerated out of control. Even places like Javastraat, Van Woustraat and Kinkerstraat are filled with oyster restaurants and hipster cafés. I also wandered into Cafe Alto a couple of times but they have given up. They know they can book any old shit and the tourists will show up. So I wandered over to Badkuyp in the Albert Cuijp... but it doesn't exist anymore. It's now a yuppie tapas bar called Escobar. Esco-fucking-bar, I kid you not.

The council flat I used to flatshare in for a few years is now being rented out for €1500/month. The rent control in Amsterdam works using a system of points up to €750. Once the points says the rent is more than €750, you can charge any amount over €750. Apparently they added an extra row of tiles in the bathroom to get enough points. They never bothered fixing the holes where the mice come in. You don't get points off for that.

This is what happens when you have VVD in government for 20+ years and D66 running the city council.

Feck the place. It's not the Amsterdam I know.

[Logan Mountstuart]

Amen, Bryan. My lovely, arty, Hungarian Amsterdammer Tinder date gave me an almost identical rant the other day.

Yes folks, Amsterdam might be dying, but there is hope in my life once again. And TPC might be back?

As I deliver regularly in Amsterdam, I can heartily recommend the Sunday morning option. Although what you gain in ease of travel times is offset by pissed up, glass eyed tourists. Monday morning might be an alternative option.

The only way to deliver peacefully in Amsterdam is to be more scary than the people trying to hassle you.

[Wouter D]

Yes, people, Amsterdam is the absolute worst. I was going to a concert in de Westergasfabriek once with a bunch of friends, and we got lost along the way. A mate asked some random Amsterdammer whether this was the right direction, upon which the reply was "how about you figure it out for yourself." This attitude problem sums up everything you need to know about the place. Horrible city with horrible people. The lot should just get in the sea.

Signed,
A born Rotterdammer

[ursus arctos]

It can only be a matter of time until treibeis opens up a branch of his crazy golf empire.

[Wouter D]

I think we have fewer regulations on what a crazy golf course can be. Crazy liberal country, this.

[Sam]

I'll be going for a few nights in November with my girlfriend's brother. We're staying with a friend he made during his six months studying in Brazil, and then he's going to Berlin and I'm flying back to Bristol.

Is there going to be much football on Friday 2nd or Saturday 3rd November? Ajax are playing at home, I think, but I took a look at their ticket prices and thought, maybe I'll ask about the lower league sides instead ...

Oh and if any Amsterdam-based OTFers want to meet up, do let me know.

[ursus arctos]

If you are willing to take one of the very frequent trains to and from Rotterdam, Excelsior are home to Groningen on the Friday. I would expect tickets to be rather more reasonable.

There are also a number of second tier matches on Friday night, but none in Amsterdam.

Ticket link here.