Shipping Your Belongings Abroad: What to Bring and What to Sell

Almost everyone underestimates this part of the move. You spend months on the visa, the job offer, the proof of funds, and the flights, and then you look around your home three weeks before departure and realise you have to decide what happens to every single object you own. The sofa, the winter coats, the espresso machine, the boxes of books, the child's cot, the toolkit you have spent a decade assembling. Ship it, sell it, store it, or bin it?

There is no universally correct answer, because the maths depends on where you are going, how much stuff you have, how attached you are to it, and what things cost at your destination. But there is a good way to think about it, and that is what this guide gives you: a clear framework for the ship-versus-sell decision, an honest look at shipping methods and what they actually cost, a plain-English explanation of customs and duties, and a room-by-room checklist so you can work through your home methodically instead of panicking the night before the container arrives.

If you are moving with children or a partner, read this alongside our moving abroad with a family checklist, which covers the wider logistics, and factor shipping into your overall budget using our true cost of migrating abroad breakdown. Shipping is one of the line items people most often forget to price in.

The one rule that decides most of it

Before any spreadsheet, hold this principle in your head: the cost of shipping something is only worth paying if it is less than the cost of replacing that thing at your destination, plus the value you place on keeping the original.

That last clause matters. Some objects are worth more to you than their replacement cost because of sentiment, because they are irreplaceable, or because sourcing the equivalent abroad would be a genuine hassle. A grandmother's dining table is not a rational purchase; ship it. A three-year-old flat-pack wardrobe that costs GBP 90 new is almost never worth the space it takes in a container; sell it or leave it.

For most people, the honest conclusion is that they should ship far less than they instinctively want to. Furniture in particular is heavy, bulky, and cheap to replace almost everywhere. What is genuinely worth shipping is usually a much shorter list: irreplaceable and sentimental items, high-quality things you would repurchase anyway, items that are expensive or hard to find at your destination, and the personal belongings that make a new place feel like home from week one.

Step one: sort everything into five piles

Do this before you get a single shipping quote, because you cannot price a shipment until you know its rough volume. Walk through your home and assign every significant item to one of five categories.

The valuable discipline here is being ruthless with the "ship" pile. Every item you add increases volume, and volume is what you pay for. A useful mental trick: imagine each object arriving at your new home in three months and ask whether you would be pleased to unbox it or mildly annoyed that you paid to move it.

Things that almost always belong in "sell" or "give away"

• Large furniture — sofas, beds, wardrobes, dining sets. Heavy, bulky, cheap to replace. Exceptions: genuine antiques, custom pieces, heirlooms.
• Major appliances — fridges, washing machines, ovens. Voltage and plug standards differ, warranties do not travel, and they dominate a container's volume.
• Mattresses — many countries restrict importing used mattresses on hygiene grounds, and they are bulky. Buy new on arrival.
• Most electronics with fixed voltage — anything that runs only on 110V will not work in a 230V country without a bulky transformer, and vice versa. (Most laptops, phones and cameras are dual-voltage; check the label.)
• Bulky low-value kitchenware — plates, pans, glasses. Cheap everywhere.

Things usually worth shipping

• Books, if you genuinely reread them — though ship by slow sea freight, never air.
• Quality tools — a good toolkit is expensive to rebuild and often travels fine.
• Sentimental and irreplaceable items — photos, art, keepsakes, children's comfort objects.
• Specialist or hard-to-source equipment — professional gear, hobby equipment, musical instruments.
• Clothing suited to the destination climate — no point shipping heavy winter coats to the Gulf; do ship them to Canada or Scandinavia.

Step two: understand your shipping options

There are four broad ways to move belongings across borders. Most moves use a combination.

1. Checked and excess luggage

The cheapest option for a small volume. A generous checked-baggage allowance plus a paid extra bag can move a surprising amount, and it arrives when you do. Airlines vary enormously, so check your allowance and the excess-bag fees before you fly — excess and oversized fees on the day are punishing.

Best for: single movers, minimalists, anyone whose "ship" pile fits in three or four suitcases.

2. Air freight

Fast (typically days) but priced by weight and dimensional weight, which makes it expensive for anything bulky. Sensible for a small volume of things you need quickly, or valuables you would rather not entrust to a two-month sea voyage.

Best for: a few boxes of essentials, urgent items, high-value low-weight goods.

3. Sea freight — shared container (groupage / LCL)

The workhorse of international moving for most households. Your belongings share a container with other people's ("less than container load"), and you pay for the volume you use, usually quoted in cubic metres. Slower — often several weeks to a couple of months door to door depending on the route — but far cheaper per cubic metre than air.

Best for: a room or two of belongings; the typical individual or couple.

4. Sea freight — full container (FCL)

You book an entire 20ft or 40ft container. Only economical if you are shipping the contents of a whole home. A 20ft container holds roughly the contents of a small two-bedroom home; a 40ft holds a larger family home.

Best for: families relocating an entire household, especially with furniture worth keeping.

Step three: get realistic about cost

Be wary of any single headline figure, because international shipping cost depends on origin, destination, volume, the season, fuel surcharges, and whether the route is common or obscure. What follows is how to think about the numbers rather than a fixed price list.

The main cost drivers are:

• Volume, not just weight. Sea freight is priced largely by cubic metres. Halving your volume roughly halves the freight cost, which is why ruthless sorting pays off directly.
• Route. Busy corridors (for example, UK to Australia, India to the Gulf, Nigeria to the UK) have more competition and more sailings, which tends to help. Obscure routes cost more.
• Door-to-door vs port-to-port. A door-to-door quote includes collection, export packing, customs clearance and final delivery. A cheaper port-to-port quote leaves you to arrange clearance and haulage at the far end, which is rarely worth the saving unless you know the local system.
• Services bundled in. Professional packing, insurance, unpacking, and debris removal all add up. You can pack yourself to save money, but self-packed boxes sometimes face more customs scrutiny and may not be covered by insurance for internal damage.

Always get at least three itemised quotes, and make sure each one states the same scope: the same volume, the same door-to-door coverage, and whether destination charges, customs duties and taxes are included or excluded. "Destination charges not included" is where a suspiciously cheap quote turns expensive. Ask specifically: does this figure include destination port fees, customs clearance, and delivery to my door? Get the answer in writing.

Two further cost realities people miss:

• Insurance is worth it and is priced as a percentage of declared value. For a container crossing an ocean, self-insuring is a gamble. Declare honestly and keep an inventory with photos.
• Storage. If your belongings arrive before you have somewhere to put them, you pay demurrage and storage. Line up your destination housing, or budget for a few weeks of storage, before the container sails.

Step four: customs and duties, without the panic

This is the part that intimidates people most, and it is more manageable than it sounds. The core concept in most countries is the transfer of residence (sometimes called "removal goods" or "personal effects") relief: if you are genuinely relocating and importing your own used household goods, most destinations allow them in free of duty and import tax, provided you meet the conditions.

Those conditions vary by country but commonly include some combination of:

• You are moving your normal residence to the country (with the right visa or residence status).
• The goods are used and were owned and used by you for a minimum period before the move (often six months or a year).
• You import them within a set window of your arrival (frequently within a number of months).
• You keep the goods for a period after import and do not sell them immediately.
• You submit an inventory and the relevant customs declaration.

This is why brand-new, still-boxed items can be a problem: they may be treated as commercial imports and taxed. If you have just bought something expensive, keep the receipt and be prepared to declare it — or reconsider whether it belongs in the shipment at all.

Things customs cares about

• A detailed inventory — customs authorities want a numbered, itemised list, often valued. Your shipper will help produce it. Vague lists ("box of stuff") invite inspection.
• Prohibited and restricted items — every country has a list. Common issues include certain foods, plants, seeds, wooden items (biosecurity), weapons and replicas, some medications, and alcohol above personal allowances. Australia and New Zealand are especially strict on biosecurity; declare anything organic.
• New items and high-value goods — declare them and expect possible duty.
• Vehicles — importing a car is a category of its own, frequently more expensive and bureaucratic than the car is worth. In most cases, sell the car and buy locally.
• Alcohol, tobacco and medicines — subject to specific allowances and rules; check before including any.

Do not try to game the system by undervaluing your goods or hiding restricted items. Penalties, seizure and delays cost far more than honesty. When in doubt, check your destination country's official customs website, and let your shipping company — who clear these consignments constantly — advise on the paperwork. Country-specific arrival mechanics like this are covered in our destination arrival guides, for example the Australia arrival guide and the Canada arrival guide.

A room-by-room what-to-bring framework

Sorting a whole home is overwhelming as one task and manageable room by room. Work through it with the five-pile system and these prompts.

Living room

Furniture: mostly sell, unless custom or heirloom. TVs: check that the broadcast and streaming standards and voltage suit your destination — often easier to sell and rebuy. Decorations, art, photos: ship the meaningful ones; they make a new home feel like yours immediately.

Bedrooms

Beds and wardrobes: sell unless high quality. Mattresses: sell — used-mattress import is often restricted anyway. Bedding and linens: ship the good sets; they are light, pack into gaps, and are pleasant to have from night one.

Kitchen

Appliances: sell the large ones (voltage, plugs, warranty). Small appliances: sell anything voltage-locked; keep dual-voltage items you love. Pots, pans, plates: mostly give away — cheap everywhere and heavy to ship. Good knives and any single treasured item: ship.

Bathroom and cleaning

Almost entirely bin, use up, or give away. Toiletries and cleaning products are cheap, heavy, and sometimes restricted (aerosols and flammables are often prohibited in freight). Do not ship half-used bottles across an ocean.

Wardrobe and clothing

Filter by destination climate. Ship clothes that suit where you are going and that you actually wear. Give away anything you have not worn in a year. Shoes and coats are bulky, so keep only what earns its space. Moving somewhere hot? Read our note on packing for a different climate in the relevant arrival guide before you ship winter gear you will never wear.

Study, office and hobbies

Books: ship by sea only the ones you reread; digitise or donate the rest. Documents: take in your carry-on — never freight originals of passports, certificates, or anything you need for immigration. (Our guide to documents needed to migrate abroad covers what to keep with you.) Tools, instruments, specialist gear: usually ship, as rebuilding a collection is expensive.

Children's rooms

Comfort objects and favourite toys: ship or carry — the continuity matters more than the cost, especially for younger children adjusting to a move. Cots, prams, car seats: check destination safety standards, because some are country-specific and a non-compliant car seat is useless; often sell and rebuy. Bulky toys with low sentimental value: give away.

The carry-on layer: what never goes in a container

Whatever else you ship, keep a personal "survival layer" with you in the cabin or hold luggage, because a container can take weeks and things occasionally go wrong. This layer includes:

• All immigration and identity documents — passports, visas, birth and marriage certificates, qualification certificates, medical and vaccination records. Keep originals on you and scanned copies in the cloud.
• Medication for at least a few weeks, in original packaging with prescriptions.
• A fortnight of essentials — enough clothing, chargers, adapters, toiletries and basics to live normally until your shipment lands.
• Valuables and irreplaceables — jewellery, small heirlooms, anything you could not bear to lose.
• Financial access — cards, some local currency, and details for the accounts you will need on arrival.

Timeline: when to do what

Selling takes longer than people expect, so start early. A rushed fire-sale in the final week returns a fraction of what a calm four-week listing period would.

A quick word on the money you get back

Selling well can meaningfully offset your moving costs, and the proceeds are worth folding into your relocation budget. Give yourself enough runway to sell for fair value rather than dumping everything at the last minute. Bundle small items, be honest in listings, and price to move — a slightly lower price that sells this week beats an optimistic price that never sells. Whatever you raise is money that goes towards your first months abroad, which, as our cost guides show, is exactly when relocation budgets are tightest.

Frequently asked questions

Is it cheaper to ship my furniture or buy new abroad?

For most furniture, buying new abroad is cheaper once you account for shipping volume, insurance, and the risk of damage. Furniture is heavy and bulky, and flat-pack basics are inexpensive almost everywhere. Ship furniture only when it is an heirloom, custom-made, a genuine antique, or high-quality pieces you would otherwise repurchase at similar cost.

Will I have to pay import duty on my used belongings?

Usually not, if you are genuinely relocating and importing your own used household goods under your destination's "transfer of residence" or "personal effects" relief. You typically need the right residence status, goods you have owned and used for a set period, import within a time window after arrival, and a proper inventory. Brand-new items and high-value goods may still attract duty, so declare them and keep receipts.

How long does sea freight take?

It varies widely by route, but door-to-door shared-container (LCL) shipments commonly take several weeks to a couple of months, including collection, the sailing, customs clearance, and final delivery. Ask your shipper for a realistic estimate for your specific route, and never rely on your shipment arriving before you have somewhere to live.

Should I pay for professional packing?

It depends on volume and value. Professional packing reduces damage, speeds the process, and is often required for full insurance cover, but it costs more. Self-packing saves money but may attract more customs scrutiny and can limit insurance claims for internal damage. For a small, mostly robust load, self-packing is fine; for a full household with fragile or valuable items, professional packing usually pays for itself.

What should I never put in a shipping container?

Never freight your immigration and identity documents, medication you need, valuables and irreplaceables, or the essentials you need for your first fortnight. Also keep out anything restricted or prohibited by freight rules or customs — aerosols, flammables, certain foods, plants, and wooden or organic items in biosecurity-strict countries. Keep all of that with you in your luggage.

Is shipping a car worth it?

Rarely. Importing a vehicle is often more expensive and bureaucratic than the car is worth, with duties, compliance modifications, and registration hurdles that vary by country. In most cases you are better off selling the car before you leave and buying locally once you have settled.

The bottom line

Shipping your life abroad comes down to one honest question asked of every object: is it worth more to me as cargo than as cash? Answer it ruthlessly, ship less than your instincts tell you to, keep your documents and essentials with you, and treat customs paperwork as routine rather than terrifying. Get three itemised, like-for-like quotes, price the whole thing into your relocation budget early, and give yourself weeks — not days — to sell what you are leaving behind.

Ready to plan the wider move? Work through the moving abroad with a family checklist, pin down the numbers with the true cost of migrating abroad, and if you are still weighing destinations, take our free migration assessment or compare countries side by side.