if the 20 cu m container is the smaller of the two types I've seen then that's what we had.
We came from a med/smallish 3 bed out to Dubai from the UK, with 2 sofas, lg 6 seat dining table and chairs, sideboard, dresser, tv corner unit, one bed (sold the other doubles before coming out), desk and all the stuff (clothes, books, computers and kitchen stuff) you have stuffed in a 3 bed house, but no wardrobes or bedroom furniture. It all went in and there was a small amount of space left. Our packers in the UK were superb so I guess they just packed it well. We didn't have any garage/shed items. Only had a tumble dryer as we bought new white goods when we got here.
However our plan is not to take the sofas back, when we go but all the dining room furniture and beds etc will come back with us.
Yes - agree - it's hard to say. In our case we shipped our stuff from a 1 bed apartment (well 2 bedrooms, but the second room was used mainly as a drying room, so hardly had any stuff in it apart from drying racks, a big desk and chair and suitcases!) in Kuwait to Dubai in a 20 cu ft container and I remember DH saying that there was quite a lot more room left in the container when he saw it all being unloaded at this end. We didn't have that much stuff compared to some people - it all depends if your house/apartment is packed full of stuff or you are more of a minimalist. Do you have wardrobes too?. Best to get the experts round to tell you how much room you'd need, as they can quickly cast their eye over your stuff and know the size of container you'd need. We used GAC and they wouldn't give us an estimate over the phone - someone had to come around and see how much stuff we had for themselves. At the time of moving they left all our furniture in tact, apart from the bed, so not sure if they could dismantle some of your stuff to fit more in. As said before, if you are over the 20 ft, you can then decide if you are going to get rid of any stuff that you could easily buy back home, rather than pay yourself for the extra 20 ft to go up to the 40 ft container...
<em>edited by chizz on 12/01/2011</em>
It's very hard to guesstimate, can u not got someone round from the actually shipping company to have a look at your belongings and tell you ? Because if you go to the next size and end up paying it's pretty pricey ( cheaper to replace some things than ship )
Hi Ladies
I am trying to decide how big a container I will need to ship all my stuff back to London.
We have been given an allowance of 20 ft cu....does anyone have an idea how much you can actually ship in there?
I have a three bedroom place and electrical appliances and furniture
I am trying to imagine the lenght and height of the container but still I need to know approximately howmany beds sofas tables etc you can move in that?
Any help is welcome
<em>edited by Billy76 on 12/01/2011</em>