So, the last few weeks, we've been busy packing and negotiating with overseas shipping companies to pack and move our household goods to our new rental home in Israel.
As many of you know, moving is one of the most strenuous situations that married couples can face. Needless to say, these past weeks have not been smooth sailing, despite all our preparations. When you choose to make Aliyah, please, please, remember your obligations to your spouse and uphold them. Treat your spouse with kindness and respect, especially during this time frame! AND most importantly, respect the sanctity of Shabbat. You will NEED the peace and shelter of the Shabbat to re-calibrate your life during the move.
We called and received 3 bids from moving companies. Two were Israeli companies that advertise at NBN seminars, and one was a USA based company. The surveyors for local California relocation companies were sent out to our home for "free" and they wanted to see everything that was going to be shipped. The estimates are done by volume and weight, so that the shipping compnies know whether to provide a "partial" shipping container that is consolidated with other partial containers to fill up those large metal containers you see at ports and on trucks. Or a 20ft. "small" container that holds about a 2 bedroom house worth of stuff, or the big 40ft. containers that ship a 4-5 bedroom house.
Our large, one bedroom apartment turned out to fill up approx. 70% of a 20ft. container. Two of the 3 bids were identically priced, while the 3rd was over a $1000 USD more, so you know that company lost out. We ended up going with Sonigo because we liked that they have a company office in Haifa, which is the port our goods will arrive in since we are moving to the Golan. We also liked the fact that Sonigo does not demand all the money "up front" and the last payment is not due until after the ship has actually sailed!
You should know that the price bid DOES NOT INCLUDE shipping insurance, and that is about 2% of the declared value of your goods, which you itemize for the company. There is A LOT of paperwork, so be prepared to deal with it. It would be good to have a clear understanding with your spouse on just how much paper work is involved, including all the fax/scan requests, so that the spouse that ends up dealing with more of the packing does not feel as if they got the short end of the stick!
We are planning/building a new house in the Golan, so we decided to use some of the "extra space" in our shipping container for some items that we want at the new home. This will pose a space dilemma for us when we move into our rental house, because it is smaller then our planned home. Nevertheless, because shipping is outrageously expensive, we are filling the container up. Note, that I would not recommend that you run around at the last minute, like us, trying to buy stuff you want in Israel, but unfortunately we had to put this extra burden on ourselves. Also, keep in mind that Israel taxes some items, even on Olim shipments, such as BBQs, patio furniture, building materials, and liquor. So check with your shipper and before you buy. The taxes on these items is horrendous, as we found out! More on that later.
The moving company in the USA will insist on packing ALL breakable goods, so don't bother packing your china, artwork, T.V.s, computers, and the like. . We decided to get a bunch of clear plastic storage containers at WalMart and pack our books and clothes inside clear trashbags that went inside the clear storage containers. The shippers then wrapped these containers for shipping.
If you choose to pack some of your goods, be sure to do it with CLEAR plastic boxes, so the shippers and customs officers can "inspect" the contents, without having to rifle through your items. One company had an "odd" policy of not allowing anything to be packed by the customer. Needless to say, we did not go with that company.
So the process is: the local moving company will come one day and prepare/pack all your household goods for transport. The next day they will arrive with a truck and actually move your items to their warehouse for storage until the shipping container becomes available for them to pack. It is possible for you to have goods shipped directly to the moving company's warehouse, if you buy large items, like furniture, before you leave. We did that with a couch and chair. Hopefully, it worked out. We will see in 8-13 weeks when we get our goods in Israel. Seriously, we had no time to check that the shipment arrived from the furniture store to the shipping warehouse, in good condition. We are hoping it did.
As things turned out, the week before our move date, my wife got called for a 4 day work trip! So, all the work we had done the previous week turned out to be very important. If you can arrange it, it would be best to have a few weeks off before your move, so you can devote much of your time to the process of getting rid of things and saying your goodbyes to friends and family in the states.
I'll post again about the moving process, when we are making our way to Israel, next week, G_d willing.
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