Hawaii 5Shipping a vehicle overseas is one thing, but transporting all your worldly possessions to Alaska or Hawaii is a whole other story entirely – one that some companies won’t even attempt due to the logistical difficulties that come along with overseas household goods moving.

In this helpful Frequently Asked Questions article we’ll tackle some of the more commonly asked questions about overseas household goods shipping and how household movers handle shipping customers’ goods overseas to their home in Alaska or Hawaii. International moving is a whole different cup of tea; this article focuses just on household goods moving to the two non-contiguous U.S. states.

Moving to Hawaii is expensive
Just like shipping a vehicle overseas, shipping all your worldly expenses across the ocean can be a pain in the wallet. A good way to avoid those moving costs is to get rid of as much stuff as humanly possible before moving; taking only what you need down there, and getting stuff in Hawaii once you move, can be a great way to save some cash.

Living in Hawaii is expensive
Of course, once you get to Hawaii, you’re going to need a lot more than just the clothes on your back, your guitar, and the suitcase and backpack you brought with you. This means buying things – furniture, vacuum cleaner, toilet bowl scrubber, you name it. Except all that stuff is going to be more expensive on the island than on the mainland because it all has to be imported. Take what you need, but maybe do some research in what things are going to run you more than if you were to ship them.

Overseas household shipping takes a long time
Overseas household moving takes time, usually a lot more than its auto transport counterpart despite everything going basically the same way. When transporting overseas, give yourself at least a month of transit time from pickup to delivery, and make sure that you have transportation services both to and from the ports.

You’ll need to arrange transport to and from the ports
This is a big distinction, so pay attention. Auto transportation works much the same way as household moving, so when you’re shipping your household goods overseas you’re going to need a company that can handle the shipment to the port on the mainland, plus the port shipper to handle your household goods shipping overseas, and also a shipping company in either Alaska or Hawaii to handle your shipment to your new home. This gets expensive fast.

Shipping to Alaska in the winter is a pain
It really is – not only do movers have to contend with winter weather on the mainland, but the overseas transport ship has to deal with generally choppy, wintry waters, and the moving company in Alaska has to handle the snow that comes every winter. Of course, these companies operate year-round and know how to handle the snow and ice and other winter conditions that’ll get thrown at them, but don’t expect it to be any cheaper than summer shipping, because it likely won’t be. You try driving a huge truck full of someone else’s stuff through the snow and ice of Alaska.

These are just a few moving tips when you’re heading overseas; there are going to be a lot of things that you may not anticipate, so it’s best to gather free quotes from reputable and reliable household moving companies, then comparing their prices and services before choosing one in particular.

We make this easy by giving you access to our household moving quote request form right on our household moving articles page – not to mention every article linked to from that particular page. Our household moving form is easy, free, and will get you a free quote for shipping household items right away. If you have questions, give us a call at 800-930-7417 to speak to one of our live agents. They can answer questions, give a quote, and more.

Dave Armstrong
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