What did you bring when you moved to the US?

[Spmaria 11]

I took only documents and some clothes with me. Everything is cheaper in US than in Europe (especially my country) so I didn't care much about clothes and electronics (I needed an adapter to use it anyway). But I used to dream about some of the things I loved almost every day, I had nightmares that my parents got rid of everything. So I asked my friends who traveled to US frequently to meet my parents and take little something each visit; in 2 years I traveled back myself and collected every little thing I cared: favorite books (especially college books which costed $10-15 in my country but in US would've cost me more than $100 each), CDs I've been collecting for years, some toys and photo albums. The day I got my stuff I had a feeling that I finally moved on and nothing was holding me back. But anyway it took me one more trip to bring everything that's left after that (I had like 100 books lol), so I traveled again with my husband. Our airline carrier let us have 2 "23kgs suitcases" each (so we had 4 for free). I also got some stuff sent to me through regular post carrier (USPS) and it was like $80-90 per large box (DHL and FedEx are too expensive).

PS: welcome to New Jersey! You'd love it in here )))))

[UnicornToes 8]

I brought the majority of my clothes, all my immigration related stuff, all other important documents and my most prized possessions (not all of them unfortunately, as I did not have room in my case). One thing I would say is that I wish paid for a second suitcase (I took a very small plane on my first flight over so could only have one checked bag) to bring more of my memories and family photographs with me, as it probably would have helped with homesickness. I still managed without them, but I'm going to have to wait until I return to the UK next time to really go through all those things and decide what I want to bring with me.

To add to previous posts, I also miss European candy.

Oh and I also miss the large selection of teabags in supermarkets. I am British, after all.

[optlh0 19]

My wife brought only one suitcase. All her important papers for sure and some clothes. She also brought a small heart shaped pillow her sister gave her. That's one thing I'm really glad she brought. It has a strong sentimental value and reminds her of home. It's on our bed all the time.

I'd recommend bringing one sentimental thing and your important papers with you. After that, anything you need you can get in the USA.

[Pinkrlion 2,719]

All your favorite foods and snacks

[LORIEandPHIL 123]

Clothing, important papers, my son, my dog, and jars of Mr Naga chili sauce.

[Georgia16 2,858]

Clothing, important papers, my son, my dog, and jars of Mr Naga chili sauce.

Hahaha that made me smile ... Good you toke him along

[AMZJ 61]

I'm flying over 3 boxes (I hope no more) at £90 each. I've already taken over 2 suitecases of paperwork and special things. Then I'll take 2 more big suitecases. The boxes are meant to be 25kg each so I have to split my books between the 3.

[cherryL 1]

Hi ! yeah that's a hard one.. good luck ! I made a post on my blog about it, if you want to take a look ! it's here : http://fromhometothere.blog.com/2016/02/03/sort-sell-give/

oh and also, I'm using Upela.com to send some of my boxes from France to usa and it's not the price of a plane ticket ! I pay around 100$ per box, sometimes less!

Edited February 8, 2016 by cherryL

[N-o-l-a 7,167]

Clothes, a few small momentos, and that is basically it.

[LORIEandPHIL 123]

Hahaha that made me smile ... Good you toke him along

Well I needed someone to walk the dog.

[Georgia16 2,858]

Well I needed someone to walk the dog.

LOL :-D I'll remember that when i bring my son and dog

[JoBri 548]

My wife brought some clothes, a very small photo album, and a folder with important papers, and that was it. Never shipped anything. All that was hers other than what I mentioned she left behind.

[TBoneTX 45,291]

1. He bought important papers like orignals of birth, our marriage and his school and college transcripts

2. Then just clothes as they are so much cheaper in his country

1. Excellent and crucial advice. Bring more than one original of each, optimally.

2. Not our experience at all, even at retail prices here! After arrival, Mrs. T-B. was amazed at the concept of resale stores (in Ecu, everyone wears/uses things till they fall apart -- and taxes are so high on everything that no one can afford anything). She soon had a closet overflowing with designer apparel, bought entirely resale. In fact, we centered several weekend trips around visiting resale stores and had a lot of fun.

Edited February 8, 2016 by TBoneTX

[saphina 7]

I was fortunate that I worked for an airline so I moved a lot of stuff on visits before moving (I know you shouldn't do that in case it doesn't go through but I took the risk knowing I'd be able to fly it back again if worse came to worst).

As others have said I also would look into possibly crossing into Germany as shipping is nowhere near as expensive as what you've states in Denmark. Maybe check into containers in Hamburg as well?

And as a former airliner just a heads up: I don't know how SAS handles it but on a lot of airlines it's cheaper to check an extra bag than to pay one bag being overweight. I know it's crazy but they're trying to eliminate the crazy backbreaking bags.

[mallafri76 1,012]

Yeah there's a lot more stuff than you think, huh?! I think the amount to bring also depends on age and how you lived in your home country and the kind of things bought for your home.

I'm bringing clothes, important papers and the nice parts of my kitchenware like Royal Copenhagen and crystal wine glasses and such. I got six large boxes weighing about 20 kilos each. Sending them with Travel Cargo and they charge about $650 for all six boxes, so you might wanna look into that. Then I'm bringing three suitcases when I move over and then my parents are coming to visit a couple of weeks later and they're bringing another two suitcases. So yeah, a lot of stuff. I was looking into bringing some furniture too but it was just too expensive to rent a whole container so I had to sell it.