Pack n Send Blog

 Shipping a small amount of furniture?

This sounds like a simple question, but if you live in a small town, or a foreign country the shipping of the furniture to your city may prove to be a bit of a challenge. 

For example, say you are shopping in Houston,Texas and happen to live in Kuwait City Kuwait. You may have found a crystal chandelier that you need shipped, along with the couches, dining room furniture and bedroom furniture. Oh yes, and you also purchased artwork and sculptures that you need shipped. 

Or say you have purchased two couches in New Orleans, Louisiana and would like your furniture delivered to Anchorage Alaska.  

In the shipping industry these are not uncommon occurrences. 

Let’s start with the shipment from Houston Texas.  You could always look at shipping via air.  A very expensive option. Some customers want their furniture shipments within a week.  While not highly recommended this option is possible. A more likely scenario is to ship this purchase inside a container and ship it via ocean. Easy? Only when you use a company experienced in shipping house hold goods. 

Let’s look at the items that were purchased. First, a crystal chandelier. The crystals on this chandelier will need to be wrapped in bubble. The chandelier will need to be hung inside a custom built crate, so that no part of the chandelier touches any part of the crate. The wrapped chandelier will need to be surrounded by packing peanuts so that the chandelier does not move during the shipping process. 

The couches and bedroom furniture will need to be wrapped in cardboard so that the furniture does not rub against other furniture during the shipping process. If a nightstand has glass, the glass will need to be removed and separately boxed or crated for the ocean shipping process.  Any glass doors on dressers will need to be wrapped while still attached to the dresser. 

The dining room chairs will need to be wrapped for shipping. If there is a glass display case, it will need to be crated or custom boxed before it is loaded into the container.

 The sculptures that were purchased will have to be boxed or crated depending on the material the sculpture is made from as well as the value of the sculpture. 

Receipts for the purchases will need to be accumulated and Commercial Invoices will need to be filled in. 

Before loading the container, the shipment will need to be staged inside a warehouse. Shipping companies allow two hours of free load time.  If you have practiced ahead of time the placement of the furniture, then it is easy and fast for four to  six men to load and seal the container.  You do not want to load and unload the container once it is on your property as this is both time consuming and costly. 

Let’s look at the domestic furniture purchase. New Orleans to Anchorage Alaska. Air is always an option, but a very costly option. You can look at hiring a moving truck to take the furniture to Alaska, but think about gas and personnel charges.

 In this case you might want to look at freighting your furniture. That is right. You have an option to put your furniture on a truck and have it sent to your door step.  The furniture will be loaded and strapped onto a pallet. You will have it delivered either to a receiving company, or you can have it delivered directly to your house with curbside delivery. In this case, you may unload the furniture yourself, and move it inside your house on your own. 

You can request to have the furniture unloaded and brought inside your home. This is a more costly alternative, but used quite often.

 For information about shipping small loads of furniture, both domestically and internationally, feel free to contact pack n send at 713 266 1450.