Practical guidance for life and work across Europe and America
Talk to usHow members handle containers, shared loads, customs clearance and last-mile delivery, with the timelines and cost notes they posted along the way.
Belongings move slower than people. These are the steps members describe most often, from the first post about a shared load to the day the last box is signed for at the door.
Say where you are leaving from, where you are going, and roughly how much you are taking. A two-bedroom flat in Rotterdam and a storage unit in Pretoria are different jobs, and members answer accordingly.
Threads compare both routes: a dedicated container that leaves on your date, or a groupage slot where you wait for the load to fill. Members note what that waiting time did to their rental handover.
Item by item, with quantities and declared values. Customs officers read this document closely, and a vague line like "kitchen items, assorted" is where delays usually start.
Photograph the contents of each box before the tape goes on, and keep the images with the inventory. Members who did this had a much easier time when a crate arrived with a crushed corner.
Cape Town and Johannesburg threads list the forms, the clearance agent and the free storage window. Once that window closes, daily charges begin, so most members book the agent before the vessel docks.
Local hauliers handle the final stretch, sometimes up a narrow driveway or into a building with a lift booking. Check the inventory against the boxes as they come in, not a week later.
Smaller shipments follow the same logic in fewer steps. Sending documents or receiving an online order usually means a courier that clears customs on your behalf, and members keep a running list of which ones actually call before they arrive. If you are still deciding what to take at all, the notes in our relocation topics cover the practical side, and how the forum works explains where to post your first thread.
The stages members describe most often, from the first quote request to the box that finally reaches the front door. Timelines below come from threads about household moves between Europe, the Americas and South Africa.
Members start by measuring what is genuinely worth shipping. A two-bedroom flat usually fits a 20-foot container, but several threads describe splitting a shared load with another family heading to the same port. Packing dates get booked early, because movers in Cape Town and Johannesburg fill up around school holidays.
This is where customs paperwork is built. Members photograph every box before sealing it, number the cartons and keep a plain inventory with contents and rough values. A missing line on that list is the most common reason a shipment sits at the port longer than planned.
Once the container is loaded, the wait begins. Threads compare freight and insurance notes in rand and euros, and warn that storage charges start ticking after a free window at the port. Members who declared a value incorrectly describe the correction process in detail, and it is rarely quick.
Clearance steps differ between Cape Town and Johannesburg, and members post the sequence they followed: documents submitted, duty assessed, release issued. Delays here usually trace back to a form that was never signed or a certificate that arrived after the container did.
Local delivery is the final stretch, and it is where damaged boxes get reported. Alongside the big moves, members cover smaller shipments: documents sent by courier, online orders that need customs handled on the recipient's behalf, and the paperwork that keeps those deliveries moving.