Storage during an international move, for when the dates do not line up.
Your things are collected, catalogued and held between your old address and your new one, as a stage of the same move.
Storage in a move is a date problem, not a space problem.
Almost nobody plans to put a household into storage. It happens because two dates refuse to meet. The lease ends before the container sails, or the visa comes before the new home is ready.
That is a different problem from renting a unit. You need the gap handled without your things being unpacked, re-counted or re-quoted.
The pause takes one of three shapes:
- before the shipment leaves, when your lease ends first
- after it arrives, when the new home isn’t ready
- both, when neither date lines up
Storage here runs on the same file and the same inventory. It does not restart the move.
Scope
What storage in a move takes in, and what it leaves out.
The line between the two is settled at the survey and written into the quote.
Part of a stored move
- The survey, and the written inventory the whole move is measured against
- Export-grade packing, done once for the whole journey
- Collection from your address and transport into store
- A check into store against that inventory, item by item
- Transport out of store, on to the freight leg or your new address
- One file across the pause, not a second booking
- All-risk marine cover at declared replacement value, included as standard
Not part of it
- Access to your things while they are in store
- Storage you arrange yourself at the destination after the move is signed off
- Duties, taxes and charges a destination authority levies
- Re-packing or re-crating asked for after the survey
- Anything you sell, give away or dispose of instead of storing it
How it works
What happens to your things while they wait.
Five stages, and the inventory runs through all of them.
The survey and the inventory
Someone walks the home with you and lists what is going. If storage is likely, say so then. Volume sets the cost of the pause too.
Packed once, for the whole journey
Things going into store are packed to export standard. Packing once stops the shipment being opened, re-counted and re-quoted when it moves again.
Collection into store
The shipment leaves your address and is checked into store against the survey inventory. The same list is used when it comes out.
The wait and the onward date
The shipment stays as it was packed. What you decide now is when it moves again. Confirm that date early, because the freight behind it has to be booked.
Out of store and onward
The shipment rejoins the move where it paused, at the freight leg or the final delivery. It is checked out and delivered against the same inventory. Raise anything then.
What it costs
What decides the price of storing a move.
There is no price list. These things set the number.
- 01
Volume, measured at the survey
What is going decides how much space it takes. It is the largest driver. - 02
How long the pause is
Duration matters less than people expect. Handling at each end is the same work either way. - 03
Which end it happens at
Storing before departure and storing after arrival are different jobs. They sit on opposite sides of customs. - 04
Access at both ends
A top-floor flat with no lift is a harder job than a house with a driveway. A stored move meets it twice. - 05
Packing and crating
Export-grade materials are not moving-day boxes. A piano, for one, needs its own crate. - 06
How firm the onward date is
A confirmed date lets the freight behind it be booked. An unknown end date is the hardest thing to price.
Reviews
What IMove customers say about their moves.
We shifted from Bangalore to Auckland and our complete move was handled by Venissa from IMove Global Mobility LLP.There was a vessel delay due to port congestion in Hong Kong, but the team communicated well and managed everything smoothly. Still very happy with the service. Highly recommend their service for international relocation. Thank you Vanessia and I Move
Kumail Abbas Jung Mir · Household move · Bangalore → Auckland
Special mention of appreciation to Venissa for handling our shipment door to door from Bangalore to Chicago. Her crew had packed all the items very well and marked each item for identifying as it was a shared container. All the items were intact and without damage or scratch especially the Marble dinning tables, chairs, Diwan and the console. Venissa was tracking the shipment from port to port an updating us every step of the way. Her counterpart team in New Jersey also did a very good job of unloading, opening crates and assembling the furniture. Also they removed all the debris from our site. Overall we were very impressed with the service the Venissa - IMove had provided and will definitely recommend them to our friends and also to people who wish transport items from India. Well done IMove. Once again special thanks to Venissa.
Harish Manjunath · Household move · Bangalore → Chicago
I recently moved from Australia to India and IMOVE handled Indian customs and the experience was seamless. They delivered my shipment within the promised timeframe, and the process was straightforward from start to finish. Riju kept us informed every step of the way, providing regular updates, assisting with the paperwork, and ensuring everything went smoothly. Their professionalism and excellent communication made the move incredibly easy and stress-free. I highly recommend their services to anyone looking for reliable relocation services.
Anushree Chacko · Household move · Australia → India
Common questions
Storage during a move, answered.
How long can my things stay in storage, and can I extend it?
Your things stay in storage until the onward date you agree for your move, and extending the pause means moving that date, which is worth doing as early as you can because the freight booking behind it has to move with it and a longer pause changes the quote.
If the new date is still uncertain, say so. An open end date is the hardest part to plan.
Can I get something out of storage while it is in there?
Plan on the answer being no, because a shipment in the middle of an international move is packed to export standard and catalogued as one consignment rather than laid out for browsing, so retrieving a single item means opening something that was sealed for the journey.
The practical fix is to decide at the survey what travels with you.
What should I ask about the building my things are kept in?
Ask about the store your own shipment will use before you agree, including its access hours, its security and whether it is climate-controlled, and ask for the answers in writing on your quote, because those details belong to one building on one route and not to a general description of storage.
What insurance does a stored shipment carry?
Insurance is all-risk marine cover at declared replacement value, included as standard, set against the values you give each item on the survey inventory, and whether that cover runs for the whole time your shipment sits in store is a term to have confirmed in writing on your own quote before anything goes in.
Read the values on the inventory carefully before you agree them.
Does storing my things restart the move?
No, because storage is arranged as a stage of the move rather than as a separate job, so the shipment stays on one file and is priced against one inventory, and what comes out of store is what went in and rejoins the route at the stage it left.
Can part of my move be stored in one country and part in another?
Whether a split like that can be arranged depends on whether storage is available at both ends of your particular route, so raise it at the survey, because if it can be done it has to be planned as two parts of one move and written into the quote before anything is packed.
Tell us where the dates do not meet.
Send us your route, your rough dates and where the gap is. We will come back within 2 hours.