The same question seems to come up often when thinking about relocating to Hawaii: What do I ship there? The question is complex and again simple.
On Oahu, for example, there is not much you can’t source locally. This applies to home goods, furniture, and the basic pots and pans. We have most of the same big box retailers that are found everywhere.
Shipping items to Hawaii is expensive. Everything is coming a great distance and often this comes with a high cost. Unless there are things you simply can’t live without, it’s really not worth the cost to send the basics – basic household goods you can rebuy when you arrive. There is not much value in shipping sheets, towels, plates, bowls, and rugs when you can rebuy them all new at a lower cost than shipping at times.
Same conversation about furniture. Sending a full blown container of goods is extremely expensive, running, at times, up to $20,000. You need to ask yourself, is that bedroom set you purchased 5 years ago really worth the cost to ship or can you find a like kind cheaper? The answer more often than not is yes, you can rebuy, replace, and upgrade for less than the cost of shipping.
This also leads right into the perfect time to declutter and purge of the old. Houses in Hawaii tend to be smaller than on the mainland and have less storage space. Who doesn’t enjoy redecorating in a beach theme anyway?
Want to Know More?
If you need any help with what to ship and what not to ship, feel free to contact me.
David Armstrong
January 6, 2017
Thanks for the the information.
Can you please address the shipping of a car from the west coast (Los Angeles)?
Thanks!
David Lundstrom
January 6, 2017
Aloha David
Thanks for the response. A car is one of those items that if it has value is definitely worth shipping. These come via boat and you need a little lead time. I personally shipped two cars and the process was fairly simple. The two main companies that come to mind and they both are out of California is Matson and Pasha. You can get a wide range of prices but in short they will let you know the sailing dates and you can select when to drop off. My cars both came with no issues, a little dirty but no damage. I used Matson when I booked. Let me know if you need anything further, happy to help.