How we shipped our stuff to India

This post is for those, who want to move back to India or any other country from USA and still want to carry some of your essential items with you the cheapest way. We booked our freight through AMID Logistics LLC. The web site where you can calculate your freight is here: Site

The next step is to calculate the fare. If you want to book a pallet (Pallets are nothing but a combination of boxes and other items bundled together into a cubic dimension), you have to decide on the dimension. For example, height, width and Length. Typically, small pallets are calculated in terms of inches. For instance, we booked something with Length 48 inch, width 40 inch and height 40 inch with an estimated weight of 600 lb. The total volume comes to about 1.26 cubic meters and the charges are $338. You can calculate this from their web site, and decide on what dimension you need and the price.

Packing Boxes into pallet:

We are busy sorting papers

Stacking boxes in the given area

Finally UHAULing to the shipping place

The next real big thing is to buy boxes that will fit into the dimension and the boxes should also be able to carry your items both big or small. We had few items we had decided to take, no matter what. And then there were bunch of optional items (we will take it if there is space and leave it otherwise). So, what we did was, in the corner of a room, marked the length and width and drew a rectangle. Then started arranging our essential items (In our case a chair, TV and printer and telescope). Once they were sitting pretty, we decided on the sizes of the boxes. Often, you will not be able to have all the boxes of the same size fitting into the space. Either you may overhang or you may waste space. So, we got boxes of size 14X14X14 from walmart and tried packing our stuff. Then there were a number of irregular space available. For that, we could not find the desirable boxes even though we hopped several stores. So, the best way to get irregular shaped boxes are from local walmart after 10 PM in the night, when they actually unpack their goods and throw the boxes. This process is tiring, but nevertheless a very useful one. We made 2 such trips and got hold of several boxes of different dimensions. Now like fitting puzzles, we started fitting those boxes into the given space. Once, we figured out which boxes fit in, then the packing step began. It took quite sometime for us to fit in the boxes actually. Since we had optional items remaining, we only decided on which ones to take only after they fit into the boxes. Since we chose to drop the boxes at the shipping place at 1220 Texan Trail, Suite 200, Grapevine, TX 76051 , we were in charge of arranging those into pallets. So, we numbered the boxes and took visual map of boxes by taking pictures and drawing maps on plain paper. Once that part is taken care of next thing was to rent a UHAUL and carry those things to the venue. 
Once taken to the venue, someone may come to help you with palletizing. There will be a wooden plank like structure based on your requirement and all that you have to do is stack boxes on them. We followed our map and did it efficiently. We took a lot of extra things such as comforters, pillows, towels, bedsheets, cushions etc. to provide extra cushion to the packing. Once, everything is stacked, we asked the person at the venue to wrap them with plastic wraps. Once they are in place, you can take it to the counter, where they do a final weight and dimension checking and given you a receipt. We did all this on Sunday, and got an email on Monday morning about declaring the items. Now the waiting begins.....