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A container does not care about your floor plan. What it cares about is whether an item is fragile, oversized, valuable, restricted or simply prohibited, because those five classes are handled, documented and priced in completely different ways. Working through the house that way is faster and it catches the problems earlier.
Chipping Campden makes the point well. Its High Street of honey coloured stone runs past the Market Hall of 1627, the Cotswold Way starts here, and the town has been a centre of craft since the Guild of Handicraft moved from London in 1902. The houses hold a lot of made things, and made things are exactly what needs sorting by class.
Movers and packers reach for a blanket by default and a crate only when asked. Glass, marble, stone and anything irreplaceable want the crate.
It is priced per item, not per cubic metre, so identify the pieces at the survey. A crate agreed on packing day is a crate that does not exist.
Export wrapping is a different specification from domestic packing. Goods on a sea route are handled at both ports, spend weeks in motion and pass through temperature and humidity changes a domestic move never sees. Blankets and tape are not enough.
The practical dividing line is whether an item would survive being turned on its side in a moving box for eight weeks. Mirrors and framed pictures go in purpose made picture cartons. Ceramics are individually wrapped rather than nested. Lampshades travel badly at any price and are often better replaced.
Most insurance policies require professional packing for breakables. Packing fragiles yourself to save money is the one saving that reliably costs more than it returns.
Handmade and studio pieces are frequently irreplaceable instead of merely valuable, which changes the calculation. Crating instead of boxing is the right answer for those, and it needs listing individually at the survey.
Wardrobes, pianos, large tables, garden statuary and anything that entered the house before a later alteration. In a town of period buildings this class is bigger than average, and every item in it is a separate decision about dismantling, a hoist or a window removal.
Oversized items also affect the container choice. A single very large piece can push a load out of shared groupage and into a sole use container on its own, which is worth knowing before you decide to take it.
Transit cover is written against a declared value. Ordinary contents are covered as a total, but high value items are usually required to be listed individually above a threshold the insurer sets.
Get a written valuation before packing and not a figure written on a form the week before collection. For pieces with provenance, photograph them in place as well. Both are far stronger evidence than a recollection after a loss.
Restricted is not the same as prohibited. These items move legally once they are declared and documented, and cause serious delay when they are not.
Common in older Cotswold furniture and in inherited pieces. Some need documentation to leave the country and some are refused entry at the far end regardless. Identify them at the survey, not at the border.
Excise goods almost everywhere, not personal effects. Separate paperwork, often duty, and an undeclared case is the fastest way to have the entire container opened and inspected.
Wicker, cane, untreated wood, feather filled bedding and garden tools with soil on them all attract inspection in Australia and New Zealand. Clean thoroughly and declare instead of gambling on the container not being opened.
Paint, thinners, petrol, gas cylinders, aerosols, weedkiller, fireworks and anything else classed as dangerous goods. This is not a matter of declaring them. They are excluded from household shipments outright and the crew will not load them.
Food is the one people argue about. Sealed dry goods are sometimes permitted and often are not, and the rule belongs to the destination instead of to the mover. The simplest answer is to ship none of it.
Dispose of this class yourself in the weeks before packing. Leaving it in the garage for the crew to deal with is the most common cause of a delayed start on the morning.
Solid furniture is the easy class. Blanket wrapped, strapped and loaded low, it travels well over any distance and rarely needs more than good handling.
Glazed, veneered and marble topped pieces are the difficult class. They want purpose built crates, and the crate is priced per item rather than folded into volume.
Anything containing ivory, tortoiseshell or restricted timber is its own class again. Identify those at the survey, because they are refused at the border, not at the door.
Ones that build crates and not wrap. A search for international removal companies near me will return plenty of capable firms, but crating is a specialism and not all of them offer it. Ask directly, because an international removal company without a crating bench will improvise.
Sometimes, and never assume it. Frontages are narrow, the street is busy and there is no loading bay outside most properties. Expect either a bay suspended through the district council or a smaller vehicle running to a larger one parked outside the centre.
Yes, along with Blockley, Aston Subedge, Weston Subedge and the villages along the escarpment. Broad Campden in particular is collected as a Chipping Campden job, and anything else in GL55 and the neighbouring parishes is too.
The valuable and the fragile, yes. It takes an afternoon and it is the single most useful thing you can do for a claim. Photograph condition, not just appearance, and include any existing damage so it is not disputed later. Overseas removals from this town follow the same rules whichever destination you pick. International movers and packers handle the fragiles while you take the cartons. Ask overseas movers to put the arrangement in writing before you accept it.
Cotswold district population from the 2021 Census issued by the county council with Office for National Statistics backing. Market Hall date and the arrival of the Guild of Handicraft from published local history. Restricted and prohibited item classes follow standard international moving industry practice and destination customs rules. Accurate as at September 2026 and reviewed annually. Restricted species and dangerous goods rules change, your matched company confirms what applies now, before anything is signed. Read our Google reviews.
Destination country, rough volume and your five lists. One accredited international moving company prices crating, documentation and freight in a single figure.
Send your move detailsInternational Removals Companies matches your enquiry to one accredited moving company from the AGM Group network with a crating capability and experience of restricted items. Free to use, and we build nothing ourselves.
Nearby town pages: Moreton-in-Marsh, Stow-on-the-Wold, Winchcombe, Bourton-on-the-Water.