Shipping Excess “stuff” From London

Very easy to ship items home from London. I filled one of FedEx's triangular tube boxes with items to ship home in 2022 (shipped from a FedEx store in South Kensington neighborhood). Can't recall how much it cost, but it's never particularly cheap, but also not so pricey that its keeps me from doing it. I've sent items home from Cornwall, Scotland and the Yorkshire area too over the years using the Royal Mail and same as with FedEx in London, items arrived when expected and in good condition. I will likely be shipping items home again when I travel to Scotland this fall.

Actually quite a lot of info available via a search right here.

Have you looked into a service such as Send My Bag?

https://www.sendmybag.com/en-gb/

Here are search results for the past 2 years for "ship bags":

https://search.ricksteves.com/?button=&date_range=2y&filter=Travel+Forum&query=Ship+bags&utf8=%E2%9C%93

Royal Mail appears to come up quite often.

My partner had an excess of clothing on the way back from a recent trip so we bought a small cheap suitcase (very easy to do in or near any major train station), filled it up and checked it. Easy peasy, and I guess we had the type of fare where we weren't charged for the bag. But even if there had been a charge, you should find out what it is because it still might be cheaper than DHL, Fedex, UPS, etc. And you won't have to deal with customs.

I don’t think it’s customs that is the problem. It sounds to me that it’s just the time and hassle of waiting to retrieve a checked bag and then rechecking it for your next flight that is the issue.

You can post your own items home without any issues. When I did this a few years ago from New Zealand I had to make sure that they were all worn clothes, not new items, as otherwise I could have found myself liable for import duty. I think this could be the same in your situation.

Thank you Angella, markcw, phred and Helen, I appreciate all the info.

The issue is, check/claim/recheck of bags. My goal is to have only carryon on the flight home.

Honestly, I just went to the post office bought a box from them put stuff in it taped it up took it back to the post office and shipped it. It took a while, but it showed up and it was much cheaper than a lot of these other options.

I've also used "Send my Bag." It too four days. No problems.

call me confused, I would have thought that bundling up luggage then schlepping it to a shipper, going through all the paperwork, paying for it, then having the anxiety of will it make they trip (I did this once and lost a whole M-Bag of books), then being there when it arrives (Customs delays and costs?) would be more hassle than checking a bag on a flight and waiting for it on the luggage belt and getting on with your life.

But I have never lived as a vagabond and not retrieving it may be important. That's why I'm confused.

I did it because I was leaving New Zealand and heading for Thailand where I wouldn’t need warm clothing. I didn’t want to have to carry it all around so I just posted it home. It wasn’t complicated. I just shoved it all in a large postal bag and took it to the Post Office.

Nigel,

Mine was personal items etc so I didn't have to pay duty. I actually did it because I was going someplace warm after London and wanted to dump some clothing and a couple of cheap souvenirs. I didn't need this stuff anytime soon so... If it was lost so be it. I wasn't real "anxious"

All I had to do was wait on the mail. Not a real hassle IMHO