Expat Life: How to make our removals easier?

How to make our removals easier, specially in the winter?

As you already know, we moved in November 2009 from Almere Centrum to Tussen de Vaarten. Let me share our history with you, perhaps you may find it useful.

1. Rent a Van

To rent a van it's necessary to do double identity proof [dubbele legitimatie verplicht] with a Dutch driving license [rijbewijs] and a passport or identity card [paspoort of identiteitsbewijs]. Because my husband's driving license is Portuguese, not Dutch, the request and the rental procedure was done by a Dutch friend who also drove the van from Almere Centrum to Tussen de Vaarten and vice-versa. We also payed a rental day caution [borg dagverhuur] of € 300. This money was transfered back to our bank account in the end of that day.
For this removal, was not necessary to inform the police and pay for the reservation of the street, as it was with the big van that brought back our things from Portugal.

Have you a similiar service nearby? How was your experience?

2. Get a storage room

When we came from Portugal, we brought back all our stuff with us, except for the fridge, the stove and the washing machine. We gave them to relatives.
Our flat in Almere already had these appliances. We found out later they were old and didn't work as well as they should.
We didn't have problems to store our things because the flat was big. However, this house, where we live now, is smaller.
I knew we would need a storage room for a while.





We rented a 4m2 storage room from Shurgard. The price depends on the space that you need.
In the first month, we paid € 1. During the other five months, we paid € 80 each, and for the registration +/- € 75, i.e.,the cost for the 6 months storage was € 476.

During this time, I worked as fast as I could to select what should stay and what should go and for whom.
I gave to our friends most of the things:
clothes, chairs, lamps, a small TV, old luggage,...
a combimagnetron we had bought for the flat in Almere Centrum,
two complete china sets (in Portugal, the families like to offer many china sets),
curtains (this house was bought with the living room's curtains included ),
two oil radiators which I had brought from our previous house in Portugal. I was afraid the central heating here would have any kind of problems )); now, they are in Portugal again, in my mother's house.
Etc, etc...

From Coisas Minhas

The storage is very safe and modern. We had a personal code to enter in the complex and to access the level where our storage room was. The corridors also have surveillance cameras. We were very pleased with the service quality.

We can make a price request (Vraag prijsofferte aan) about a storage room (opslagruimte) via internet.

Then we see how many storage warehouses (vestigingen) are available in our area, their addresses and phone numbers.

Have you a similar experience with another company? If so, do you want to share it? Please do. :-) You are very welcome!