You have made the decision to move to Mexico. Congratulations! You are now on your way to an adventure that will change your life as you know it. Moving anywhere is a very big step, and made from several different points of view, to be sure. You may be moving for a more relaxed lifestyle, to learn a new language, to save money, to move to a better climate. You may be moving because you just want to experience a different type of life.
Whatever your reasons, there are things you will need to plan before you throw that goodbye party in your hometown.
The first thing you will need to decide is whether you will sell everything at home and start fresh in Mexico, or whether you will move your worldly possessions and start a new life with your familiar things around you. The reason you have come to this site is to find out about moving your stuff, so I'll give you some hints about that!
There are rules set up by the Mexican government about moving your household things, and those rules are covered on official government websites and at Mexican consulates around the U.S. and Canada. To find a complete list of Mexican Consulates in the U.S. and Canada, consult www.mexonline.com . From there you can request a list of acceptable items to bring into Mexico.
I will tell you some things about the first-hand experience of moving with my husband to Mexico three years ago. We decided to sell the majority of our household, and those things we didn't sell, we put in storage in Colorado. I had arranged for the rental of a small house in Xalapa, Veracruz through the internet. We knew it was furnished, so we figured that we could always rent furnished homes in Mexico. For this reason, we only packed clothing, perscription medicine (with copies of the prescriptions ready) and a few items like cds and books. We packed 4 suitcases, 2 backpacks and a small bag for snacks and set off in our car, heading for Texas where we were storing our car before crossing the border into Mexico. We selected a storage facility in Austin. From the storage place, we rented a car and drove down to McAllen, Texas, and after turning our car in, took a taxi across the border into Mexico at Reynosa. Once inside the bus station, we bought our tickets for Veracruz, went to the customs office to get our tourist visas, and waited for the next five hours till our bus was ready to leave. We took a 14 hour overnight ride to Veracruz, then took another 2 hour bus ride to Xalapa where we settled into our new little home. We stayed there for 6 months, and got a bit acclimated to the country, the language and the food. Our plan was to explore different parts of Mexico, and we decided that our next stop should be a house on the beach. Through internet research and talking to friends in Xalapa, we chose Progreso, Yucatan, for our next home, as it was less of a tourist destination, near a large city (Merida) and on the ocean. When it was time to leave, we hired a van with 2 drivers who could move us and our things which we accumulated (a TV, dvd player, computer, kitchenware) the 14 hours to the Yucatan. We had to pay for the both ways of the van and the gasoline, and tolls. All in all, we spent about $800 to move to the Yucatan from Xalapa. If you have a vehicle of your own it will cost you much less, but since we had lived in Mexico for 6 months without a car, we didn't have that option. There are moving companies who will move your things, but we didn't have enough to warrant hiring a truck.
Our decision to move without furniture was one of convenience. We figured that if we enjoyed living in Mexico we could go back up to Colorado, collect things we wanted to have with us, and drive them down. We did that the following year. We packed up things that would fit in our car, and drove back down to Mexico. We were not inspected at the border. You could be, so be sure you have nothing illegal in your car! One thing is for sure...you cannot bring live plants, drugs or guns into Mexico. Don't even try it. Have a list of what you have in your car, just to be sure. If you have a lot of electronic things, try to have the receipts for them, as you may be charged a duty.
I know that many of you will want to move your households down to Mexico. I won't give you advice on hiring movers from your home town, but I will concentrate on the availability of moving your things down to Mexico through sea-freight shipping services located in Florida. We live in the Yucatan peninsula, and the port here is Progreso. There are 2 shipping services that I know of, that will rent you a container for your things, and get it to Mexico through the Gulf of Mexico within a week. &n