International Furniture Shipping

Shipping furniture overseas is rarely about a single chair. It is the dining table the family gathered around for twenty years, the handmade dresser that will not be replaced at any price, or the full living room you are not willing to leave behind. As an international furniture shipping company that has moved personal belongings from the US to Ireland, the UK, and Europe since 2004, City Post Express handles those pieces the way they deserve to be handled — and gives you one clear, flat-rate price before anything leaves your door.

We ship the full range of household furniture: sofas and armchairs, beds and headboards, wardrobes and dressers, dining tables and chairs, bookcases, desks, cabinets, mirrors, and the antiques and one-off pieces that matter most. Whether you are sending a few standout items or an entire home's worth of furniture, we build the shipment around what you are actually moving rather than forcing you into a fixed crate size.

How We Protect Your Furniture in Transit

Furniture fails in transit for predictable reasons — pressure points, moisture, and movement inside the container. We protect against all three. Items are blanket-wrapped and edge-protected, drawers and doors are secured, and fragile or high-value pieces such as glass tabletops, marble, antiques, and mirrors are custom-crated in timber for the ocean journey. Where it reduces both risk and cost, larger items are professionally disassembled, with hardware bagged, labelled, and kept with the piece so reassembly at the other end is straightforward.

Sea Freight vs Air Freight for Furniture

For furniture, ocean freight is almost always the right answer. Furniture is bulky rather than heavy, so sea shipping gives you the most space for your money. Smaller furniture shipments travel by shared container (LCL), where you pay only for the space your items occupy and share the container with other consignments — the most cost-effective way to ship a few pieces or a part-home of furniture overseas. Larger moves go in a dedicated container (FCL) for a full house of furniture. Air freight is available when speed is essential, but for furniture it is typically several times the cost of sea, so we will only recommend it when it genuinely fits your situation. For a full breakdown of what each option costs and when shipping makes financial sense, see our guide on how to ship furniture overseas.

Door-to-Door, Customs Included

This is a complete door-to-door service. We collect from your US address, handle export and ocean transport, manage customs clearance at the destination, and deliver to your new home — you are not left coordinating a chain of separate companies. Customs is handled in-house by our own team, including the Transfer of Residence paperwork that allows many people relocating overseas to import their used household furniture free of duty where they qualify. We prepare the itemised inventory, file the documentation, and tell you up front what duty or VAT, if any, is likely to apply before you commit to anything.

What's Worth Shipping Overseas

Not every piece of furniture earns its place on a container, and we will tell you so. Mass-market flat-pack furniture is often cheaper to replace at your destination than to ship. But solid-wood, antique, custom-made, and sentimental pieces are usually well worth sending, especially when you are moving to a country where comparable furniture costs significantly more than in the US. Many people ship a considered selection — the heirloom pieces, the items that would be expensive or impossible to replace, and a few rooms' worth of furniture they are not prepared to part with — rather than the entire house. Tell us what you are considering and we will give you an honest view on what makes sense to ship and what may not.

Furniture Shipping to Ireland, the UK, and Europe

These are our core routes. We move furniture from the US to Ireland and the UK every week, and across Europe to destinations including Germany, France, Spain, Italy, and the Netherlands. Each destination has its own customs procedures and duty rules, and because we clear shipments on these lanes constantly, we know how to prepare the paperwork so your furniture moves through customs cleanly rather than sitting in a bonded warehouse running up charges. Wherever in Ireland, the UK, or Europe you are heading, the service is the same: collected from your door in the US, crated and shipped, cleared on arrival, and delivered to your new home.

One Flat Rate, No Surprises

Most quotes for international furniture shipping are a moving target — a low headline number, then surcharges for fuel, volume, handling, and customs once your belongings are already on the water. We quote a single flat rate that covers pickup, ocean transit, customs clearance, and door delivery. The only thing outside that figure is destination duty or tax set by the government of the country you are shipping to, and we tell you what to expect for that before you book. After tens of thousands of shipments, our experience is your experience — we know how to get your furniture across the ocean without drama, and the price we quote is the price you pay.