What We Learned: Packing and Shipping Mistakes to Avoid When Moving to El Salvador

By the end of this video you will know all the ins and outs of shipping your belongings to El Salvador or perhaps other Latin American countries.

I want to clarify one thing that might get confusing, the Shipping Company that we hired (CODEC) was a logistics company, they do not own the trucks or boats. I sort of use “our shipping company” and “the shipping company”, “shippers” and “freight forwarders” interchangeably. When I talk about one of the companies falling through, it was the transport company moving our stuff from our warehouse to the port, not CODEC the logistics company that we hired. They worked out all of these details and that is why we hired this company. They also dealt with customs, their questions and getting all of the permits that we needed to bring our stuff into this country.

Spreadsheet of shipping companies
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1tN4K12fXVeYhLYiqbNz9gz4KZ-8sjE_F8V8EE5kPbmg/edit?usp=sharing

Places to Shop
https://www.sears.com.sv/
https://sv.siman.com/
https://sv.epaenlinea.com/
https://www.vidri.com.sv/
https://www.freundferreteria.com/
https://www.lacuracaonline.com/elsalvador/
https://agenciasway.com.sv/

Here is a list of prohibited items that another company gave to us:

· Items not allowed: New properties (it is considered a “new property” for every item that has less than 6 months of use), porn of any kind, alcohol, guns, drugs and flammable products.

Prohibited Items:
· Food of any kind: canned, spices, pet food, dehydrated, etc.
· or Liquor of any kind
· Chemical personal hygiene items: shampoo, soap, mouthwash, etc.
· Chemical cleaning items: disinfectants
· or Medicines
· Chemical products: cosmetics, perfumes, body creams, paints, sprays or aerosols, etc.
· or drugs
· Weapons and ammunition
· Pornographic material of any kind
· or Jewelry/Money
In the event that customs finds any of the aforementioned items, it will impose high fines, warehousing, delays and may even cause confiscation of the shipment

00:00:00 Introduction
00:00:27 The Basics
00:00:44 Airline
00:04:22 Barrel
00:04:44 LTL
00:05:09 Shipping container
00:06:35 Picking a Shipping Company
00:07:35 How we found our Shipping Company Story
00:10:09 Challenges - Last Challenge
00:13:23 Our First Challenge
00:14:16 Why did we want to bring a shipping container?
00:18:49 If your situation is different than ours
00:19:08 What to bring and what not to bring
00:20:12 Buying furniture here
00:20:56 Other peoples furniture stories
00:22:05 What we chose to bring
00:23:40 An exercise for you to do
00:24:24 Furniture and appliance stores
00:26:37 Not allowed in the Shipping Container
00:29:09 Prohibited items
00:30:27 How to Pack
00:31:37 Boxes
00:32:12 Plastic totes
00:33:19 Packing Books
00:34:51 Packing clothing
00:36:25 Packing arts and crafts
00:37:44 Are new items allowed?
00:38:44 Packing Kitchenware
00:40:39 Packing Decorations
00:42:08 Packing Electronics & Tools
00:42:51 Translation
00:44:56 The Spreadsheet
00:45:32 Selling and rehoming
00:47:04 Should I bring my car?
00:50:17 My boxes are packed
00:52:18 Summary of your items
00:54:15 Warehouse
00:56:34 Another family’s story
00:58:45 Chain of Custody
00:59:50 We are ready to go
01:02:37 My stuff is on the boat
01:04:05 How we did it taxes and tariffs
01:06:10 How much did this cost us?
01:10:00 Conclusion
01:10:21 Last bit of advice