International Movers

I certainly get that. Just remember that Mexico is a metric country... and their metric system is even slightly different from Canada's. Just ask everyone who brought down a repair piece for the Canadian van we drove down in. I specifically bought a van that had a presence in Mexico to avoid that. Didn't quite work out.
Just keep those kind of things in mind. Yeah, I know, it's a minefield.

Bearded Beemer wrote:

Halfglass wrote:I think everyone's situation is a little different.  My wife and I and four dogs moved here from Washington State. We purchased a used box van and loaded it up with all of the items we felt we would need here.
There were several pieces of furniture all of our good cookware, dishes, clothing, my tools, two barbeques and some other items.
We wanted to cross the boarder at Nogales. That was the shortest route for us to take.  
We found a moving company in Guadalajara ( Semmi Logistics) that would pick our stuff up and deliver it to our new home here in Chapala.
To make a long story short, we loaded up the box truck, hooked our Jeep Liberty to the back and off we went with our four dogs. Got to Nogales unloaded our stuff at a warehouse there sold the box truck on site.
Next day we were off across the boarder first thing in the morning.   Three days later we were driving up to our new home here in Chapala  
To this day there are very few things that we brought down with us that we have not used and enjoyed.
I see many people who have sold everything and replaced those items here.
But for myself and my wife who enjoying cooking there is no way we could fine these items locally.
OH, and my tools.
Worked for us.  

TOOLS! As a retiring aircraft mechanic, I do not want to part with my mini van size tool box full of stuff!! That, honestly, is my biggest concern.

Beware when they saw my tools I got grilled about working in Mexico. Had a hard time convincing them that I was harmless and only needed the tools for my own use. Point of this don't tell them anything other than these are my personal tools.  OK? got it?

Zedinmexico wrote:

Bearded Beemer wrote:

Halfglass wrote:I think everyone's situation is a little different.  My wife and I and four dogs moved here from Washington State. We purchased a used box van and loaded it up with all of the items we felt we would need here.
There were several pieces of furniture all of our good cookware, dishes, clothing, my tools, two barbeques and some other items.
We wanted to cross the boarder at Nogales. That was the shortest route for us to take.  
We found a moving company in Guadalajara ( Semmi Logistics) that would pick our stuff up and deliver it to our new home here in Chapala.
To make a long story short, we loaded up the box truck, hooked our Jeep Liberty to the back and off we went with our four dogs. Got to Nogales unloaded our stuff at a warehouse there sold the box truck on site.
Next day we were off across the boarder first thing in the morning.   Three days later we were driving up to our new home here in Chapala  
To this day there are very few things that we brought down with us that we have not used and enjoyed.
I see many people who have sold everything and replaced those items here.
But for myself and my wife who enjoying cooking there is no way we could fine these items locally.
OH, and my tools.
Worked for us.  

TOOLS! As a retiring aircraft mechanic, I do not want to part with my mini van size tool box full of stuff!! That, honestly, is my biggest concern.

Beware when they saw my tools I got grilled about working in Mexico. Had a hard time convincing them that I was harmless and only needed the tools for my own use. Point of this don't tell them anything other than these are my personal tools.  OK? got it?

Purely recreational use only!!

the metric system is the same everywhere.. however tolerances maybe different.

Well, thanks for that brigitte. Now I have to go googling to find out what the hell it means. ;)

A little flexibility in the sizes... https://fractory.com/engineering-tolerances/
The tolerances of the Mexican part differed to such a degree from its Canadian counterpart, that the damn thing didn't fit. :)

When you come down I can introduce you to a mechanic in Ixtlahuacan de los membrillos, a small town near here. When you can pronounce the name, you know you are now living in Mexico! Anyways he has the most handtools I have ever seen, many I have never seen. He has worked on airboat engines, helicopter engines, and they used have family race cars. He can make anything. He made a "new" clutch for me out different parts lying around. He charges about $10 per hour. Just saying, that is the style here. Rather than wait for a part from Europe or Asia, they will just adapt something. My other mechanic in Chapala seems to know what is in every scrapyard in Guadalajara and can drag out used engine and body parts. I know this is nothing about moving, but it says a lot about things are really liquid here. We drove through the Nogales border into Mexico, it was a beautiful spring day. Every Mexican official we met was in their mid twenties young and giddy happy. Stopped to pay for and register our TIP, which they screwed up with lack of attention, but we never charged any fees or deposits. Got back on the road, on the nothing to declare lane, passed two pretty young border gaurds, laughing and giggling to each other. One of them gave us a glance, and could see she thought, they were towing 12 foot utility trailer, covered in paintball spatters and skateboarding stickers (another story) we should have stopped them, Oh well. Next stop, Puerto Vallarta. About one hour down the road, we saw a flying pink flamingo, a first for me

Unless you just plan on never going back, you could do what I did. I would go to Canada in the summer for a month or so to see my kids and grandkids and friends, and each time I brought a bit more of my stuff back to Mexico with me. Sometimes by car, sometimes by plane.

I started with essential stuff, like my good cookware and clothes, and left stuff like books and keepsakes for subsequent trips.

And you know what? Every summer when I went back to Canada and sorted through those boxes in my friend's basement, I'd wonder why I even bothered keepingsome of it and ended up tossing it. Going through the family photo album and chucking out all the redundant or bad photos, picking out ones I thought each of my daughters might like and passing them over to them, ending up consolidating 10 photo albums into 2.

Most of us accumulate way too much stuff.

We digitized all our old photos and gave memory sticks to the kids.

I have done that too CBob. It is an especially efficient way to do it so that everyone has their own copy. I inherited a 2' x 2' x 3' box of loose photos from my mother-in-law. I made one album for my brother-in-law and one album for my hubby. That was 1995. I finally got them all digitized in 2016. Now everyone in the family has a copy. It was slow going doing one photo at a time until I bought a scanner that would do multiples and gave each photo its own file. I love the technology.

Adding to my last post, the box van I purchased was a 1998 GMC that was an old Ryder rental. It was purchased by a fellow for a catering business he put some money into it and other than needing a good tune up it was road worthy.
As my wife and I were getting our home ready to put on the market we started packing the van with the items we chose to bring down.
The moving company in Guadalajara set up the drop-off point in Nogales, all we had to do is get there and transfer our items. The rest was simple. I asked one of the workers where I could sell the van. He asked how much I wanted and I told him I would take $800.00. Sold on the spot.  I paid $2,500.00 for it so it cost me  a whole $1,700.00. Cheaper than a rental.  OH, I had to replace a broken fan belt on the way down. Not Bad.

Love your "Can Do" attitude Halfglass!