The rule is space, not weight
People instinctively worry about heavy things. What you are actually paying for on an international move is volume: the cubic metres your belongings occupy. A cast-iron pan costs you almost nothing to ship; a bulky, hollow wardrobe costs a great deal.
That single reframing changes most decisions. Start by asking how much space something takes, then whether it is worth that space, and only then whether you are attached to it.
What always goes
Some categories are never in question, and they are usually the ones people fret over most.
Anything irreplaceable travels: photographs, documents, letters, children's things, anything with history attached. So does anything you use daily and would immediately rebuy, along with good tools, good kitchen equipment and books you actually reread. These items are dense, they occupy little space relative to their value, and replacing them is more expensive than shipping them.
- Documents, photographs and anything irreplaceable
- Good kitchen equipment and tools
- Clothes you actually wear
- Art, and pieces with a story
- Anything you would rebuy within a month of arriving
What rarely justifies the crossing
The honest list is shorter than people expect but it accounts for most of the volume in a typical container.
Flat-pack furniture is the clearest case: it takes real space, it rarely survives a second dismantling well, and it is cheap to replace anywhere. Mattresses and sofas occupy an enormous share of a container for something you can buy at destination. Large appliances face a voltage and standards question at the other end. And anything you have not touched in a year is telling you something.
- Flat-pack furniture
- Mattresses and large sofas
- Large appliances, particularly across a voltage change
- Bulk consumables and store-cupboard contents
- Anything untouched for a year
The Moroccan exception
There is one category where the usual arithmetic does not apply, and it is worth being deliberate about it: things you can only get here.
Rugs, lanterns, zellige, hand-thrown pottery, carved and inlaid wood, brass and leatherwork. Replacing these abroad means either paying several times the price in an import shop or not finding them at all. They are also, in our experience, the items people most regret leaving behind — long after they have forgotten the sofa they agonised over.
These pieces need different packing from ordinary furniture, which we have written up separately.
Selling before you go
There is an active second-hand market in Casablanca, Rabat and Marrakech, and it moves quickly if you start early enough. Two weeks is enough to sell well; three days is enough to give things away.
The expatriate community is a market of its own, because someone is always arriving as you are leaving and needs exactly the furniture you are trying to lose. Local Facebook groups and building noticeboards do more work than any listing site.
Deciding, in one pass
Go through the house once, with the space question in front of you rather than the sentimental one. Ask what it costs to replace, what it costs to ship, and whether it exists where you are going.
That third question is the one that matters most, and it is the reason a Moroccan lantern goes and a flat-pack bookcase stays.