When I was ready to move to AC from Northern California I went through my house and put a yellow sticky on everything I intended to ship. I had Mayflower International movers come in and evaluate what I had thought to ship. He estimated that I was just over the limit for a 20 foot container. I said I could reduce it down and ordered the 20 foot one.
In the meantime I had my children come take anything they wanted that wasn't tagged. Then I had family and friends do the same. Then I had friends who ran yard sales come and set up 75' of tables showing everything else. I have a friend who runs a recovery facility and they raise money by taking things to flea markets. The day after the drive-way sale they came and got what was left that they thought they could sell. The next day a guy came with a pickup truck and took the rest to the dump.
The day after that the movers came and boxed/wrapped all the tagged items (including one box of trash - LOL).
Unhappily they didn't believe that a 20 footer would do and brought a 40 foot container. You should see how they pack stuff into these - solid! I filled only half and they lowered a patrician to hold it all in place. I asked if they could/would rent out the other half? The answer was NO.
They sealed this and trucked it to the ship yard. Since this was in the San Francisco Bay Area it did go through the Panama Canal. I was not in a hurry for it as my condo was not finished.
I hired a customs broker here only to find out later that my contract cost included a broker - this caused a bit of a problem.
CAVEAT! The customs agent will try to get some under the table money. Here's how that worked. When the broker and I arrived at the customs office at Belize City Port the officer ignored us for over 5 minutes while he thumbed through a stack of papers. We were obliged to stand until he addressed us and told us to be seated. We gave him our copy of the papers and he asked where was the original??? Of course it had been sent to him. He insisted he didn't have it and we would have to get it. Finally he said he had one more place to look and would be right back. That's when Peter said "He will expect some money to be on the table when he returns. I said "I don't do that!"
What a shocked look on his face when there was nothing there. We played some more cat and mouse games and I finally said "Call me when you find the paperwork - I'm not it a hurry."
Two weeks later he called.
I didn't know I could have the container shipped over and instead rented some storage at Ladyville. The guy there was great and treated me good.
It cost more to keep it on the dock than to move it to storage. The customs people came to the storage units, broke the seal, unloaded everything and packed it into two units and charged only $50. No extra duty. They were very nice and treated me well.
When my condo was almost complete I went to the mainland, found a guy with a truck and we loaded EVERYTHING onto one truck. The barge had said they didn't leave until 3:00 but when we got there at 2:00 it was already gone. When we asked why the answer was "It left at 1:00 because it was full." WOW
Now what to do? The owner of the truck said he knew a safe place to keep it overnight and I had to trust him. The next morning we went to the port early and found a barge loading. Now I know how lucky I was; I presumed barges left everyday. They don't; usually Tuesdays and Fridays - and yes - they all keep the same schedule???
This barge brought it to the north side of the cut - tied up at my seawall and a large crew of workmen who were building the condos all jumped in and help unload and carry stuff up to the 2nd level.
I have no idea how much this all cost - I just kept handing out money! LOL
Good Luck - let the adventure begin.
AmbergrisCaye.com 
