When Not To Ship To Costa Rica

I’m generally known as a staunch supporter of the idea to ship your furniture and household goods rather than replace them in Costa Rica.

Although some people might mistakenly attribute that to my being in the shipping business, it actually comes from my own personal experience when we moved here.

In fact, despite shipping two containers ourselves, we’ve rarely passed a day in the several years we’ve been here that we didn’t bemoan the lack of something or other that for some inexplicable reason we didn’t bring.

Somewhat unexpectedly, however, I also believe there are a few times when someone should not ship their full household goods, at least not right away. So, you might reasonably ask, what are some of those times?

Primarily simply when you’re really not sure if moving to Costa Rica is the right move for you. While there’s no sure-fire way to guarantee that you’ll be happy making what – for most – is a pretty radical move, in some situations it’s more obvious than others that you should take some time to try it out first.

Perhaps you’re struggling with a major health issue. While health care in Costa Rica can be top notch – and we’ve certainly had some outstanding experiences here! – that is not to say that there aren’t challenges. The CAJA or national health care, like most socialized medicine systems, is overburdened. You can find that if you need surgery or medical procedures that aren’t life and death (at least not yet!) you might be waiting many, many months.

And while prescription drugs on the CAJA are essentially free (other than your very modest monthly CAJA premium), you’re likely to discover that most of those “designer drugs” that your U.S. doctor has you on will not be available.

Sure you can get them (or, at least, many of them) through the private farmacias (pharmacies), but you’ll end up paying out of pocket, just like you will for that medical procedure when you decide you can’t wait eight months for an angioplasty.

For most folks moving to Costa Rica those are simply the “downsides” that are taken in balance with the many, many wonderful aspects of living here.

But if you are actively in medical treatment for a serious condition, you might well find that a test-run of living in Costa Rica is a wise investment to make sure that you’ll be able to get (and afford) the care you need. This is a case when renting a furnished home and postponing the shipment of all your worldly possessions might be sensible.

Another situation that fits into the “not sure if it’s the right move” category is if you and your spouse have radically different views about whether moving here is a good idea. Certainly in many couples one is more enthusiastic than the other; in and of itself that’s not a major problem.

It’s a matter of “degree” though. When one of you is absolutely determined to move and is dragging your mate along kicking and screaming, you might consider putting your stuff in storage and coming on down for a six or eight month trial to see which “side” ends up changing their mind. Sure, storage costs a little bit of money, but lots less than shipping it all down and back again!

And what if you don’t have a spouse? While it can sometimes seem that the world of gringos in Costa Rica is made up solely of married couples, there are plenty of single people who move here and absolutely love it.

But I will also say that, in my observation, a higher proportion of singles who move here move back just because it can be that much harder to weather the inevitable transition challenges when you don’t have a partner to share them with. So, not to be discouraging, but only to suggest realism – this could be another instance where financial prudence would suggest waiting a bit.

Notice that in these situations I’m essentially suggesting postponing shipping your stuff, not to be confused with recommending that you don’t ship things once you decide that Costa Rica is a good fit for you. Admittedly there certainly are those who will, indeed, make that very recommendation.

In fact, a frequent poster on the WeLoveCostaRica forum is quite insistent that it makes no sense to ship your furniture here since it will all just rot and mildew and become useless basura (trash) in no time. From her own experience and perspective, this is the “absolute truth” and, considering where she lives, I can’t entirely argue.

But it must be noted that in this land of microclimates, there are huge differences not just from one part of the country to the next, but from one part of town to the next.

In fact, the “non-shipping” proponent mentioned above lives in the same town I do. Or, rather, she lives a few kilometers north of town, on the edge of the cloud forest, while I live a couple of kilometers to the west of town at a somewhat lower 3,000 feet in elevation.

Where I live, I’ve never had a piece of furniture lose its veneer or delaminate; we’ve never had mildew on our upholstery, my cast iron pans don’t rust, and we don’t struggle with mold. When I hear people say “don’t bring your stuff because it will become ruined from the mold and mildew” that just sounds laughable to me. Why? Because it’s simply not true, at least not in my world.

But I can also accept that it can be true when you live at the higher elevations (say, around 3,700 feet and up) where the presence of moist air is much more pervasive. So that brings us back to how to apply these different experiences of truth to you when trying to decide whether to ship your household goods.

If you know where you plan to live, talk to people who live right in the immediate neighborhood and get their insights. Don’t just ask for opinions online from people who may or may not live in conditions that match yours!

So, if your next door neighbor here in Costa Rica shows you that all her veneered English antiques delaminated and are ruined, sure… go ahead and give that draw leaf table and sideboard to your daughter. You want her to have them eventually so might as well do it now!

BUT, that is a long, long way away from not shipping all the rest of your stuff down.

In fact, one of the reasons to which I cannot give any credence for not shipping is “it’ll be cheaper to just replace everything in Costa Rica.”

I think one of the reasons that this crazy notion takes root is that there are some things that are quite reasonably priced here in Costa Rica. So you could go to Sarchi, for example, and see nice solid wood furniture for much less than the comparable piece in the U.S.

Or you read an article where someone shows a cheap microwave and $350 six-burner stove and say to yourself, “Cool, those look like a bargain!”

You add up a few of the major pieces of furniture in your house and think, heck, I can furnish my whole house for less than I’ll spend on shipping a container.

The fallacy in this thinking is that completely furnishing a home is so much more than just those few major pieces. It’s not just that wonderfully crafted headboard and footboard that you can buy so reasonably priced, but the mattress itself, the linens, the pillows, the blankets, and the mattress pad (none of which is reasonably priced, not if you care a bit about quality). And how about towels, bath mats, shower curtains, beach towels, and bathroom scales?

It’s not just the stove, it’s the casserole dishes, the baking sheets, the knives, measuring spoons and cups, strainers, colanders, pots and pans, griddles, and muffin tins. Not to mention the coffee maker, the crock pot (essential for the tough meat), the juicer, and mixer or food processor.

(When our electric knife gave out last year – and call me crazy but we consider one essential for carving the four Thanksgiving turkeys we cook each year – instead of the $10 one I’d accidentally left in the states, we paid over $80 here and that was after an extensive search to even find one! And it was a terrible piece of junk at that.)

It’s not just the dining table, but the dishes, the wine glasses, the unbreakable polycarbonate glasses (remember the tile floors!), the table linens, candlesticks, flower vases, water pitchers, butter dishes, pepper mill, and so on and so on and so on.

And how about replacing your sports or recreation equipment, your hobby supplies, all the tools in your workshop, your gardening gear, your hoses and rakes, your lawn chairs and gas grill, your weed whacker and books and lamps and TVs?

And while a few things are reasonably priced here, most things – if you want standard “U.S. quality” – will cost more, fairly often half again or even twice as much.

So by the time you replace everything that furnishes and outfits a complete household, you’ll spend way more than the cost of a container filled with the stuff you already own! (Especially after you have to buy things a second time to replace the cheap stuff you bought the first time.)

So, I do agree that there are times you might want to hold off on shipping your stuff. But thinking you’ll save money by replacing it all here is definitely not one of those times!

For the other times, the ones I talked about earlier, even those don’t apply to many people. But if one of them really speaks to you, then don’t be afraid to wait. We’ll still be here when you’re ready!

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Andrew Makarik

to@welovecostarica.com

Andrew Makarik is the main editor of WeLoveCostaRica, a fan of this sunny country. He is also a loving husband and a has a lovely daughter. By being a devoted family man and the biggest Costa Rica fan, he wants to make more people feel at home there. WeLoveCostaRica unites people and helps them find new home or a new travel destination. This website is a friendly community where everyone can find not only information, but also new friends and travel pals. Andrew is also passionate about IT and programming, so he himself maintains a friendly atmosphere in this cozy environment of WeLoveCostaRica.com.