I've read the posts about shipping things home but...
 

I've also heard about "renting" or "reserving" space on a container (via oceanliner) is far cheaper..and takes about a month to arrive. Has anyone done this and how do you so it? Does anyone have information about prices or can suggest websites etc.. Thanks!

Hi
where (as in type of vendor) would you be making your purchases?
For example, I've ordered glass items in Venice, factory incorporated shipping into the charges, they did the packing and shipping, the things took about 2 months to arrive (including fabrication time), arrived in perfect condition. I made similar transactions in London once, in a shop. On arrival I had to pay some additional Customs charges.

Furniture and antiques vendors can also make similar arrangements, or find out about containers on your behalf.

Sandi this is usually done with big items like furniture. Antiques dealers do this (fill a container). An antique store will often be able to arrange this for you. If furniture/antiques is what you have in mind, I'd do a web search for shipping antiques from x country to US & see what comes up. If you're thinking about gathering smallish "stuff" from a 3 week trip & then trying to ship it all on departure in a container, I'm not sure that's doable.

I was just looking at a website where you could use X amount of cubic feet for X dollars from many ports to the US. I just remember that the few times I inquired about shipping via air it was sometimes more than the cost of my purchase. During Christmas "04 my husband, son and I will be going back to Italy and I believe my parents will be coming along for their 50th anniv. My Mom is a shopper and I thought it would be nice to find a cheaper way to get things home. I'm just confused about whether we'd have to actually take things down to the shipping yard at the port and had it over or if there's a "storefront" in someplace like Rome where we could make the exchange. I know I've got a long time to go but I'm a research-aholic..

Check this out
http://www.discount-shipping.net/

look at the link that says "Import to US". I'm waiting on a call back so if anyone else is interested, I'll update the post with the information I'll get.

I thought you'd had to rent the whole container, not just part of one. There are some containers that aren't full size. But this is for serious shipping...for a houseful or storeful of furniture or other goods. You don't say where you plan to ship from, but Allied-Arthur Pierre does a good job shipping stuff from Belgium/France to the U.S. (perhaps elsewhere, too, I only know about France/Benelux). They are affiliated with Allied movers in the U.S., contact them and ask to speak to one of their reps for international moves.
But it's not cheap...shipping home an entire container *may* cost a few thousand $$.

I did mention Italy and according to the link above you can get just a portion of a container. It seems that paying $300. for a good size space would be better than paying a couple of hundred to ship a much smaller amount home. Again, the reason for my post is really to see if anyone else has had experience with this.

I did this once some years ago after living near London. I shipped my belongings via sea container to Norfolk. I doubt I had enough to fill one & surely there is a provision for partials & sharing. But, the point I want to make here is that it isn't enough to check out the cost from the European end. I was quoted excellent prices to get my stuff from where I was living to the ship in England and all the way to Norfolk. and, they were accurate charges. HOWEVER, no one mentioned the INCREDIBLY LARGE charges that began to accrue immediately upon the arrival of my stuff on US shores. And, I had someone who picked up my stuff immediately...no storage running up the charges. So, just be certain you ask about & determine the cost at BOTH ends! Be forewarned.

That's exactly the kind of information I'm looking for. It's quite possible that after you add up everything, custom charges, storage etc.. this may not be the way to go. Thanks for the input.