This Is Designers’ Best-Kept Secret for Shopping (and Shipping!) Vintage Home Decor Around the Globe

Let’s just say I have a vintage (and discount home decor store) shopping problem. Well, I don’t want to label it as a “problem” because hunting for old treasures brings me so much joy — even when I’m just browsing and don’t buy a thing. We’ll just call it a passion, and I don’t like to be geographically constrained with my efforts. Sometimes the best stuff isn’t always local. 

I truly love nothing more than hunting for bargains when I travel at secondhand stores, flea markets, home decor outlets, and even big vintage shopping fairs like Round Top, which happens twice a year in Texas. The question then becomes the following: What do I do if I find the perfect piece, and I can’t fit it in my suitcase? I’ve used my ”extra duffle” method before to take home smalls, but furniture, delicate lighting, and oversized artwork all pose an issue. Shipping with carriers like UPS and FedEx can be a nightmare because it costs so much, and the onus of packing is typically on you (unless you pay extra for the carrier to do it, if it’s even offered as a service). 

This is where uShip comes in. uShip is a nationwide marketplace that provides accessible shipping solutions for bulky or oversized items, including furniture, antiques, art, and appliances (they even handle cars and animals!). All you have to do is create a listing that includes: what you’re trying to move (be as detailed as possible with dimensions and weights for best results), where it needs to be picked up, where it needs to go, and on what kind of a timeline.

Pros set up with the platform will start sending you quotes for your job, and then it’s up to you to decide what bid you want to go with. Think of it almost like if Uber Eats allowed you to choose drivers and rates based on their quotes — just with more precious cargo and very experienced drivers and movers (who often are very well-versed in packing, shipping, and transporting enormous cargo).

Obviously, the more (and bulkier of) items you have to move, the further you have to transport them, and the quicker you need your pieces, the more expensive the service is going to be. It’s hard to give an exact estimate of what it costs because there are so many variables that factor into a quote, but it’s definitely worth checking out if you fall in love with something on a shopping trip or at an auction house, and there’s no way you can transport it yourself. Tons of pro designers I know use the service and swear by it, but it’s a little bit more under-the-radar with design enthusiasts. 

I tried the platform recently when I was on a trip to the Anthropologie Home Outlet in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and I was so impressed by the level of customer service. My uShipper called me to ask for photos of my items so he knew exactly what to expect and even offered to professionally repack the pieces upon arrival at the outlet to make sure they’d arrive at my home safely (I’m an editor, yes, and uShip helped set me up with this gem of a shipper, but I don’t think this attention to detail and care is unique to just my experience). The shipment arrived on time just two days later, and everything looked the exact same way as when I purchased it. 

I’d definitely use uShip again. The only watch-out I have is maybe on a quote that seems too good to be true. But hopefully, as the bids roll in, you’ll be able to get a ballpark sense of what your job should cost, and you can do a little bit of back and forth with a few uShippers to pick the best fit.