So the missus has accepted a job offer in Toronto, moving out there at the end of April (so expect lots of moving-related questions of the stw massif).
The first of which is about shipping. What's the deal for shipping? There'll be things like a bike, tools, books, hifi, computer monitor, clothes and suchlike – so not exactly a crate, but still enough odd-shaped things to do it properly.
What are the best companies with which to ship stuff like this?
Ta

Neighbour moved here (Vancovuer) from Liverpool a few years ago.
Sold a bunch of stuff back home, put the rest in a 20-foot shipping crate and thought it would be cheaper to buy everything else here.
It wasn't.
The shipping was cheap and other than buying a bunch of electrical converters, he wishes he'd kept all the stuff he gave away/sold.

Well, yeah. The Arcam, Xbox, bike, tools, clothes, clobber are all coming with me; CDs will probably stay, but the music will be there on hard drive.
Hence needing to ship it 🙂

There are lots of agents & a few specialist removal firms who do this sort of thing. See if you can find an ex-pat website for Canada and ask there – you'll do better.

When we moved to vancouver, the international moving firm used a local removals firm to pick up our stuff, I can't for the life of me remember how much it was as the company paid for it, I'm sure I still have all the details at home though.

We shipped our bed, drawers, half our clothes, kitchen stuff, computer, 2 bikes, snowboards, think thats was about it, it was quite a lot to ship it but still cheaper than replacing it, things like the 2 bikes, 2 snowboards and computer would be in the region of $10k to replace so it wasn't an issue. We still had an extra room and living room to refurnish which cost quite a bit and had to buy some kitchen stuff as our stuff took a few weeks longer than planned to arrive. It left us at the start of October and arrived at the start of February. Will be quicker to Toronto I guess.

The British Expat Forum – Canada is a great place to browse for all the info you need on any aspect of the move. Search the forum for "shipping" in this case.

To me, it sounds like you'll only need a part-container load. Its obviously cheaper than a full container, may take slightly longer as the shipping company will want to fill it with other part-loads before it goes.

Where is Canadia?

IIRC it cost me about 2000 quid to move a part container to Vancouver but that did include the shipping company sending two guys round to my house to professionally pack everything(and clean certain stuff). It also include customs clearance and delivery from storage in Vancouver to our house here.

I'd second what PapaWheelie says – we sold very cheaply or gave alway loads of stuff thinking it would be cheaper to buy new here than ship old stuff from the UK. It wasn't.

Be careful what items you pack in the container – it will probably take at least six weeks to arrive and clear customs. So take your bike out on the lane with you!