You don't have to do this in one go. You go with suitcases first and rent a furnished home. You only have your household contents come once you know where you're going to live and what that house looks like. That's a common route and often the wisest, for three reasons: You only know what fits once you know the house You won't buy anything in the first year anyway, because you rent first: that order is fixed With half a year's distance you can judge much better what you really miss The sum nobody does. Half a year of storage in the Netherlands costs a fraction of what you lose if you send a full load to the wrong house and get rid of half of it anyway. The downside is real: you pay for a move twice, or at least a move plus storage. Weigh that against what you save by only deciding when you know.

Your household contents to Spain: full load, part load or sell

Q: Which four routes are there?

Sell everything and start again there. The cheapest route, and not infrequently the wisest. Dutch furniture often fits badly in a Spanish house: different sizes, different windows, different floors, and many Spanish rental homes are furnished. Count on the proceeds of your things minus the cost of furnishing anew. A part load ( groupage ). Your things share a lorry with other people's. Cheaper than your own lorry, but you're tied to the carrier's schedule. Departure and arrival dates lie within a margin of days to weeks. Your own lorry. More expensive, but you set the date and your things are loaded once and unloaded once. With a complete household and a tight schedule the difference from groupage is smaller than it seems. Driving yourself. Hire a van or load up your own car , drive two days. Works for whoever takes little. Count in the fuel, tolls, one or two overnight stays and the return trip. That's more than people estimate. The cost estimate on the Spain page works out a range for this based on your household. Those are emphatically estimates and not tariffs. No authority sets this, and every quote turns out differently.

Spain is reachable by road, and that gives options a shipment doesn't have. The difference between the cheapest and the most expensive route runs into thousands of euros — and the cheapest isn't always the wisest.

5 min read

Written and checked by Auke on 26 September 2026, against the sources at the bottom. Is something no longer right? Report it below and I'll fix it.

You take your household contents to Spain without customs, forms or deadlines. Dutch Customs itself says that when moving to another EU country you generally take your belongings along without a declaration, in the Netherlands and in the other country. The only clocks in this story hang on your car.

What remains is a decision that can make a difference of thousands of euros, in both directions. With a move to Australia the question is simple, because there's only one answer: a sea container, or nothing. With Spain you have real choice, and that makes it harder:

sell everything;
a part load;
your own lorry;
driving yourself.

Which four routes are there?

Sell everything and start again there. The cheapest route, and not infrequently the wisest. Dutch furniture often fits badly in a Spanish house: different sizes, different windows, different floors, and many Spanish rental homes are furnished. Count on the proceeds of your things minus the cost of furnishing anew.

A part load (groupage). Your things share a lorry with other people's. Cheaper than your own lorry, but you're tied to the carrier's schedule. Departure and arrival dates lie within a margin of days to weeks.

Your own lorry. More expensive, but you set the date and your things are loaded once and unloaded once. With a complete household and a tight schedule the difference from groupage is smaller than it seems.

Driving yourself. Hire a van or load up your own car, drive two days. Works for whoever takes little. Count in the fuel, tolls, one or two overnight stays and the return trip. That's more than people estimate.

The cost estimate on the Spain page works out a range for this based on your household. Those are emphatically estimates and not tariffs. No authority sets this, and every quote turns out differently.

Why in two stages?

You don't have to do this in one go. You go with suitcases first and rent a furnished home. You only have your household contents come once you know where you're going to live and what that house looks like. That's a common route and often the wisest, for three reasons:

You only know what fits once you know the house
You won't buy anything in the first year anyway, because you rent first: that order is fixed
With half a year's distance you can judge much better what you really miss

The sum nobody does. Half a year of storage in the Netherlands costs a fraction of what you lose if you send a full load to the wrong house and get rid of half of it anyway.

The downside is real: you pay for a move twice, or at least a move plus storage. Weigh that against what you save by only deciding when you know.

Why is your car a separate story?

If you take your car, it doesn't simply move along with your household contents. Customs itself says separate rules apply to cars and motorcycles.

As soon as you live in Spain, according to the Spanish tax authority you may no longer drive on foreign plates. You have thirty days to register the car. Temporary plates from the DGT, the Spanish traffic authority, bridge the procedure. That conversion is a procedure in itself: technical inspection, papers, tax.

The registration tax, the tax on a first registration in Spain, lapses for whoever moves. For that you must:

have lived outside Spain for twelve months;
have used the car there for at least six months;
not sell it in the first year.

On the Dutch side you get part of the bpm, the Dutch tax on passenger cars, back. For that the car must be registered in Spain within thirteen weeks of the export notification at the RDW.

Clock	Term
Taking household contents within the EU	no declaration, no deadline
Putting the car on Spanish plates	within 30 days of driving it as a resident
Registration tax exemption: resident outside Spain	at least 12 months before the move
Registration tax exemption: car in use	at least 6 months before the move
Not selling the car after the exemption	12 months after registration
Bpm refund: registration in Spain	within 13 weeks of the 'Export' status at the RDW

Count on it costing time and money, and bring that into the question of whether you want to take that car at all. Selling an older car in the Netherlands and buying one in Spain is often cheaper than it seems. For that purchase you'll in practice need your empadronamiento, the registration with your town hall.

Where does this sit in your journey?

The move is a parallel track: it runs alongside your registration papers and has its own deadlines. What makes it special is that it's the only one that's completely reversible as long as you haven't booked anything. And completely irreversible as soon as the lorry drives off.

So decide late, and compare quotes like this:

Get three quotes.
Get them at the same moment, for the same inventory.
Ask explicitly what is not included in the price: insurance, packing and unpacking, stairs, a parking permit, storage in case of delay.

Those are the items the bill runs up on.

In Vertrekklaar this is phase 3 of 5 of the journey, step 3.1: the same steps, but for your situation — in your order, tickable, and with the deadlines watched. See the whole journey to Spain or go straight to step 3.1 in the open plan.

What this rests on

The facts in this article come from these official pages. Rules change. When in doubt, go by the source, not this article.

Dutch Customs — moving your belongings abroad, no declaration within the EU — douane.nl
Your Europe (European Commission) — registering your car in the country where you're going to live — europa.eu
Agencia Tributaria — driving on foreign plates when you live in Spain (thirty days) — sede.agenciatributaria.gob.es
Agencia Tributaria — the exemption from registration tax when moving residence — sede.agenciatributaria.gob.es
Dutch Tax Administration — bpm refund when you export a used vehicle (thirteen weeks) — belastingdienst.nl

Is this still correct?

Read on

Calculate your move in two minutes

Choose your country and answer a few short questions about your situation. You immediately get a range of what it costs. Free, no account needed.

Also want to know whether your departure date is feasible? Take the departure scan: seven questions, and you see your whole plan in miniature →

Calculate your move →

Start with phase 1 for Spain

The first 6 steps for Spain are open: what you arrange, in which order, and the source for every step. You don't need an account.

Read phase 1 free: 6 steps Buy the plan for Spain · € 199