Last night, my husband and I sat down with a calendar. We have a handful of Must Dos before we leave and wanted to be sure that we had them all plotted out before things got too crazy.
It's a good thing we did. EVERY weekend is planned between now and the end of March. Every. Weekend. Not all of the weekends involve a long car trip, though three of them do. And some of the weekends aren't planned, per se, so much as they will be absent A, who will be several thousand miles away getting things established in the Philippines. We have four trips to make (three goodbyes and Disneyland), two tag sales to hold, and Valentine's Day. Those, plus two weekends A will be gone puts us at the end of March.
Currently, I am functioning under the impression that I can get the house in order and everything packed up by just devoting the next 8 Tuesdays to the task. After seeing everything mapped out last night, I'm thinking that this is a delusion.
I am learning that packing takes about twice as long when you move overseas. Especially when you aren't taking everything with you. The extra time is mainly taken up with the sorting process. "Is this necessary for the Philippines? If so, would it be cheaper to just buy a new one over there? If not, is it something of enough monetary or nostalgic value that I am willing to inconvenience my in-laws by having them store it for me? If not, is it in good enough shape to attempt selling at the next tag sale? If not, will it fit in the wheelie bin?"
Then, since we are shipping everything we do take by boat, the issue is not the weight of the things we are taking so much as the volume. So, every box is packed to fill every available nook and cranny. Soft items, like cloth napkins, yarn, and washcloths, are used as packing supplies to save money and space. Anything hollow is filled with smaller items before being packed itself. Spiral-bound books have the spirals filled before going into the boxes.
The goal is 150 cubic feet. Imagine a typical American bedroom, aproximately 10' x 10' with it's floor covered with 18" of stuff. That is how much I'm hoping to get us down to. For four people, two of who are homeschooled and need all their supplies shipped over for the next 3 years. Luckily, none of us are clothes hogs, and we should be able to fit all of our clothing in our allotted suitcases, so little to none of that 150 cu ft need be taken up with clothing. But still. Most of it will be the homeschool supplies, the kids toys, some electronics it will be too costly to rebuy over there, and a few household things to make our home there seem a little like our home here.
I honestly do not know how the pioneers did it. Or the people coming to America with one suitcase to their name. Blearg.
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11 years ago
4 comments:
How they made it? with a lot of tears, I tell you! I thought I was a tough cookie, but it turned out I was made of butter (only! lol) We arrived with our clothes only and it was very very very hard.
Glad to read that you are packing some stuff. I assume you are getting a container? You can always ship stuff by balikbayan boxes, I wish I knew that when we were getting ready to move.
Get your kitchen appliances too. Food processor and the rest, stuff here are not as big/good quality. Also pots and pans, it seems frivolous, but as a mother you will be spending enough time in the kitchen and you will need your "tools".
Esther
Take account of the moisture here: VHS Tapes, cassete tapes, forget them,they dissintigrade. Wool is no good. It will mould. Leather too if not used frequently.
don't get rid of anything important to you. I moved with just the clothes and found it extremely hard. It was a B I G mistake. Never again!! Can you give some stuff to friends/relatives to store it for you?
Yes, I found the sorting progress soul-destroying. never again. next time we move, everything comes with me, even the last newspaper.
Stuff are not cheaper here, really. I found shopping a hard thing to do. converting prices, choosing, the quality is no good, childrne to supervise... forget it.
If something has served you well, take it with you...
Also, consider packing some food items you will probably not find here that available.
dried fruit, seeds, nuts, are expensive and hard to find.
Absolutely MUST: Clothes, underware and shoes for you and your husband especially if you are tiny-built. If you and or hubby are on the bigger size, forget it...
Children on the other side, it is easy to shop for. But you won't find nice dressy shoes, get those from the US..
Girls shoes have all high heels, I had hard time to find a decent church shoe for my 6 y. o. There are some imported ones, but much more expensive..
I made the mistake to buy for the children, and not for me or hubby, big mistake. Our western medium is their XXXL and you won't find that around!
So, stock up for you!
Get some wintery clothes too, nothing heavy, but December January can be cold. Some socks, long sleeves tees, a cardigan for each of you, a few pairs of long trousers and long pairs of pyjamas although light ones not heavy, fluffy ones.
Get your comforters too.
Esther
Yeah, My husband and I are not petit by any means. I had a post on here before that I took down because it was too whiny, in which I talked about the impossibility of ever finding shoes to fit me over there. I'm 5'10" (so already shopping will be hard for height reasons) and have a size 13US foot. It's almost impossible to shop for shoes HERE, let alone somewhere where the average woman's height is a foot shorter than me!
I started buying stuff for the kids, too, and my husband told me to focus more on the two of us. He plans on having some suits made when he gets there, and I may have some stuff special made eventually, too, but I imagine most of the stuff I wear will be bought online and shipped over.
I considered moving over with just clothes and our homeschool stuff, but I don't think I could swing that! I'm a knitting addict, so I'm bringing some yarn with me, because I know there are only a couple of yarn stores in the entire country. I'm going to bring one box of household decorations, much of my kitchen stuff (though none of my electronics--I just don't use them that often), and each kid will get two boxes for toys, stuffed animals, picture books, etc. I have become the master of packing within stuff. I'm using linens and yarn as packing materials and everything that has hollow space inside has been filled with smaller things. Each box has .01% empty space within it when I'm done packing it!
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