After months of preparation, it’s moving week. We have decluttered, donated and gifted so much and there is still so much left to ship or store.
We are very fortunate that our relocation package included movers (who also do all the packing), air freight, sea freight, and storage. We decided at the outset that we would not use the sea freight. The sea shipment is usually intended for furniture and large items. Our house in Houston is almost twice as big as our new place in The Netherlands, and with the narrow turning staircases, we knew most of our furniture wouldn’t fit. So we are leaving all of our furniture behind in storage, and just taking our clothing and personal items.
Because we had movers coming to do the packing, I devised a system of color-coding. Piles were marked with blue (air freight), pink (storage) or yellow (do not pack) Post-it notes. It certainly made the house look colorful.
After two days of packing, it was time to load the air freight containers. Oops, we had too much. So we began what I called packing roulette. We tried to reduce the number of boxes by breaking them down into groups – must have or like to have, based on the contents noted on the side. Hopefully we picked correctly. Everything else that didn’t fit went into storage. See you in three years.
And before we knew it the house was empty and we were off to a hotel for our final two nights in Houston.
Red, White and Tulips 