Anyone moved cross-country or internationally?

[AuntFlo]

So we put an offer on a house yesterday in British Columbia, Canada. We live in Texas. Even thinking about the logistics of this move makes me want to throw up. We have never moved so far that we couldn't just drive a Uhaul van or make 2 trips if necessary. 

How do I even begin packing? We have a lot of dust catchers from our travels, and a ton of kitchen crap. We like clutter okay? I know you are supposed to clear off counters and get rid of clutter and photos and stuff, but I don't know what to do with the stuff that we still need to use. 

There will probably be about 3-5 weeks where our things will either be in transit or in storage and we won't be able to get to them. How do I even make that work?


Can you tell I'm overwhelmed?

[Deleted]

I've done a lot of moving, both around the country and one overseas.

I've never sold a house though. But my biggest piece of advice is to start purging and organizing. My general rule is that if I haven't used it in 6 months it gets sold or donated. After that it makes packing a lot easier.

Good luck with the move!

[LeggsBenedict]

we moved arizona to connecticut.

cull your shit. pack things you don't need and won't need in the near future. organize the things you can't pack yet. prepare to be miserable.

[underwaterrhymes]

We've done a lot of moving, including 2 international moves and 4 cross-state moves.

Plus, we just bought and sold a house in 2013 and 2014 respectively to move half-way across the country.

My advice: DECLUTTER. Take down personal photos. If you can afford it, hire a stager. It made a HUGE difference for us. We put our house on the market on Thursday night. Had an Open House Saturday and Sunday and three offers in hand by Sunday night, two of which were $10,000 over asking. It was well worth the money we paid.

As far as what you do on the other end while waiting, it is definitely challenging. We bought a card table to eat our meals at and had wanted to make the transition to a king-sized bed when we moved anyway. We spent one night on the air mattress. Our cat popped it. And that was that. We spent one more night on the floor while we waited the arrival of our new bed.

The rest of our stuff didn't get here until almost a month later. We bought two end chairs and used camping chairs in the meantime. It also helped that H's stepdad flew to Boston to drive one of our cars back to IL (where he lives) and packed some essentials in that car. We also loaded our other car with as much stuff as possible.

Good luck and congratulations!

[underwaterrhymes]

Also, purge your closets and your drawers. We packed up all the out-of-season clothes and dumped a bunch of crap into boxes. People WILL go through your stuff. They're nosy. Get your closets clean and your cabinets clean. Get everything off your counters. We pushed back on the microwave and the toaster because we use them all the time, but everything else went underneath.

[AuntFlo]

Where do you put the stuff in the mean time?

I had planned on packing everything except furniture, so that way our house would be down to the bare bones when it was up for sale. Would the boxes be okay in the garage or do you think I should get a storage unit?

This move is already going to cost us like $15,000 so I would like to cut costs wherever possible.

[mrsukyankee]

Mar 2, 2015 11:24:19 GMT -5 AuntFlo said:

So we put an offer on a house yesterday in British Columbia, Canada. We live in Texas. Even thinking about the logistics of this move makes me want to throw up. We have never moved so far that we couldn't just drive a Uhaul van or make 2 trips if necessary. 

How do I even begin packing? We have a lot of dust catchers from our travels, and a ton of kitchen crap. We like clutter okay? I know you are supposed to clear off counters and get rid of clutter and photos and stuff, but I don't know what to do with the stuff that we still need to use. 

There will probably be about 3-5 weeks where our things will either be in transit or in storage and we won't be able to get to them. How do I even make that work?


Can you tell I'm overwhelmed?

Yup, moved to England almost 11 years ago.  

Packing - write a list of the items that you will need for 3-5 weeks.  Go room by room.  And make sure it's NEED not want.  

Pack up everything else two-three weeks before in actual boxes (unless you are hiring people to do this for you).  If you are self-packing, label each box by a number - have a sheet of paper which has that number on it and write down what you put in said box.  Sort by room or use (ex. kitchen stuff or cooking, living room stuff or pictures & candles).  You will then get a chance to live without those items for a few weeks - but you can still get at the items in the box if you discover a 'need'.

Figure out what you have actually not used in the last year - get rid of it (either sell or give away).  Store anything that you might not want to bring with you (if you have somewhere you can store it - such as a parents house).

Since you are selling up, hire a storage facility for how every long you need to store the boxes in as you don't want to clutter the garage.  Don't feel like you have to do everything at once - give yourself a daily or weekly task.  Break it down and it'll be manageable.

[Deleted]

Eeek, how exciting!! I am about to potentially do the same and will be mainly selling everything non-sentimental and starting from scratch. It just seems easier and a good excuse to start fresh.

[Deleted]

I have moved a lot. After our last cross-country move I always tell people sell everything you can and buy new when you get there. Seriously, it was such a waste IMO to bother with large furniture. Never again.

[AuntFlo]

Selling everything is not really an option since we have a lot of antiques. And I'm trying to resist the urge to buy more stuff since everything is more expensive where we are moving and we are going to be poor after the move.

My DH had to talk me out of buying an upright grand piano before we go lol

[Jalapeñomel]

We moved to Peru and back in the last 5 years. We didn't own a home prior to moving, so we stored our major possessions and sold everything else. And then we moved to a tiny NYC apartment, so we still don't need a ton of stuff.

Good luck!

[underwaterrhymes]

We stored everything in the basement, but obviously off-site storage would be better.

[lilac05]

As others have said, purge what you can.

Get two different colors of tape. Use one to close boxes of stuff that you'll need for those 3-5 weeks & the other for stuff that goes with the movers.

Ask your agent, but most places, I think it would be fine to keep your packed boxes in the garage. If you do that, I highly recommend buying boxes from a moving company, or getting a huge stack from someone who just relocated. If you have big stacks of similar boxes organized neatly in the garage, no one will be bothered by it. If the boxes are a million different sizes, shapes, and colors, they're more difficult to stack neatly and look more disorganized. Same goes for packing in laUndry baskets, hampers, reusable shopping bags, etc. if it's not strong and stackable, don't use it. It's worth the expense to have nice boxes. Also, do yourself a favor & buy some big packs of packing paper (or look on Craigslist for it).

Good luck!

[Moe]

Just recognize that it's one of the most stressful things you can do.

Allow yourself to get batshit crazy.

At least that's what I told myself.