Christmas in September

The day our stuff arrived was like Christmas. I was so excited to see what we packed, I honestly could not remember. We had 15 boxes, 2 bikes and a trash can. Yes, we brought our trash can down unda (thanks Puhalla's!).

It took exactly 12 weeks door-to-door to get our stuff. We used Suddath from the states and I forget the name of the company who handled the Aussie side. I think the entire process is a but of a sham, you just really have no idea what is happening and the industry is not the most focused on customer service. I would recommend Suddath, I think my frustrations were more with the process and customs - there just are not a lot of details and you have to be the initiator to get information.

I definitely don't remember there being this mound of packing paper 

Don't worry we packed most of our coozies. These compression bags did come in handy- thanks Marlene! 

And we packed a lot of athletic shoes. We have a whole box filled with bike shoes and gear. That box is now in the basement storage unit. Even moving across the world, you still just have lots of stuff. It makes you realize how much.  

But the fun really came when Bone Crusher started playing fetch in the mountain of paper. I wish I had a flip book for all the pictures in this sequence, I guess I could do one, but I'll just show you a few of him chasing his ball.  

Finally 

More Shipping Decisions

Nothing like the last minute to motivate you to get it all done. We were lazy in the research department for shipping companies, don't do what I did, unless you have a Jules and an Oscar. These two got quotes from a few shipping companies and did a lot of leg work, they are trustworthy, so we decided that was good enough for us and went with Suddath, the one they picked. Thanks guys!

We booked an appointment for a quote and we spent about five more hours the day before they came deciding what would go and stay from the kitchen.  We put everything on the dining room table that we would take - this was more for us than the shipping company.

I highly recommend doing this method if you aren't taking everything. Taking a picture helped so we knew what decisions we already made. But now that I look at this picture we changed our minds a lot - we defiantly added to this pile and took some away. It was helpful to sit on the decision for a while and think about it.

Its amazing how much stuff you accumulate.  We were able to give a lot of it away because really who stores a salad spinner. To give most of our stuff away we took photos of everything, added it to dropbox and sent a link to friends. Delivering stuff was actually a nice way to also day goodbye individually and throw in an occasional costume.

To Ship or Not to Ship

We have spent a lot of time talking about shipping or not, but talking is pretty much all we have done, until tonight! We definitely agree that less is more. We have also agreed that we aren't going to ship any of the big stuff (think couch, table, bed, etc.), but everything else we need to figure out still. Anything that plugs in is also out since the plugs are different. Personally, I kind of like that the decision is made for us on some things.

We know it is expensive to ship stuff - anywhere from $3,000 - $9,000 is our best guess. We have looked at a few companies, but in order to get an accurate quote, you actually have to know what you are shipping....duh!  So we created a system to start figuring it out.

The purple tab's are just for you Marlene!

Our strategy was to tag everything together to make sure we agreed. There were no fights or tears, so I am taking it as a success. So far we are done with the office/catchall room and living room.

Chris wouldn't let me tag the candles. 

Six hours later we have three bins of things to give to friends or donate - an entire bin of craft supplies, odds and ends including sunglasses, cubs jerseys and some Christmas decorations. We also have three bins of Christmas decorations and books to drive to Cincinnati tomorrow to store at Chris' parents.

Next up, the kitchen....I think that will be the hardest room of all....