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Big Organizational PackFest Challenge Posts – January 2012

2017 Challenge- The Big Organizational PackFest!

Here are my major move tips!

1) Review what you know about where you are going. What “things” do you need there? How is your stuff going to be shipped and what are the logistics of it – does the company pay or do you have to? Do they have a limit – either weight or size of container? Is the place you’re moving to in Mexico furnished or unfurnished? If it’s unfurnished, do you want to subject your current furniture to the weather conditions there? If it’s furnished, what kinds of things will make any place feel like home to both you and your family?

2) PURGE.

3) Designate rooms. Designate places to start making piles.

4) Unless you absolutely have to, if you are short on time, DON’T WASTE TIME ON A YARD SALE. You don’t have it. Very few people find them worth it, and you don’t really need that kind of extra stress. So get rid of everything in other ways. Find donation places that do pickups, review what other places will take, also Freecycle.org is a great email list to get on for right now. You can list stuff and others who need it will come pick it up. The only work you’ll have to do is send out a couple emails. Check with your church and see if they have a clothes closet or food pantry or a few families that might be able to benefit when you clean out your freezer.

5) Look at the things you’ll need but don’t have. If you’re going to be going to a different country, think about the things you’ll need while you’re there that you won’t have ready access to. Like toiletries, makeup, favorite brands of soap, whatever. For example, in our next overseas move you can’t get decent live Christmas trees, so I have to buy an artificial tree. I don’t need it now, but I will. Check your kids’ clothes, prescriptions (I get all of ours changed to 90 day prescriptions, so I have to deal with having them mailed less often), and things you can’t do without. Start stocking up. (I buy huge plastic bins and do a major shopping spree for OTC medicines and toiletries before each of our moves. My mother thinks it’s nuts, but it sure is nice to have the “right” shampoo, or not pay an arm and a leg for toothpaste that is prob. not FDA approved.) How much would you really need during that time?

6) Paperwork. Guess what? In the middle of our move, we get to deal with taxes too. Get everything organized and ready to go NOW. Also, you need to get copies of your kids’ medical records, school records, social security cards and birth certificates, and shot records. Start making all the appointments you’ll need to do before then NOW.

If you are going overseas, check out what kind of voltage you will have there – if it’s American or “European.” 110 vs. 220, though I always get them mixed up. If umm, you put the wrong appliances in ummm, the wrong plugs, you can ummm, BLOW THEM UP. Yeah been there done that. So, find out if they give you a transformer. But plugging appliances into a transformer can shorten the life of your appliances. We have had to chalk it up to just a living expense, or buy appliances locally, so we know we can plug them directly into the wall.