Usually when you move house you simply pack'n'go.
You phone a few moving companies and get quotes and the best one gets your business.
You purge what you choose to purge and take the rest with you.
When you move as an expat, your employer usually dictates the allowance they will cover in terms of household items to be shipped. This varies from company to company so is seldom discussed.
As a 2+1 (2 adults, one child) we have an allowance of a mere 24 cubic metres. That's slightly less than the smallest sea faring container.
As you may recall from earlier posts, we were just under this allowance moving from Japan to the UK due to the skills of the packers. We knew leaving here for Ireland we were going to be pushing it - with a trampoline and out door dining setting for 8 (neither of which I am prepared to get rid of) we'd be over.
Today was THE day.
The rep from the packing company came.
He took an inventory for every room.
He commented on how 'lightly' we travel.
He added up his tally.
We're 9 cubic metres over our allowance.
He doesn't seem to think it's an issue as we're going by truck and not sea.
He'll simply order a bigger truck.
It might be more expensive on the ferry to Ireland, but not much. It's only 9 cubic metres.
(To be honest I have no idea what that even means in real terms)
So I'm sitting here, downloading every single CD we own, simply to be able to toss the ugly cheap cabinet we bought in Ireland from Argos 5 years ago.
It's not 9 cubic metres, but it's a conscious start.
There's 3 small cupboards in MissM's playroom, also incredibly cheap from Argos, that house her board games, my Creative Memories (which I'm no longer doing) stuff and several Ikea storage boxes full of stuff that's organised by category. I'm going to ditch them too (will probably have to replace them, but at least I'm reducing weight NOW)
We've also got 3 ugly collapsable tables - easy decision to loose them to the tip.
MissM has my old computer desk which we can toss and replace with a lovely grown up school girl one for the 'new house'; it will be sad to see her small table and chair set but hey, if it helps to reduce the load, it'll go too.
I 'crafted' a round table a million years ago which we use as a side table in the lounge room - guess what, it's going to the tip!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The thing with moving around as often as we do, with limited allowance is that you don't have furniture you LOVE. You don't tend to invest in 'that special' piece but rather Ikea will do, and sometimes cheap'n'chearie works too.
So, while I have no idea what 9 cubic metres actually looks like, I feel more positive about the start I've made to reduce what we're taking, and at the same time feel very pleased to be loosing some of our ugly pieces.
I will NOT give up the outdoor setting even if we are moving to Ireland, nor MissM's trampoline, nor my dinner sets, or artwork. We have one dining table, 6 chairs and a sideboard ...... that's not a lot for a dining room. We have a 3 seater couch and a two seater couch + a low display cabinet in the lounge room and entertainment unit for the TV - again, not a lot.
So no, there's a few things that we will be keeping!
The company can shove their ridiculously low allowance!
With friendship
x
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