Option 1
One family.
One House.
One truck.
One day.
One delivery.
Arrive at new home.
Option 2
One family.
One House.
Three trucks.
Two days.
6 Deliveries.
Arrive at new home one and a half weeks later.
We scored option 2 without even knowing we had an option 1.
The job was described as a 3 day job (the 3rd
was contingency); one truck would cart boxes and furniture to the larger
truck parked close by (our road is too narrow and overgrown with trees for a larger
truck to drive up) and at the end of each day I would check the inventory with the team leader before they locked down the truck.
We were so excited to be able to confirm door-to-door delivery as we've found and rented a fabulous new house.
We’re being trucked up via the ferry, which for us is the
quickest we’ve ever had our stuff transported!
In reality, it’s been one van yesterday (day 1) which
transported 65 boxes to a warehouse in London (where exactly I don’t know);
today there’s 2 vans waiting for the rest of our stuff. They will go to the
same warehouse and be unloaded next to yesterdays lot.
Then (I’m not sure when exactly) ALL three loads will be
packed onto one large truck for the ferry ride, where it will be unloaded into
a warehouse awaiting the Irish moving company’s truck, where it will be loaded
for deliver to us sometime w/c August 19. The company overseeing the move is a Swedish company believe it or not - with agents in the UK and Ireland. The UK company told me they would be delivering the loaded truck to Dublin and an Irish company will be delivering it to the house.
Today they said the Irish company is collecting the load.
Does it matter? Probably not, but it would be nice to actually know what was happening with OUR STUFF.
I’m not sure why I’m slightly stressed as this is STILL the
quickest timeframe for any international move we’ve done …. But being told it's door-to-door meant exactly that, we had planned our arrival around being in the house
with our stuff Monday!
So we added bits’n’bobs to
the truckload rather than the car, extended the hotel booking, will eat out most nights etc, we’ll be fine. We're expat's, we've learned our lessons from previous moves and apply that knowledge to help each move be easier, simpler. We're flexible. We're patient.
As some of the furniture in the house isn’t ours, we’ve put
DO NOT PACK stickers on them. Still I’ve been asked several times ‘is this
going?’ DOH! NO, it’s got a sticker.
Walked the guys around each room, instructing them on what
stays, what goes; showed them the ONE ROOM we have in the cellar (it’s an 1800s
cellar with lots of rooms) and said everything in here is to be packed please’
so they ask ‘what about the grog outside the door’ um NO, just the stuff in
this room and only this room please.
Our lounge is now legless, in pieces.
The dining table too.
Thank goodness the dining chairs stay in one piece.
What will we note the trampoline as? Um, how about
trampoline or outside?????
What about this cupboard here? No – not mine. Just the one
room in the cellar.
Then he opened the door to next door (which happens to be
the landlord) and says oy, you didn’t tell me about this second kitchen. Took
me all my time not to shout it’s not my kitchen or I would have told you about
it.
175 individual items on the outgoing inventory.
It's not a competition by any means, but it's always interesting to find out how many boxes/items people move with. We're obviously the smallest as there's only 3 of us and we have an enforced small allowance. I just cope with the amount we have!
MrsP has recently repatriated from Yokohama to the UK after nearly 10 years being away ... she left with 3 children and is returning with 4. She just texted to wish us well with our move and said she's expecting 400 boxes next week, that in addition to having opened the storage unit here, that's a lot of stuff for any family to deal with.
Wonder how the UNpacking will go - her's and mine, and several friends who are moving to new adventures, including repatriating.
Please! If you are reading this and have moved, or are moving internationally or to the next suburb, please let us all know how you coped, and how many boxes/items you had to deal with.
With friendship
x
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