Boys & Bases

At this point we are professional packers…we spent about a month and a half getting all of the packing, sorting, and planning situated. With any overseas move, you have four, yes four ways to sort your belongings.

This post might be information overload, but I feel it is helpful for anyone who might be moving overseas!

While we waited for our no-fee passports to come in we worked on scheduling our shipments. The first is Household Goods (HHG). This shipment is for any large items (couch, bed, table, large TV, etc), or items you can manage without for a month or two once arriving. The first step for us was to sort through the items we had in storage and move anything to our apartment that we would want sooner. Once we figured this out they arrived with a big moving truck. Our packing for HHG took almost FIVE hours because they sent only one person on a hot and windy day. She worked so hard to get everything packed, but it was a long day for her and us since we had to remain there the entire time. Lots of snacks, bike riding around the storage complex, and good summer music to keep everyone happy! We also learned while we waited, Jordan in fact does NOT know how to cross his eyes. Sorry to put you on blast.

Before the next pickup we went back to California to see some friends, meet my nephew for the first time and say our final goodbyes to family. Oh, and also snagged some new family photos! Uncle took the boys out fishing and it is all they ever talk about. We also made a quick trip to the zoo in the California heat.

After our trip was over, Unaccompanied Baggage (UB) pickup was next. For this, they came to our house since we had most of the remaining items at home. Now since we had sold most of our stuff before we came we had minimal to begin. We were sleeping on a small mattress and the boys had the nugget cushions they slept on. Luckily for us, we were planning on just getting rid of the mattress once we moved out. However, it is common with overseas moves to have to sleep on the floor, air mattress, or other creative means for the last 2 weeks of moving. This is definitely not easy, especially when you have little kids! Before UB came we were mindful of separating our items in one room. Anything that wasn’t in the room would come on the plane with us, be sold, or tossed. The movers for UB were super efficient! They were there for maybe an hour, wrapped everything perfectly, and carried it down some icy steps during a late freeze. Now if you aren’t from Colorado you might be confused about how one shipment only a few weeks apart could be hot and windy and another icy and cold…but if you live in Colorado you get it. 

The last shipment that was pickup for us was Non-Temporary Storage (NTS). This is for any items that you can’t ship or do not want to ship and will stay in the States. We had a few items still in storage for this. For an overseas move, at least to Korea, we were not allowed to ship our washer and dryer. This went with NTS along with Micah’s battery-operated Jeep, sentimental items, and pictures to hang. Here in Korea, it is very uncommon to put things on the walls. The material of the walls are either wallpaper or for us, it’s paper mache. Even on base housing, they are only allowed to use command strips since the housing turnover time is much shorter.

Once all the shipments were picked up we were left with the remaining items in our apartment for the last two weeks. This was anything that would be sold, trashed, or packed to bring on the plane. When I was looking around I still felt overwhelmed by what was in the house. How were we going to manage to complete everything in such a tight timeframe? All that was left between us and leaving was 4 storage tubs.

Somehow we managed to do it!