Tips for pack out and moving in Part 1--air freight

I know it’s still early, but we are getting close to summer transfer season.  And while I’m not supposed to leave post until July (at the earliest) I’ve already started making my lists and mentally preparing myself for pack out. 

Why, you might ask, are you worried about pack out now?  For heaven’s sake, the movers will come and do everything for you!  Well, my friends, I’m glad you asked that, because, as this will be my sixth move, experience teaches me to prepare early.  While the movers will pack everything for you they basically just want to get everything in a box as quickly and carefully as possible.  This might not sound like a problem, but imagine 3-6 strangers in your house with boxes, paper and tape emptying drawers, closets, boxes, in 16 hours—and this includes loading the truck—and you might begin to understand why you need to be ready in advance. 

First things first:  Do you have items going to more than one place, or in more than one shipment?  For instance do you have an air shipment and a sea shipment?  Are you sending some of your things to storage, or to another house somewhere?  What about your suitcases?

Think about where you are sending your things and by what method.  Speak to your shippers early on in the process to find out if you can ship food, electronics, liquids, or aerosols.  If you get a lighter shipment (like an airfreight) to get you settled in before the main bulk of your household effects arrives, separate out those items first.  In this shipment you want to think about what is the bare minimum that your family can survive on and feel at home.  Things like kitchen supplies; pots, pans, plates, silverware, anything you use regularly to get food on the table—and take it from me pack your muffin pans and loaf pans if you might ever make muffins or bread.  I now have 5 loaf pans and 2 muffin pans because every time I move I don’t think I’ll need them, and every time we get there I need them and buy new ones. Bedding; sheets, towels, blankets, pillows—these may or may not be provided for you when you get to post, but chances are they will be weird, scratchy, and unfamiliar.  There’s nothing like sliding into bed in your own sheets to make you feel at home.  Toys—if you have kids this is a must.  There is nothing worse than arriving to an empty house, except arriving to an empty house with kids asking every two seconds “what can I do?”  Clothes—I would bring as many seasons as will fit, I once packed only summer and fall clothes because we were supposed to arrive at post in early summer and there would really be no way it could take 6 months for our items to arrive… well we didn’t get to post until late summer and by the time our shipment arrived it was late fall and I was freezing! 

Of course, every family is different and you are going to have to make your own lists as to what you send by air.  One way to do this is to make a list of everything you use as you use it for a month, then pare this list down to the essentials. Like getting rid of a pizza cutter when a knife will do, or instead of 3 plates per person per day, one set of dishes for each person. 

On packing day have your packers pack and weigh this shipment first so that if you have extra space you can add to it, or if you are overweight you can take things out before your entire house is packed up.