Packing

The aspect about moving that most people hate is the packing.  No matter how organized you think you are, when you get down to it, there are still a lot of items to put into boxes and transport somewhere.

One of the (many) great things about joining the Foreign Service is that you are packed.  Professional movers come to your house and pack your things. It sounds wonderful and I'm sure it is.  I am definitely looking forward to not having to get everything safely stowed away in boxes.  

But - even though this great team of people will come to my house in a few weeks to pack up all of our stuff and ship it to our new home, I still have to get it all organized.  And I don't mean just organized in my head with an idea of what goes where.  I have to organized things in piles (really rooms). And I have to inventory everything.  Yikes!

I have to organize stuff into what we'll take with us on the plane (clothes, things we'll need right away, etc.).  Then there's the stuff that will come to our new home fairly quickly - maybe within 2 weeks.  And then there's the stuff that we won't see until we get to our new post - which might not be for many months.  And then, there's the stuff that will stay in storage for years - the things we don't want to risk losing.  Lots of different choices for lots of different things.

Some of the stuff is pretty easy.  Of course we'll need our clothes.  But - will we be in DC long enough to need our winter clothes?  And what about holiday decorations?  I just put away all the Christmas stuff.  The place we'll be living in DC doesn't have a ton of room and I don't want to fill it up with stuff we don't need.  And then there are the kitchen items.  The place in DC is furnished, so we shouldn't need pots and pans.  But that said, I'm a cook.  I love cooking and it relaxes me.  So, bring the Cuisinart and the KitchenAid but not the crockpot or the bread maker?  Yes to the pressure cooker (how else would I make beans for fish tacos?)  So many decisions.

Then there's the stuff for long term storage - the items we won't take to post.  Again - some stuff is easy.  The kids baby stuff that I've kept to pass on to their kids - definitely long term storage.  But photos are hard.  I want to have them with me but they're probably safer remaining in storage.  Digital photos are easy, of course, but the older photos. . .  And then the artwork that makes our home our home - what to do about that.  So many decisions and which is the right choice? 

It's so easy to quickly become obsessed with making the right decision.  Wanting to know how it's going to be, what I / we will want 6, 12, 18 months from now.  But then that brings me back to crux of all of this.  We just don't know.  This is a lot about letting go and seeing where life takes you.

And that's the adventure.