10 Packing Hacks for Moving Overseas!

Hola from Peru!!

We have actually remained in Peru for 4 days now and we've already fallen in love with this country and the people. Your prayers are felt and God has already provided in amazing ways. We will remain in Lima for the next number of days, then we head to Cusco where we will be coping with a Peruvian family for a month while we participate in language school. At language school I, Devyn, will be continuing to find out Spanish, while Julian will find out Quechua, the indigenous language.

Anyways, as we were preparing to transfer to Peru and talking with people about moving to another country, we discovered that almost everybody wondered to understand precisely HOW we were going to pack for our move. So prior to we dove into how things are going here in Peru, we believed we 'd share with y' all 10 hacks that we found in packing to move overseas ... Delight in!

1. Start Packing EARLY & Do it in Stages.

Packaging is overwhelming (I will be stating that a lot in this blog haha) and if you resemble most of us, you have a lot of things, so leaving everything for the last minute will worry you out more. You might forget things or possibly take too much. Julian and I began about 3 months in advance by getting rid of clothing and things we didn't need occasionally (many trips to Goodwill). And we likewise started purchasing trunks early because they can get pretty costly so spreading out that out helps. I also started publishing advertisements early on Facebook to sell our furniture and from that we had friends buy a lot of our things in advance to choose it up when we were ready to move. Also making a list of whatever that is in each trunk is something Julian and I forgot to do but can be found in useful when handling customs.

2. Take Pictures of Your Home

This is really for the memories. The house we moved out was our very first home together and it meant a lot to us. So the images are just for us to bear in mind and maybe show our future household one day, to understand where it all started.

3. Packing Cubes!!

I have been an advocate for packing cubes given that my journey to El Salvador a year back. On that trip, I could just take a carry on with me and was able to fit 2 weeks worth of clothing and toiletries!!! Needless to say we bought as many of them as we might and had the ability to get most of my clothes into one suitcase. I won't lie, though loading cubes are fantastic, loading all my clothes and attempting to make them all fit and not discuss the 50-lb limitation was EXCEPTIONALLY DIFFICULT and triggered me many breakdowns haha (simply being honest).

4. Find Someone Who Lives/Has Lived Where You Are Going & Inquire ANY & ALL Concerns.

This is something a great deal of other people where informing us to do and honestly we didn't think it was that important ... in the beginning. But a couple of months prior to leaving and becoming overwhelmed by not understanding what to load we connected to another medical professional called Ari, who is really presently residing in the house we will be moving into. She has actually really been a God-send. I emailed Ari a minimum of 3 times a week up until we moved here. I asked her anything to whatever: from the size of the cooking area racks to whether we required to bring rain boots.

5. Throw a Packaging Party!

Invite somebody over who is a master at Tetris, who has no problem telling you "you don't require that", and who can handle you being stressed out. Our buddy Sandra was another God-send for us !! She came by (ON HER Day Of Rest) and spent the whole day, going through our stuff, making the calls we could not make on what we ought to bring, donate, or shop. She assisted us pack everything in our trunks and assisted make it all fit without being over 50 lbs. THANK YOU SANDRA!!!

6. Find Out to Let Go ...

At the end of the day you are moving overseas and can not take everything with you and will have to release a lot ... A LOT of your stuff. For me it was shoes, for Julian ... he had this crazy feature of keeping EVERY pen he owned because college. Hahha. Why idk, but with Sandra's help Julian is now devoid of his pen addiction. Hahah!

7. Bless Others with Your Things!

This was most likely my preferred part about moving. Like I said earlier, we took numerous journeys to Goodwill, however we likewise enabled our friends to go through all of our stuff and let them take whatever they wanted. It was really cool to know that our things were entering into the houses of people we enjoy!!

8. Bring Things that You Will Miss!

In talking with Ari and other individuals that have done what we are doing like Julian's parents, everyone said the exact same thing, BRING The Important Things THAT YOU WILL MISS. For us, great bedding was very essential, likewise excellent knives, a couple of framed pictures of our family and friends, and PEANUT BUTTER (apparently peanut butter is not a thing in other countries)! So that's what we ensured to load!

9. Chill Out and Take A Second ... Many Seconds ... to Laugh at Your Scenario!!

As I have actually pointed out, packaging is frustrating. At any quality it can truthfully make or break you. Do not let it break you. Take a second to scream, recognize the mayhem around you, and after that simply laugh due to the fact that it is nuts. What you are trying to do is crazy: your house has actually never ever looked worse, you are sleeping on a floor, and taking a shower without a shower drape while trying not to get excessive water on the flooring, eating in restaurants of the same bowl for each meal, and only have one nice shirt given that all the rest of your clothing are loaded. You're not living your regular life and its frustrating, however if you look at a range, its also humorous, so LAUGH! hahhaha! Also get out of your house, go explore the city you are leaving, meet up with good friends, and enjoy yourself, that actually helped us when packing was dragging us down!

10. Document the experience!

Its really enjoyable to recall now on just how much Julian and I performed in such little time. Here are some photos of our last couple of months in Houston!