Tuesday, May 28, 2013

2 International Moves in 1 Year

We had so much fun the first time, we thought we'd do it again! That's right, we are moving back state-side as my husband was offered an amazing job.  I recently completed my Masters degree in Social Work and am also on the job hunt.  In the meantime I am 'in charge' of organizing this move as my husband still has a few months left to complete his Masters degree and is working full time.  This has included finding an apartment, a car, phone plans, and of course finding out how best to move our STUFF.

We agreed that our appliances and furniture would be sold and are hoping to find a renter who will want to buy those things off of us to reduce the stress of selling off our items piece by piece.  Most of our kitchenware will be sold as well, but there are items I would like to bring back (aside from clothing) such as Books and Dishes.





We have managed to pare down our books to only 48 in different sizes and take up less than 2 shelves in our bookcase.  Our dishes were wedding gifts and I LOVE them and want to keep them very badly.  I thought at first that two boxes worth of shipping might be the way to go, as the main issue with these items are weight rather than space.  But after contacting 5 different shipping companies I realized it is going to cost between 400-500 dollars to ship, which is too much.

So that leaves us only a few options:

1) Give away/Sell/Buy New in the US
2) Ask friends for help who are visiting this summer
3) Pay $60-$70 for the extra bags at the airport
4) Leave a few things in Israel with family until we can bring them over

At this moment I'm leaning towards a mix of numbers 2-4 with a few fabulous friends having already offered to help out.  As you can see, it's not that these items take up a lot of space but they add up in weight and with a 50 lb weight limit at the airport, it could be an issue.  Any thoughts, tips, tricks or advice on moving internationally?!  Please let me know!  I need all the help I can get!

Thursday, May 23, 2013

One Suitcase Challenge - Update

Well folks, I am proud to announce that I am NEARLY at my goal of being able to fit my wardrobe into ONE suitcase.  With a another big move happening this summer (more on this later) and a short trip home for graduation between now and then I thought this would be a great time to see how much I could fit into our biggest suitcase while starting to pack.  As you can see below, without any real folding/rolling/or other space saving techniques, I was able to fit all my tops and bottoms for warm and cold weather into the suitcase.



The items I was not able to fit included my hanging items and pajama shelf.  This also did not include coats, shoes, undergarments or accessories (jewelry, hats, gloves, purses, belts).  This is a work in progress and I even started yet another small pile of give-away's which I am sure will grow as we progress with plans for another move overseas.




Luckily I will be able to move our cold weather clothes, shoes and coats over during my short trip home which will leave us a lot of wiggle room this summer.  My hope is to fit all our summer clothes into one suitcase and have the other three for linens, coats and shoes.  Any advice?!!