Hola from Peru!!
We have been in Peru for 4 days now and we have actually already fallen in love with this country and the people. Your prayers are felt and God has already supplied in fantastic methods. We will remain in Lima for the next couple of days, then we head to Cusco where we will be dealing with a Peruvian family for a month while we attend language school. At language school I, Devyn, will be continuing to learn Spanish, while Julian will discover Quechua, the native language.
Anyways, as we were preparing to relocate to Peru and talking with individuals about moving to another nation, we found that nearly everyone wondered to understand exactly HOW we were going to pack for our relocation. So prior to we dove into how things are going here in Peru, we thought we 'd share with y' all 10 hacks that we discovered in packing to move overseas ... Take pleasure in!
1. Start Packing EARLY & Do it in Phases.
Packing is overwhelming (I will be stating that a lot in this blog haha) and if you resemble most of us, you have a great deal of things, so leaving everything for the last minute will stress you out more. You may forget things or perhaps take too much. Julian and I began about 3 months beforehand by getting rid of clothes and things we didn't require here and there (many trips to Goodwill). And we also started buying trunks early since they can get pretty costly so spreading that out assists. I also began posting ads early on Facebook to offer our furnishings and from that we had pals purchase a great deal of our things in advance to select it up when we were all set to move. Also making a list of whatever that is in each trunk is something Julian and I forgot to do but is available in convenient when handling customs.
2. Take Pictures of Your House
This is really for the memories. The house we vacated was our first house together and it implied a lot to us. So the images are just for us to keep in mind and perhaps reveal our future family one day, to understand where all of it started.
3. Packing Cubes!!
I have been a supporter for packing cubes because my trip to El Salvador a year ago. On that journey, I could only take a continue with me and had the ability to fit 2 weeks worth of clothes and toiletries!!! Needless to say we purchased as many of them as we might and were able to get most of my clothes into one travel suitcase. I will not lie, though loading cubes are great, packing all my clothes and attempting to make them all fit and not go over the 50-lb limit was EXCEPTIONALLY STRESSFUL and caused me numerous breakdowns haha (simply being truthful).
4. Discover Someone Who Lives/Has Lived Where You Are Going & Ask ANY & ALL Concerns.
This is something a lot of other individuals where informing us to do and truthfully we didn't think it was that important ... in the beginning. But a couple of months prior to leaving and ending up being overwhelmed by not understanding what to load we reached out to another medical professional called Ari, who is actually currently residing in the house we will be moving into. She has genuinely been a God-send. I emailed Ari a minimum of 3 times a week till we moved here. I asked her anything to everything: from the size of the kitchen area shelves to whether we needed to bring rain boots.
5. Toss a Packaging Celebration!
Welcome somebody over who is a master at Tetris, who has no problem informing you "you do not require that", and who can manage you being stressed out. Our buddy Sandra was another God-send for us !! She came by (ON HER DAY OFF) and spent the whole day, going through our stuff, making the calls we could not make on what we ought to bring, contribute, or store. She helped us load everything in our trunks and helped make it all fit without being over 50 pounds. THANK YOU SANDRA!!!
6. Learn to Let Go ...
At the end of the day you are moving overseas and can not take everything with you and will need to let go of a lot ... A LOT of your things. For me it was shoes, for Julian ... he had this crazy thing about keeping EVERY pen he owned because college. Hahha. Why idk, however with Sandra's assistance Julian is now free from his pen dependency. Hahah!
7. Bless Others with Your Stuff!
This was most likely my favorite part about moving. Like I said previously, we took many journeys to Goodwill, however we also permitted our buddies to go through all of our things and let them take whatever they desired. It was truly cool to know that our things were entering into the homes of people we enjoy!!
8. Bring Things that You Will Miss!
In talking with Ari and other people that have actually done what we are doing like Julian's moms and dads, everybody said the exact same thing, BRING THE THINGS THAT YOU WILL MISS. For us, great bed linen was very crucial, likewise good knives, a few framed photos of our friends and family, and PEANUT BUTTER (obviously peanut butter is not a thing in other countries)! So that's what we made certain to load!
9. Relax and Take A 2nd ... Numerous Seconds ... to Laugh at Your Circumstance!!
As I have actually discussed, packaging is frustrating. At any caliber it can honestly make or break you. Don't let it break you. Take a second to scream, acknowledge the mayhem around you, and after that just laugh because it is nuts. What you are attempting to do is crazy: your home has never looked even worse, you are sleeping on a floor, and showering without a shower drape while attempting not to get too much water on the flooring, eating out of the very same bowl for every single meal, and only have one nice shirt considering that all the rest of your clothes are packed. You're not living your regular life and its frustrating, but if you look at a range, its also humorous, so LAUGH! hahhaha! Also get out of your home, go check out the city you are leaving, meet buddies, and enjoy yourself, that actually assisted us when packing was dragging us down!
10. Document the experience!
Its truly fun to recall now on just how much Julian and I carried out in such little time. Here are some images of our last couple of months in Houston!