Hola from Peru!!
We have remained in Peru for 4 days now and we've currently fallen in love with this country and the people. Your prayers are felt and God has already provided in incredible methods. We will be in Lima for the next couple of days, then we head to Cusco where we will be dealing with a Peruvian household for a month while we go to 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 move to Peru and talking with individuals about moving to another country, we found that nearly everyone wondered to understand precisely HOW we were going to load for our relocation. So before 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 frustrating (I will be stating that a lot in this blog haha) and if you resemble most of us, you have a lot of stuff, so leaving all of it for the eleventh hour will worry you out more. You may forget things or potentially take excessive. Julian and I started about 3 months beforehand by getting rid of clothing and things we didn't need occasionally (many trips to Goodwill). And we likewise began buying trunks early because they can get pretty expensive so spreading out that out assists. I also began posting advertisements early on Facebook to sell our furniture and from that we had good friends buy a great deal of our things in advance to pick it up when we were ready to move. Likewise making a list of whatever that remains in each trunk is something Julian and I forgot to do but is available in useful when dealing with custom-mades.
2. Take Pictures of Your Home
This is actually for the memories. The home we vacated was our very first house together and it suggested a lot to us. So the images are just for us to bear in mind and perhaps show our future household one day, to know where it all started.
3. Packing Cubes!!
I have been an advocate for packing cubes since my trip to El Salvador a year ago. On that journey, I could only take a carry on with me and was able to fit 2 weeks worth of clothing and toiletries!!! Needless to state we bought as a number of them as we might and had the ability to get the majority of my clothes into one travel suitcase. I won't lie, though packing cubes are great, packing all my clothes and trying to make them all fit and not discuss the 50-lb limit was VERY DEMANDING and caused me lots of breakdowns haha (just being truthful).
4. Discover Somebody Who Lives/Has Lived Where You Are Going & Inquire ANY & ALL Concerns.
This is something a great deal of other individuals where telling us to do and truthfully we didn't think it was that crucial ... at first. But a couple of months before leaving and ending up being overwhelmed by not understanding what to load we reached out to another physician named Ari, who is really currently living in the house we will be moving into. She has truly been a God-send. I emailed Ari at least 3 times a week till we moved here. I asked her anything to whatever: from the size of the kitchen shelves to whether we needed to bring rain boots.
5. Toss a Packaging Party!
Invite somebody over who is a master at Tetris, who has no problem telling you "you don't need that", and who can handle you being stressed out. Our pal Sandra was another God-send for us !! She came by (ON HER DAY OFF) and invested the entire day, going through our stuff, making the calls we could not make on what we must bring, contribute, or store. She helped us pack whatever in our trunks and helped make it all fit without being over 50 lbs. THANK YOU SANDRA!!!
6. Discover to Let Go ...
At the end of the day you are moving overseas and can not take whatever 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 aspect of keeping EVERY pen he owned because college. Hahha. Why idk, but with Sandra's assistance Julian is now devoid of his pen addiction. Hahah!
7. Bless Others with Your Things!
This was probably my preferred part about moving. Like I said previously, we took lots of journeys to Goodwill, but we also permitted our friends to go through all of our stuff and let them take whatever they desired. It was really neat to understand that our things were going into the homes of people we enjoy!!
8. Bring Things that You Will Miss!
In talking with Ari and other individuals that have actually done what we are doing like Julian's parents, everyone said the exact same thing, BRING THE THINGS THAT YOU WILL MISS. For us, good bedding was really crucial, likewise excellent knives, a few framed pictures of our loved ones, and PEANUT BUTTER (obviously peanut butter is not a thing in other nations)! So that's what we made sure to load!
9. Relax and Take A Second ... Lots Of Seconds ... to Make Fun Of Your Circumstance!!
As I have mentioned, packaging is overwhelming. At any quality it can truthfully make or break you. Don't let it break you. Take a 2nd to yell, recognize the chaos around you, and then simply laugh since it is nuts. What you are trying to do is insane: your house has never looked worse, you are sleeping on a floor, and taking a shower without a shower curtain while trying not to get too much water on the flooring, eating out of the same bowl for each meal, and only have one good t-shirt since all the rest of your clothes are packed. You're not living your normal life and its overwhelming, but if you take a look at a range, its likewise hilarious, so LAUGH! hahhaha! Also leave your home, go check out the city you are leaving, meet up with good friends, and enjoy yourself, that actually assisted us when packaging was dragging us down!
10. Document the experience!
Its actually fun to look back now on how much Julian and I did in such little time. Here are some images of our last few months in Houston!