Hola from Peru!!
We have actually remained in Peru for 4 days now and we have actually already fallen in love with this nation and individuals. Your prayers are felt and God has actually already offered in remarkable methods. We will be in Lima for the next number 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 learn Spanish, while Julian will learn Quechua, the indigenous language.
Anyways, as we were preparing to transfer to Peru and talking with people about moving to another nation, we found that nearly everybody wondered to know exactly HOW we were going to pack for our move. 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 ... Delight in!
1. Start Packing EARLY & Do it in Phases.
Packaging is frustrating (I will be saying that a lot in this blog haha) and if you resemble the majority of us, you have a great deal of stuff, so leaving it all for the last minute will stress you out more. You might forget things or potentially take excessive. Julian and I started about 3 months beforehand by eliminating clothes and things we didn't require here and there (a lot of journeys to Goodwill). And we also started buying trunks early due to the fact that they can get quite expensive so spreading that out helps. I likewise started publishing ads early on Facebook to sell our furniture and from that we had buddies buy a lot of our stuff in advance to pick it up when we were prepared to move. Also making a list of whatever that is in each trunk is something Julian and I forgot to do however is available in convenient when handling customs.
2. Take Pictures of Your House
This is actually for the memories. The apartment we moved out was our first home together and it suggested a lot to us. So the pictures are simply for us to remember and maybe reveal our future family one day, to understand where it all began.
3. Packing Cubes!!
I have been an advocate for packing cubes given that my trip to El Salvador a year earlier. On that journey, I could only take a carry on with me and had the ability to fit 2 weeks worth of clothing and toiletries!!! Needless to say we purchased as much of them as we might and had the ability to get the majority of my clothes into one suitcase. I will not lie, though packing cubes are excellent, loading all my clothes and attempting to make them all fit and not discuss the 50-lb limit was VERY STRESSFUL and caused me many breakdowns haha (just being sincere).
4. Discover Somebody Who Lives/Has Lived Where You Are Going & Inquire ANY & ALL Concerns.
This is something a great deal of other people where telling us to do and truthfully we didn't think it was that important ... initially. However a couple of months before leaving and ending up being overwhelmed by not knowing what to pack we connected to another physician named Ari, who is really presently residing in the apartment or condo we will be moving into. She has truly 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 cooking area racks 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 issue telling you "you do not need that", and who can manage you being stressed out. Our friend Sandra was another God-send for us !! She came by (ON HER DAY OFF) and spent the whole day, going through our things, making the calls we could not make on what we ought to bring, donate, or shop. She helped us load whatever in our trunks and helped make it all fit without being over 50 pounds. THANK YOU SANDRA!!!
6. Find Out to Let Go ...
At the end of the day you are moving overseas and can not take whatever with you and will have to let go of a lot ... A Great Deal Of your stuff. For me it was shoes, for Julian ... he had this insane aspect of keeping EVERY pen he owned considering that college. Hahha. Why idk, however with Sandra's assistance Julian is now devoid of his pen addiction. Hahah!
7. Bless Others with Your Stuff!
This was probably my preferred part about moving. Like I said earlier, we took lots of journeys to Goodwill, but we likewise allowed our buddies to go through all of our stuff and let them take whatever they desired. It was truly neat to understand that our things were entering into the houses of people we like!!
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 parents, everybody stated the same thing, BRING THE THINGS THAT YOU WILL MISS. For us, good bed linen was extremely essential, likewise good knives, a couple of framed images of our friends and family, and PEANUT BUTTER (obviously peanut butter is not a thing in other countries)! So that's what we made sure to load!
9. Relax and Take A 2nd ... Numerous Seconds ... to Laugh at Your Scenario!!
As I have pointed out, packaging is frustrating. At any caliber it can honestly make or break you. Don't let it break you. Take a 2nd to yell, recognize the chaos around you, and after that just laugh since it is nuts. What you are attempting to do is insane: your home has never looked even worse, you are sleeping on a floor, and taking a shower without a shower curtain while trying not to get excessive water on the floor, eating out of the same bowl for every single meal, and only have one great t-shirt since all the rest of your clothing are packed. You're not living your typical life and its frustrating, however if you look at a range, its likewise funny, so LAUGH! hahhaha! Also get out of your home, go check out the city you are leaving, meet up with pals, and enjoy yourself, that actually helped us when packaging was dragging us down!
10. Document the experience!
Its actually enjoyable to recall now on just how much Julian and I did in such little time. Here are some images of our last couple of months in Houston!