We moved here with 14 boxes for three people. My goal for the move back: 20 boxes for five people. Achievable, right? Yes but we still have a lot of work ahead of us.
There’s been a bit of pile up since we moved last summer. I was busy furnishing the place and then baby #3 arrived.
Those of you debating adding #3 probably don’t want to hear this but we’ve found it pretty challenging to be outnumbered. That third baby is a big chunky six month old now but we’ve been treading water since his arrival. We’re still recounting the days antics and milestones and hilarious observations to each other after they’re in bed, but we’re doing so with huge bags under our eyes. I was at the gym when baby #2 was six weeks old. With the third it was four months before I made it in. We’re still in the super simple meal planning mode with the occasional take out order. Very happy to have my healthy trio but I’m not going to sugar coat this experience: we are tired.
Why not throw an international move into the mix, right? It’s felt overwhelming at times. The decisions to make, the paperwork to fill out, the logistics of it all but we’re getting it done. Slowly but surely. The house is emptying out, citizenship certificates have arrived and bridging health insurance has been bought. We are still in limbo on schools and where we will live this summer but those pieces will sort themselves out with a bit more time.
How is our big home purge different this third time around? It definitely feels like the third time time. Big declutter in fall of 2010, then sold almost everything to move overseas in May of 2011. Now, four years later, the moving back house purge.
Big one: I joined Facebook for this move. I deleted my personal account four years ago and have been pretty happy without it until now (I do have a blog page on Facebook but I don’t have a newsfeed or ‘friends’ on it). More on that later from a social aspect but here in the Isle of Man, Facebook is king for selling your stuff. I opened a new account back in May and have had some good success finding homes for the things we aren’t taking with us. It’s a clunky and frustrating system but this is the best way to sell and buy locally. If you’re moving house, downsizing or plain old decluttering, it really is easiest to use the preferred local method for buy and sell.
Despite not having a lot of luck with toddler and baby sales in Vancouver, I tried one out here to see if I could move a lot of our things quickly. My friend was organizing it and graciously squeezed an extra table in for me. In the British Isles these sales are called a ‘boot sale’ and they happen in community and church halls. Boot is what a North American would refer to as the trunk of a car. I was hoping to move a few things in one afternoon and I was ecstatic to sell all of our big items – high chair, umbrella stroller, ‘circle of neglect’ – in just a few hours. A resounding success.
This time we also know what we are moving to: an unfurnished apartment. It’s one of the reasons we will be sending more things back with us. Our furniture is mostly second hand and not worth the exorbitant cost to ship back. But kitchen items, toys, books (mostly children’s and text books) and anything that is equal to the move value of each box will go. We will, again, have to furnish a small home this summer.
For our move to the Isle of Man we relied on family to shift the last of our items after we left. This allowed us to stay in our home until moving day. This time around we are moving into temporary accommodations for a few days before departure. It upped our moving costs but it will relieve some stress for coordinating furniture pick up and moving out of our rental. We will try to sell our car right before we leave and if it doesn’t go a friend will sell it for us. Last time there was no car to sell!
This post over at Real Housekeeping, part of their Ultimate Moving Guide series, has some great advice and we are following a lot of steps in their posts. We are using up our cupboards, giving away what we can and selling and recycling a lot of things. I’ve set the limit of 20 boxes + airline luggage + two boys scooters + double stroller for this move. Everything else must go.
Anyone else with a recent move under their belts? How did you prepare? Did you have a goal in mind like one truck full or a certain number of boxes?
About 5 months ago we downsized to an RV. My husband has traveled for his work and lived out of motel rooms for the past couple of years. I was finishing school and working full time so to pick up and leave for me was not an option until last year. The opportunity arose for me to join him. We were renting a two bedroom small house…very small. We had two major garage sales, one over the 4th of July weekend and one over the weekend of Labor Day. Both huge traffic times for garage sale patrons. We sold so much stuff at that time. I utilized facebook sale pages as well and had quite a bit of luck. We did have some family heirloom pieces of furniture as well as other things that we knew we wanted to keep for when we were done traveling. So we have a small storage unit at a great monthly rate. Basically we were required to only bring what would fit in our home on wheels.
The entire process seemed really overwhelming at first but I took it one step at a time. I am a list person and schedule things. So I set up dates in which each thing needed to be done and was able to get it all done. I should add that hubby was gone working while this was taking place so with the help of a few family and friends occasionally I was able to get it done. He was home about every other weekend or so.
Good luck to you in your process. I like that you set a goal of 20 boxes. That is exactly something I would have done too. It helps you to really determine what is a necessity or what can be replaced.
Thanks, Tabbie. I also found our recent downsizing and move overwhelming. My husband and I had a little phrase when it felt like there was too much to do and not enough time: do the work. It really helped me focus and not get stressed out by having to, once again, sell and give away most of our stuff.
Love your blog and glad you are coming home to Canada. My first was by far, the hardest and number 2&3 seemed a piece of cake. The first had colic and my solution was to nurse her every time she cried which was not helping. Anyway, that all seems easy compared to three teenagers…..remember that when contemplating number 4!! I am on the other side of our great country but close to lots of mountains too.
Love this post!! It’s inspiring as I’m moving my family of three just an hour away and while our new home is a bit larger, I’m determined to bring less ‘stuff’ into our new space.
We were going to hire movers and after hearing the ‘average’ cost we thought it was silly to spend that when we have downsized so much it wouldn’t take much effort to just do it ourselves. Even more inspiration to keep downsizing before the big move, right?!
Excited to hear how your move goes and to continue to follow you on your journey!!
We moved last year from North Carolina to Indiana, and it was our third interstate move in five years. It was also the first time we used a moving company to pack and ship everything for us. I knew we had too much to fit into even the largest Penske truck and our baby was 4 months old and had a couple of medical issues that really drained us physically leading up to the move, so while it was crazy expensive we felt it was worth it. I was little horrified by how much stuff we had, though. The movers kept commenting on it and telling us we got a great deal, because the estimator bid too low. Even worse is when we got to the new house and were finally able to open every box – so much stuff went into the donation bin…. Why did we keep hauling it all over the country???
Looking forward to a Vancouver summer! Have to meet up with you and all our boys when we are back.
Good luck with the move Rachel! I am helping my parents move at the moment and am in charge of helping them get rid of 40 years worth of stuff. To say I am in my element would be an understatement! I’m loving every minute of it as I know how lovely and spacious their new home will feel once I’m done. I bet it will be wonderful for you all to be back close to family again.
We haven’t moved in four years. It was a blur and I barely remember it. However, let me assure you that before you know it, having three kids will not be overwhelming except in rare instances when everyone’s crying. Sometime between my third’s first and second birthday, I realized life was much easier. And now that he’s four, it’s smooth sailing. If we hadn’t settled on permanent birth control, I’d probably be lobbying for a fourth!
Thanks, Starr. This is nice to hear. I can see it will get easier – the five year old is cake! Trying not to wish these months, years away, and find the joy in the chaos. 🙂
We are also preparing for a move (not international, though! My goodness, the thought of that makes me a little panicky.) We were living in a 1500-square-foot house and thought we’d downsized our stuff quite a bit – but between the attic & the basement & the garage…I am embarrassed to say that when we moved from that house to this one we ended up needing 2 U-Haul trucks.
Our goal this time is to move with just one truck. Our biggest sticking point is books (although we got rid of about 1/3 of our book collection recently – we are all big readers here so I don’t know how much better we’re going to do than that) and sentimental stuff my mother keeps sending to me for storage. (Their house is tiny & we have a huge attic, so I am okay with that, I guess…) I can’t get rid of any of it because my mother would have a fit so I am trying instead to consolidate it all into as few boxes as possible, store it in the corner of our attic, and hope it doesn’t take up too much room in the moving truck.
I’m pleased with the progress we’ve made in decluttering/downsizing our stuff. It’s still hard to see the results, though – some of our downsizing will come when we actually move & leave behind furniture that we don’t love – I figure there’s no point in moving stuff we don’t love, just to replace it after we’ve moved. So we’ll be leaving our old, ripped couches, huge TV cabinet, dining room set, etc. replacing them with things we love after we get there. I’m looking forward to seeing how it all works out (and finding out, when we load the truck, whether we really got rid of as much as we think we have!) xo
Oooo…20 boxes is a nice goal. Totally feasable.
I love following your blog for decluttering tips! My husband and I are in the process of getting rid of junk. We will likely move next summer (though probably not involving air fair) and it would be nice to have our possessions down to a manageable amount by next June! The more we purge, the less cost of moving and more flexibility we’ll have.
Love your blog!
We don’t have a move ahead of us but I’m decluttering as if we had to move. I know moves are a pain, but it really does make you evaluate what you want to keep doesn’t it?
It really does make you evaluate what you actually use and what is worth it to ship.
Congratulations! And good luck 🙂
I always find it interesting to hear which child was the hardest transition. For me, the first and second were the hardest, and #s 3, 4 and 5 have been really smooth!
Don’t say this!! You’ll make me want a fourth 😉 Yes, I think it’s really different for everyone. Child and baby temperament, child spacing, what’s going on with the parents at the time. So many factors. Pretty sure deciding to uproot ourselves has not made our transition to a family of five easier.
A friend recently commented that, when it comes to kids, “3 is a lot more than 2”. I totally agree. I was very caught off guard by how hard that transition was.
We just welcomed number four in November and moved in May. “Treading water”- yup.
Thanks for the commiseration, Katherine. My mother had six children and she also said going from 2 to 3 was the hardest.
For me, the hardest was #1. He was a rough introduction to motherhood. Adding #2, #3, and #4 was a breeze compared to that, mostly because they were easier babies, but also because I was already in motherhood mode.
I was more together with baby #4 (and three small kids to boot) than I was with #1!
This was my life as a child! Every two years my Mum had to do a massive declutter to fit all our possessions into a “lift van”- the container provided by Dad’s employer. Invariably, at the new place, I would ask “Where’s my …(thing)…?” and Mum would answer, “We had to leave it behind”. I’m sure this is why I hang on to everything now… because I can. Although my adult longs for a minimalist lifestyle, I still allow my subconscious child to sabotage me. The last time I moved as an adult, I had more stuff than my Mum packed for a family of four. Your blog posts remind me to focus on the important things: family, friends, experiences- and not so much on stuff. Thank you, and best wishes for your move.
‘Circle of neglect’!!!!! I laughed so hard I cried. I have 7 children and have never heard that one. Thank you that smile this morning.
🙂 Glad you enjoyed that one.
We moved recently. We actually moved out of our old apartment 3 weeks ago and stayed in hotels for 2 weeks. So we had to put everything into a storage unit for that time. Last Monday we moved into a rental house. Our goal was that everything fit inside of an 8 by 10 by 6 ft. storage unit. We were able to move everything to and from the storage unit in the back of our vehicle. We have a Dodge Journey and the seats fold down so there’s a larger cargo area when we need it. We prefer to sleep on Japanese futons and we don’t own any bulky furniture so that helped keep it down. In the past 8 years we’ve lived in 8 places not counting temporary housing between leases. One of the things I’ve found most helpful is I usually don’t sell the things that we aren’t moving. I will donate it to the local thrift stores or another agency that can use them. I find trying to sell things online to be more stress than it’s worth. That is probably just where we live though.
That is a lot of moving, Amy.
It has been challenging to sell things online. I got some tips from a friend that was downsizing in preparation for a move and I mostly try to stick to it. I try to have people come by during the same window when I know we will be home. This is helpful so I don’t get stranded at home waiting for people that don’t show up. Lower value items and collections of free items I leave out front and ask the people to get them when they like. They slip the $ into our mail slot. I used eBay to sell a few things that no one wanted locally but that I knew I could get a good price for.