10 Packing Hacks for Moving Abroad!

Hola from Peru!!

We have been in Peru for 4 days now and we've already fallen for this country and individuals. Your prayers are felt and God has already provided in fantastic methods. We will be in Lima for the next number of days, then we head to Cusco where we will be living with a Peruvian household for a month while we participate in language school. At language school I, Devyn, will be continuing to discover Spanish, while Julian will discover Quechua, the indigenous language.

Anyways, as we were preparing to move to Peru and talking with people about relocating to another nation, we found that practically everyone wondered to know 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 show y' all 10 hacks that we discovered in packing to move overseas ... Delight in!

1. Start Packing EARLY & Do it in Stages.

Packaging is frustrating (I will be saying that a lot in this blog site haha) and if you resemble most of us, you have a lot of things, so leaving all of it for the last minute will worry you out more. You might forget things or potentially take excessive. Julian and I began about 3 months beforehand by getting rid of clothes and things we didn't require here and there (numerous journeys to Goodwill). And we also started purchasing trunks early due to the fact that they can get pretty costly so spreading that out helps. I also began publishing ads early on Facebook to offer our furnishings and from that we had pals buy a lot of our things in advance to pick it up when we were all set to move. Also making a list of everything that is in each trunk is something Julian and I forgot to do but comes in helpful when handling customs.

2. Take Pictures of Your Home

This is truly for the memories. The apartment or condo we moved out was our first home together and it suggested a lot to us. So the photos are just for us to remember and perhaps reveal our future family one day, to know where all of it started.

3. Loading Cubes!!

I have actually been a supporter for packing cubes because my journey 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 state we purchased as much of them as we could and were able to get the majority of my clothing into one luggage. I will not lie, though loading cubes are terrific, loading all my clothing and trying to make them all fit and not discuss the 50-lb limit was INCREDIBLY DIFFICULT and caused me many breakdowns haha (just being honest).

4. Find Someone Who Lives/Has Lived Where You Are Going & Inquire ANY & ALL Questions.

This is something a lot of other people where telling us to do and truthfully we didn't think it was that crucial ... in the beginning. However a couple of months before leaving and ending up being overwhelmed by not knowing what to load we reached out to another doctor named Ari, who is actually presently residing in the home we will be moving into. She has actually genuinely 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 cooking area shelves to whether we needed to bring rain boots.

5. Toss a Packaging Party!

Invite someone over who is a master at Tetris, who has no problem telling you "you don't need that", and who can manage you being stressed. Our good friend Sandra was another God-send for us !! She came by (ON HER Day Of Rest) and spent the whole day, going through our things, making the calls we could not make on what we need to bring, donate, or store. She helped us load everything 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 everything with you and will have to let go of a lot ... A LOT of your things. For me it was shoes, for Julian ... he had this crazy aspect of keeping EVERY pen he owned since college. Hahha. Why idk, however with Sandra's aid Julian is now free from his pen dependency. Hahah!

7. Bless Others with Your Things!

This was probably my preferred part about moving. Like I stated earlier, we took numerous trips to Goodwill, however we also permitted our buddies to go through all of our stuff and let them take whatever they wanted. It was actually neat to understand that our things were entering into the houses of individuals we love!!

8. Bring Things that You Will Miss!

In talking with Ari and other individuals that have done what we are doing like Julian's moms and dads, everybody stated the very same thing, BRING THE THINGS THAT YOU WILL MISS. For us, excellent bedding was really crucial, also excellent knives, a couple of framed pictures of our friends and family, and PEANUT BUTTER (obviously peanut butter is not a thing in other countries)! So that's what we ensured to load!

9. Chill Out and Take A 2nd ... Lots Of Seconds ... to Laugh at Your Scenario!!

As I have pointed out, packaging is overwhelming. At any caliber it can honestly make or break you. Do not let it break you. Take a second to scream, recognize the chaos around you, and then simply laugh because it is nuts. What you are trying to do is insane: your home has never looked worse, you are sleeping on a flooring, and taking a shower without a shower curtain while attempting not to get excessive water on the flooring, eating out of the exact same bowl for each meal, and only have one good shirt since all the rest of your clothes are packed. You're not living your normal life and its frustrating, but if you take a look at a range, its likewise amusing, so LAUGH! hahhaha! Also get out of your house, go check out the city you are leaving, meet up with good friends, and enjoy yourself, that truly assisted us when packing was dragging us down!

10. Document the experience!

Its really enjoyable to recall now on just how much Julian and I performed in such little time. Here are some images of our last few months in Houston!