PACKING-SHIPPING-STORING

(Version française demain)

In the last few weeks, I have been often asked: "So, you are ready?"
My answer is always : No, well, that's not too bad...I think so... but not really... (inside: it's fine, no, what.... aaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhh)

The process started months ago by purging, purging, purging. It was not too bad because we live in a small house and we started to try to own less over the years. Still, with me as a teacher and more over a theatre teacher, a whole shelf in the garage was belonging to me and Adam has a lot, a lot, a lot of tools, bike stuffs and making wine stuffs.

Our process was having grocery paper bag by the back exit. I would fill them of things in the house that we did not need anymore or did not want to keep (I guess that's the same thing). Then, I would bring it to the garage and when there were too many bags, I would sort those out to put any items where it belonged: donate, keep, sell, France, California, we don't know pile.

So we organized the shelves in the garage accordingly. It was allowing me to make a first survey of what to ship overseas and to make the shelves and the ground more accessible.

For weeks, Adam and I went back and forth on what to do. We were never on the same page at the same time. One thing, we agreed quickly was : no furniture. All our furniture is pretty much Ikea and nothing is worth the $10 000 container that would transport our furniture for three months.
So one of us would say: "Let's just not bring anything." and then, "yes, but what about Mael's toys and books, we are not going to bring all of them but that's important to him." "Ok, but let's only do that. yes, but what about this and this." " Is all of this, worth $3000" and so on...
Eventually, we did decide on shipping the content of a lift van.

So you contact two or three companies that you have researched. They send someone for a visual survey and they tell you from what you show them what type of container and how much it will cost. At this point, you had to have made decisions and sorted out things so you can be close to accurate.

So a Lift Van it is. $3000. 4(width) x 7(length) x 7(height). Try it. Visualize the dimensions and then go around your house and garage and fill it.

Our stuff will go to England and then travel down by truck to Grenoble. It will take approximately 3 months. I am guessing we will get our stuff by the end of September (if we ever get an apartment but that's another story)

Now, we are also going to store a few things in California. Thank you John and Kathy.

Last week, people asked me: "So, you are packing?" And I was mmmh, no, not yet. I mean, the company is packing so we are sorting... and then, I start panicking... should we start packing? we are busy getting rid of stuffs so I guess in our case, that's like packing. We are packing away...

But here we are, getting so close, it's almost tangible. I have to pack for the next three or four months including medical records and other paperwork (thank you usb key). And this time, unlike, 10 years ago, I also pack for two very young munchkins...

(Version française demain)