Packing Like a Pro: A 3-Part Post

If you had to pack up your whole life in 6 suitcases, what would you take?

Before Husband and I moved overseas we had an entire apartment filled with furniture, clothes, framed pictures, book collections, art, kitchen supplies, candles galore. Many of these things, too, had already seen a lifetime with me. Picture frames I bought when I was a teenager. Beautiful clay mirrors that I had made with my own two hands. A Paulo Coelho hardback book collection that, to me, is beyond priceless. How would I part with these items? How would I leave them behind? The anxiety was enough to make me want to cancel our abroad plans and buy a home in NJ just so that I wouldn’t have to part with my “things” and have a place to keep them.

There we were. My lifetime of things plus two years of memories in that apartment that we were supposed to neatly pack away and squeeze into boxes and decide whether or not they’d be making the cut to travel abroad with us or not. It wasn’t easy. I began packing a month before our move and we were still packing at midnight the night before our flight. I just wasn’t sure what I’d need and what I could leave.

To try and help some of you lost (packing) souls that are in the same predicament, I shared some packing tips for Expat Village this last week; a 3-part post on packing like a pro in 6 suitcases since that was the space we were given to neatly pack up our lives. It was an eye-opening experience realizing how many things I could let go of.

To start at the beginning of helpful tips when packing for a large move or overseas move start at Phase 1 or feel free to jump ahead to Phase 2 or Phase 3.