5 more days until i arrive!

Hello Molly,
Congratulation. So how did you decide what to take and what to get rid off. My husband and I had a little disagreement yesterday. He thinks I want to just trash everything. I really would like to get rid of all the stuff we have moved twice already and never unpacked. Sounds reasanable to me. He is a pack rat and does not want to part with all his old floppies, computer magazines and old unused computers. I already trashed all my cooking magazines. Many of my books also got sorted out. Now he is on telling me I have to many props which are dishes for my work. I told him I get rid of them if he gets rid of his stuff. I think I called his bluff and now he is mad at me 😉 I am donating some of my old photography stuff to the local community college.
I am sure you guys had to make tough decisions. How did you decide?
Iris

Iris - we're going through that process now too! It's such a pain. I had a hard time letting go of some little trinkets I liked - for instance, a Halloween picture frame that I've never even used, but is absolutely adorable - it's in the yard sale Saturday. We've decided we want to start fresh and minimize as much as we can. Our new house is very different than what we are used to and want to decorate accordingly. We've decided to get rid of anything that can't be classified as tropical. If we found that shipping something down would cost more than just replacing it when we got there, it also was either junk or yard sale. Small, personal items we're keeping, but we have to either have a stong sentimental attachment to it that the other can't argue with or we are both in agreement.

minimize minimize minimize.... that was our motto. we got rid of almost everything, including furniture since our apt in STT is furnished (well mostly furnished). that helped us a lot because we didn't have to ship furniture and could just focus on our "stuff". we're only in our late 20s, so it's not like we had really fancy antiques or really expensive furniture either.

since my boyfriend and i have a lot of books and a LOT of cds, they took up a ton of space and were really heavy! (and expensive to ship!) we have a nice stereo system so we kept that too naturally. we sold as much as we could via garage sale, donated all our winter clothes (allowed each other only 1 box of winter stuff we loved), and gave a few things to friends to "keep" for us (couldn't part with them, but too big of a hassel to take with us)-- such as a really cool set of dining room chairs and the 3 bikes my boyfriend has (he LOVES those bikes but STT is too hilly to ride). so, we parted with most things and faced the fact that we might not see again the stuff our friends are holding for us.... it was kind of sad at times, and we had a few arguments about what to keep, but both of us were in the "less is more" mentality.

it's actually really liberating to know you can pack up your life and start fresh somewhere. as corny as it sounds, it's nice to know that few of our possessions were THAT important to us. like i said, our books, music, and framed art was the stuff we chose to bring-- also a few rugs and other little things to make our new apt "feel like home". and summer clothes naturally 🙂

i think you should toss all the magazines and random books and really figure out what you need and want to spend $$ on in terms of shipping. it all adds up, trust me. even with purging SO much stuff, i mailed off about 30 boxes in all, which seems like way too much to me.

p.s. it also helped that he went to STT first (2 weeks ago) and so i was the final person to decide what to keep and throw... so i made a few judgements on my end about what we need 🙂

My husband and I leave in 2 weeks and have to go through our boxes AGAIN!! I found out last night that the airline charges $80 per bag for excess baggage on the plane, so now we have to dig through suitcases, too! So I know what y'all are going through! I can't seem to get an answer on what our apartment is furnished with! I'm not sure if I should bring our pots and pans, silverware, dishes, glassware, etc! What did you ladies do?
Amanda

Good morning all- I can't believe how we are all going through the exact same thing! We leave for STT in about 9 weeks and I still have a house full of "things". I walk around and look at all of our stuff and I can't believe that I'm going to actually get rid of almost everything! As of today, I've sent 4 boxes USPS and I only plan on sending about 6 more. Our truck and the remaining 6 boxes and that's it! I feel the same way like Molly said earlier...I can't help but feel excited to sell, trash, and give away all of my stuff that we've collected over the last few years and start over fresh in St. Thomas. We are 28/29 years old and our things mean a lot to us..but they are all just things. Things can be replaced. We are only taking clothes, pictures and picture albums, our 4yr olds "baby things" that I can't throw away, and a few kitchen items like silverware, pots and pans. Everything else will be replaced over time....just like when we got our first apartment, we didn't have anything! Now we have everything and we're going to leave it all behind. It's kinda crazy....but I wouldn't trade this excitment we are feeling right now for anything...and that's a fact jack!

Katie

I dont know if you want to risk trying but we have used curbside check in at the airport to ship things several times. Our last trip to Cincinnati we had Bed Bath and Beyond box our things to the dimensions allowed by the airlines and then just tipped the guy at curbside $20. We checked a total of 6 bags with no extra charge. It's a gamble but we always figure worst case we get charged $80 per box and bring it with us avoiding customs and that hassel.

my boyfriend was charged $80 for his extra bag when arriving too, so it seems to me that you'd save $$ by shipping more and checking less baggage. i boxed up 1 box of kitchen utinsels, a couple nice pots, a big glass mixing bowl, and a cutting board. the rest of it can be replaced, but i know that all the utinsels would cost quite a bit to replace, so we opted to ship them since they took up little room. and watch out-- the post office won't take boxes heavier than 70 lbs (i learned the hard way)

My parents had been married for 18 years and lived in the same place all that time when my dad took a job down on St. Croix for what he thought was going to last 6 months. The job ended up lasting 6 years!

When we left for what we thought was going to be just 6 months at the most, we packed as if for a long vacation along with essential extras and a few personal things that were meaningful. Then after arranging for someone to come in and clean the house, we pretty much just left it waiting for our return.

We lived in a furnished house in St. Croix and the few things we needed extra were either bought on island or sent there by relatives back home. My mother had fun picking up things there I know! It's a whole different feel down there and the things we bought reflected our new lifestyle. (I know some of the clothes and shoes I brought from home didn't fit the island style and were never used)

When we made the first trip back home to visit relatives a year later it was like going into a time machine to go back into our home! It really opened our eyes to what was really important to us. Things you thought you absolutely couldn't live without become pretty disposable when you realize you haven't even thought about them in a year!

So my advise to you is to do just what you're doing-- get rid of all the extras, go and have a wonderful time and don't look back!