Things I’ve Learned

I had planned on writing a new post much sooner than this, but packing your life into 5 bags and a container (for storage – not shipping!) is quite an experience, as is world travel with said luggage and 2 kids. Thought I’d share some of my observations, and the things I’ve learned through the experience. I’ve numbered them, though not in order of importance or preference.

1.  When packing your life to move it across the other side of the world, I would recommend not working right up until a week before you are due to leave. Finish as early as possible, I’d suggest a month. At least.
   This gives you:
   a) opportunity to finish well at work and have time for proper goodbyes & closure
   b) time to solely focus on everything that happens in life outside work for the last little while before you go. It’s incredibly difficult to remain focused on your job when you have so much else going on. And yes, I speak from experience. As in the kind of experience you have from not taking your own advice.
2. Pack your house and move out at least a couple of weeks before you are due to fly out. That way it’s all done and you have time to give others, and yourself, plenty of opportunity to say goodbye. Packing the house, redirecting the mail and all those little, last minute jobs take a lot of time away from what’s most important – relationships. One of the things that saddened me most in our last weeks at home was feeling like I didn’t have the time to spend with friends and family to say goodbye.
3. Don’t be too proud to accept help from others.
   As a very wise person told me – people won’t offer to help if they don’t really want to, and for some, that’s how they express their love for you. I cannot express how grateful I am to the people who gave up time to come and do odd jobs, tidy the gardens, help with a garage sale, people who recognised that I wasn’t coping and came and packed most of my house in the weeks, and then days, before we were due to fly out, who weren’t afraid to say “Get rid of it” or “Yes, you should keep that” when I couldn’t make the decision, who finished the packing when we ran out of time, who cleaned up the mess we left so the house was ready for the tenants.
4. Limit your luggage.
   We were in a bit of a tricky situation – packing to move for at least 4 years to a country with a temperate climate, but spending over a month traveling to places that were freezing. So we had to have clothes for all climates, but at the same time have the things we would need for life. We managed to squeeze everything into 5 bags, plus carry on, but wrangling all of it, plus the 2 kids, in and out of transport was tricky. Especially the trains in Switzerland.
   

   Waiting for the train in Geneva.

5. Take ‘comfort items’ for the kids.Not sure if I read that somewhere, or if someone told me, but it was some great advice. It’s tempting to take out the toys, game and books the kids love so there’s more space for more ‘important’ items, but having some things that the kids are familiar with has been invaluable. When they aren’t coping, pulling out something they love works wonders. Can be a hard call when one of the most important comfort items is a heat pack that weighs about a kilo, but it was a good call.
6. When you make the effort to visit people who are far away, even if you don’t know them, they don’t mind you staying a while! One of the hardest decisions we made on this trip was how long we wanted to spend with people in each place. Budget and time constraints are of course factors, but only staying a couple of days/nights because you don’t want to overstay your welcome shouldn’t come into it. Unless you are planning on staying for weeks or months – that might be a different story! I think our only regret was not having more time to spend with everyone.
7. Earplugs are the most amazing invention ever. Pack a decent supply!

So there it is. Seven things I’ve learned in the last few weeks, though I’m sure there are more.
How about you? Any lessons from major life changes?