Boxing it up

As I mentioned before, since we received word that we had put in the winning offer on the house we have started to purge.

I have moved many times in my life and have given up A LOT. I've lost A LOT. This time around I have the time to give everything a lot more thought, about what I want to save and what I am willing to let go. That means that not only have I been selling, I've been packing. We both have so many things that we know we want to take with us to our new home. I'm shipping everything ahead that we can live without on a day to day basis.

To date we have shipped packages of all sizes; big and small packages, light and heavy packages, square and round packages. Over 50 have found their way or are finding their way to our storage on the mainland.

So far nothing has gotten lost and as far as I can tell everything has arrived in one piece. Woo Hoo!

But now things are getting a bit difficult. I've used all our spare cloths, sheets, towels and blankets to pack and I have a few fragile items left to go. I just might have to splurge on packing package material.

Unbeknownst to me Roger splurged on packaging. According to to new laws, that have come to be since 9/11, you can no longer ship liquids via mail. In other words you can't ship wine. Roger has a small collection of wine (oldest is from 1976) that he has had for quite some time and doesn't want to part with it. The only way we can take it with us is if we put it in our check in luggage. Knowing how the TSA handles luggage we have to take the very possible into consideration - that one of the bottles might break. So Roger went looking and found these bottle bags. You pack the bottle in it and if it should break the bag is full of an absorbent material that would catch all the liquid. Cool huh?

I think this is the right one

My next questions would be, at about $10 a pop - are they reusable? I guess we'll find out on our next trip! Wish us luck!

So, do you have any suggestions, tips or tricks when packing packages? Share them please!

Aloha Hui Hou!

Urge to purge

We don't know when we are going to take the big step, but I don't want to wait until the last minute to go thru everything and figure out what we plan to keep and what has to go. So for the past couple of months I've been going thru my things - nothing is safe. So far I've had a couple of yard sales, donated items and am selling on eBay and Craigslist.

I missed decorating and celebrating Halloween SO much when I was living in Germany. When I moved here I was in hog heaven. Building up my stash, creating things. I had so much fun, but when it comes down to it, it was too much stuff to ship all the way over to Idaho. I had to let it go and letting it go at the right time - just before Halloween. Once I made the decision to sell and posted it on Craigslist, it went really fast. I sold most of my beloved Halloween decorations, and I'll tell you, it wasn't easy.

This was Halloween 2010. I wasn't here for Halloween 08 or 09 so I was really excited to decorate the side yard.

Some of it went to strangers, most of it went to someone I know. At least I know my treasures will be enjoyed.

Roger is also busy reducing his scuba collection. We've removed several tubs from our storage locker and every week I post a few items on ebay. We've sold masks, harnesses, spear guns, wet suits, regs, Some buyers have been great. Others not so much.

Today I'll be taking photos to list some more stuff and Roger will write them up (because I have no idea what I'm selling). For now, our biggest challenge is finding boxes to ship what we sell. But it's all about purging, so we will find boxes, take pictures and list.....onward we go.

The gear we wore for our wedding is gone, gone, gone.

Aloha Hui Hou!