Ask an Expat: Drowning in papers and all our worldly possessions
japra | May 20, 2010 | Comments 24
I could use about 50 of these.
Fortunately for us, there isn’t a lot of paperwork for us to fill out for our return to the UK. Our visas are current and my husband works for the same company, so at least those important bits are taken care of.
The paperwork I’ve been messing with lately includes the moving inventory insurance form. Again, not so painful since our very kind removal company saved our paperwork from last year (miraculously, I kept a copy of it too). I did have to go around and inventory all of the purchases we’ve made over the last year. A good exercise for the old brain, ha ha.
But the biggest pain for me was getting documents together for the estate agent in England. They wanted proof of addresses for each place we’ve lived since moving to the EU. It really wasn’t that big a deal–bank statements or old bills sufficed. However for some reason, before I got clarification about what kinds of documents they would accept, I thought that the estate agent would want copies of our leases since 2007. Uh… I know they’re around here somewhere.
So there is the crux of my troubles. I have all of this paperwork from the last three years, but they are not in good order. I could probably find those rental agreements in about 15 minutes, but it would be less frustrating if I could just slip my hand in a file folder and say “here ya go”.
Part of my goal in my pre-move organizing is to sort through all of these bits of flotsam. When we move to England, I’m going to get a big, locking lateral filing cabinet and spend a couple of days putting together a decent filing system. There, I wrote it down. Now I really have to do it. LOL!
And the rest of our worldly possessions…
Earlier this week, Mr. DJ and I spent a few hours talking about moving the rest of our stuff from our Texas storage units to our new house England later this year. I took photos of our two units when we were in Houston last December:
UGH! Scary, huh?
We spent a good while making a free-association list of what we think is in our two units. We had a little trouble, though, because what is left in there is really about half of what we got rid of (gave away, donated, threw away) when we moved out of our “starter house” –a tiny 1920s bungalow located in a historic part of Houston. We lived there for 15 years. You can probably imagine the amazing number of things we accumulated…
I think I’ve written about this before, but literally the day before we signed the paperwork to purchase our last house in Houston, Mr. DJ got a call from a former colleague about a job offer in London. Talk about a dilemma!
Anyway, long story short, we thought the London job was a long shot, so we went ahead with the house closing. Five months later, the London job offer came through. Horrors/Excitement!
We pared down our stuff even more, thinking we’d be living in a minuscule flat in London. The rest of our things were given away or went into storage. Two units for 2-3 years. And during that time, we were dealing with job contracts, visa paperwork, the stress of leaving, what to do with our house in Texas, school for Roxi, etc. So I guess we can forgive ourselves for not remembering what exactly we have in storage. ;-)
Now three years later, we’re still over here. We miss some of our stuff, but we also realize that there are a lot of things in our units that we don’t want to store for another 2-3 years, or however long we’ll be in the UK this time.
So now we face the reality of sorting through all of this stuff again, deciding on what to keep and ship and what to donate or give away. I don’t think there is much to throw away this time. At least I hope not.
We’ve really enjoyed living without the burden of quite so many things these last few years. I think we have a better understanding of how much we truly need. It will be interesting to sort through our past and see what we feel we can live without.
I hope we’ll be surprised!
As usual, if anyone has ever wondered anything about living/travelling in Europe, please do leave a question in the comments and I’ll try to answer next week!
Filed Under: Ask an Expat • Blog • Expat Life • Featured
About the Author: JaPRA is an expat Texan living in England with her husband (Mr. DJ), their 17-year old daughter (Roxi), and their dog Trudy.
Hi
Just reading your post gave me an anxiety attack.
You are so organized. I envey you.
We are relocating to Brussels this summer and the only thing I did is to register our boys to school (Just the 2 youngest). We still need to find University for our eldest.
Well, we are flying to Brussel at the end of the month to search for a house. Maybe after we come back I will start getting ready.
Happy packing
Sharon
Sharon, I am really excited for you! Brussels is such a lovely city–I know you and your family are going to love it there. And oh, the stresses of being an expat. I wouldn’t say I’m organized so much as willing to take one day at a time ;-)
Bon chance with your move!! We’ll be neighbours, at least for a little while.
I’m living your same nightmare, trying to finalize leaving Germany, buying new place in NY coordination air freight and sea container to go to NY. Need to empty storage in Utah and ship our cars from Utah. I can’t remember for the life of me whats where. I know my parents have stuff, storage unit, locked storage in Utah house….details are giving me headaches. Good luck!
Oh, Kathy, I know you and I are definitely on the same cruise here! ;-)
Sending you lots and lots of energy and calming breaths. You’ll be settled in NY in no time. Meanwhile, I hope you enjoy the rest of your time in Germany. XOXO
Okay, looking at that picture of your storage unit makes me want to throw something away. Hmmm….what can I get rid of?
Why, oh why does the estate agent want all of your past rental information? Isn’t MONEY good enough for them?
Instead of a Really Useful Box I’d prefer a Completely Useless one.
Julia, LOL! I really didn’t want to post those storage pics, but hey, that’s the reality for these expats, at lest!
I know we’ll be able to get rid of a bunch of stuff. But we are bringing our mountain and road bikes for SURE. Can’t wait!
I missed a few posts and had to go back to catch up. Moving again!! It seems like you just arrived HERE. Right now I’m envying your life a little less :-] . Will you be in London again? Glad Roxi got into a good voice program. Sounds like that’s where her passion is.
Good luck with the packing and moving. Your storage unit looks like our garage. The girls’ overflow stuff from moving back and forth to different colleges, plus furniture they wanted us to save for when they get apartments threaten to bury us. Oh well. Our garage would be a great set for a horror movie!
Tricia, I know you made a big move recently too and can totally relate to this craziness. Despite all this stress and mess, it’s still worth it ;-)
That’s funny about your garage. It actually sounds like a great story to be written!
Ah Japra, I watched a friend of mine go through her things over the years after her divorce. When she left the ‘big house’ she went to a condo, then later a rented flat, and bit by bit things fell by the wayside. Finally she decided to go to grad school in CA and only took what could fit into her car.
I’m not there yet! but each move we do tend to pare down and out. God bless you with the storage units. I do not envy that part of this move.
Wow, that is really going minimal! Sometimes I think our things weigh us down too much–physically and emotionally. I haven’t found that balance yet, but I’m getting there, I think. Er, hope.
I know you’ve gone through moves like this many times, Maureen. Your encouragement means so much to me :-)
Hope you’re having a good trip!
Well, I think it’s fun to go through old things. I had to repack a bunch of boxes I have from college and high school and which were languishing in my parent’s basement. It was a blast seeing old mementos! Isn’t there a certain mental working thingy that’s in storage? For some reason I remember you writing about not being able to create jewelry because the tools you used were all packed? Will you be bringing that to London?
Also, all the papers associated with buying my home are currently in messy folders in my closet. meh.
Oh, I am sure I’m going to find all sorts of treasures in those boxes, LucyLucia! But I’m thinking of saving the going through to do once everything gets to England. I know we have family photo albums, my art journals, and all of our lovely books to look forward to!
And yes, I’ll be happy to be reunited with the rest of my tools again. I’d love to be able to work on some kind of metalsmithing, even if it’s just for me.
Hey! Nice to read you again.
This sort of transition/project is so frustrating… I feel for you! I do know it’s so much easier to live with less stuff. We are facing a garage rehaul, and it will be epic. How light we’ll feel after that!
I hope to have coffee with you in Amsterdam in October?
Oh, Chris! I’m going to be in England (or possibly Houston) when you’re here in October. We move back to the UK at the end of June. :-(
Gosh, your garage project sounds challenging. Are you going to get some art space out of it?
oh good luck with everything… looks like you’re taking it in stride
Well, Christine, ya just gotta do what ya gotta do, know what I mean? Forward march!!
i could do with some of those boxes too. been looking for just the right size…
I think they would be “really useful” myself, kamana :-)
Gosh, I’m going to second Sharon and say that just reading about this is anxiety-provoking! We sold, gave away or scrapped just about everything when we moved here and have a tiny 2×2 foot storage space now. Thank goodness we don;t have children yet because it I doubt we could have made such a clean sweep otherwise!!!
Wow, Emm! I’m so impressed that you were able to pare down to a 2×2. Mr. DJ was looking at these pics last weekend and I think he was having second thoughts about sorting through that junk!
We left a couple of things with my mum and then by the time she came to move here, we realised we’d never need them and she gave most of it away to charity.
Hi there! Just thought of your blog out of the blue, and now I’m bummed to see you are moving back to the UK! Best of luck, and let me know if there’s any off chance before your hectic move of a cup of coffee together. ;-)
Hi Sheryl, great to hear from you again! I’d love to get together if you have time :-)
Oh wow, you’re leaving us already? Good luck with the move!
I finally got all my stuff in one house for the first time in 9 years (except for 1 big suitcase that’s still in Lebanon) – stuff that had been stored in my parents’ basement, with friends, etc…. funny to open those boxes now and wonder ‘why on earth did I insist on keeping this?’ Guess you’ll have that too when you’ll be in Houston!