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Today I’ve got to write about the only thing that’s been on my mind lately or I think my head might explode. We are moving 5,000 miles in less than two months! Here is basically everything that is going to happen to Nick and me in the next two to three months.
Moving is overwhelming. When you’re moving with the military, there are all kinds of forms to fill out, people to contact, briefings to attend, acronyms to decode, decisions to make, decisions that are made for you, and random things you need to know. There are also lots of random things you need to know that you actually don’t know. It can be frustrating, but luckily Nick is a pro at moving. I’ve lost count at the amount of times he has moved with the military, but this is my first move, so it’s a lot for me to take in.
I’m super emotional lately. I’ve been thinking a lot about how it felt to move here and how easily Nick and I created our little life in Hawaii. I am looking forward to what’s next, but I am also spending my days soaking up as much of Hawaii as humanely possible. Like these gorgeous Hawaiian flowers that my friend Jenny brought to me over the weekend. Seriously, how amazing are these? Hawaiian flowers are my favorite. Thanks, friend.
Soon the movers will come. Nick’s still working on scheduling that, but he did find out that our things will take about 45 days to get from Hawaii to Connecticut! That is a crazy amount of time and I am just expecting it to be even longer.
Because of the amount of time it takes to get things overseas, the military has a lot of resources here in Hawaii for people who are moving and don’t have their things. We can get loaner furniture, like a bed and a couch and tables and chairs. There is also a loan closet, where we can borrow household things like pots and pans, a vacuum cleaner, dishes, and even some appliances like a coffee maker. These are huge lifesavers! We didn’t know about these resources until after we had already arrived in Hawaii, so if you know anyone moving overseas, please spread the word!
These resources aren’t available on all of the bases, so we want to take advantage of them here in Hawaii while we can. That’s why we are trying to get the movers to get here as soon as possible to get our stuff on its way to Connecticut. Hopefully, by the time we have a place to live in Connecticut, our stuff will be almost there or already there. It would be great if we didn’t have to live in an apartment with nothing but an air mattress, like we did when we got to Hawaii and didn’t know about the loaner furniture!
In the meantime, we have to decide what will stay with us for the two months that we will be without our things. We will have all of the loaner stuff here in Hawaii, but we will need some things for when we get to New York and when we move into our new place in Connecticut, in case our things haven’t arrived yet. I’m thinking we will need to bring our air mattress, a few cooking supplies, our laptop and cameras, Christmas presents, and we will need to hold onto both winter and summer clothes. I’m sure there is more that I am not thinking of. Luckily we will be living close to my parents and I plan on borrowing a lot of stuff from them until we get settled.
Let’s just take a minute to appreciate the fact that we will be living out of suitcases for about two months.
Once the movers come, they will pack everything up for us! I am so glad we don’t have to do all of the packing. We have to oversee everything and make sure that we keep the things we don’t want to go with them separated, but that is way better than packing up every single dish.
After that, we will move out of our apartment. I have come to adore the apartment we live in. As I write this, I am looking out of my huge windows and can see palm trees and mountains. I can’t even think about leaving it. Moving on.
We will have to ship our car, and that also takes a long time to get to Connecticut. So we will have to rent a car for a while, probably both here and in Connecticut. The military will only allow us to ship one car overseas, and our second car just isn’t worth the cost of shipping it ourselves. So we have to sell one of our cars before we go. Luckily, there are lots of people coming to Hawaii all of the time, so I don’t think that will be too hard.
Somewhere in between all of this is Nick’s birthday. I still want to make sure we celebrate!
After all that is done, we fly to New York. We will spend some time with my family and possibly take a trip, just the two of us. We have some ideas, but until things are finalized I don’t want to say where we are thinking of going!
Then we will come back to New York to celebrate Christmas with my family! It’s been a while since Nick and I have been with my family on Christmas, and I am really looking forward to it. My brother is even trying to get the day off so we can all be together. It looks like I will be getting my favorite thing, Christmas in New York, after all!
After Christmas, Nick and I will head to Connecticut, find a place to live, and eventually get our stuff and our car. I’ve already started looking at places online but I don’t want to commit to anything until we can see it in person. Our strategy usually is to just show up to a new city and then find a place to live. It’s worked out okay so far. The worst that happens is that we live out of a suitcase for a little while longer.
We are already way behind in planning our move, which makes me a little bit nervous, but I know it’s all going to happen anyway. According to a moving calendar I found on Military OneSource, with lots of great tips and reminders, I should have started the planning process in the middle of September. Basically a month ago. But that’s okay! I know people who have done it on much less time than this.
Nick and I are supposed to be spending time going through all of our stuff, trying to decide what to keep and what to give away. I have a soft rule that if we haven’t used something in the two years we have lived here, we should get rid of it. So far we have only managed to clean out under our bed, which was absolutely horrifying. Instead we have been doing things like going out to our favorite places. You know what, I think that’s okay.
So that’s the plan. It’s a lot to do, but it’s a small price to pay for having lived in Hawaii for over two years. In two months it will be very entertaining to look back on this post and see how it all turns out!
Have you ever moved? Do you have any moving tips for me?!
It sounds like you will be one BUSY lady!
That’s for sure! It’s always an adventure with the military.
Found your blog from the November “Favorite Things” travel linkup and this post resonated with me so much. We moved from Oakland, CA, to Dublin, Ireland, at the end of September and our stuff came over in two shipments. The first small one arrived two weeks ago. The second one is scheduled for later this week. We made a complete hash of packing the necessary items based on some guidance we got from the moving company and this first month has been a struggle. I’m going to say something that in hindsight seems like common sense but totally fell by the wayside for us. Don’t just worry about pots & pans and whatnot. Don’t forget things like peelers and slotted spoons. It sucks when you go to cook something and you realize not one single item in your very small cupboard will do the job. 🙂