We just wrapped up our three day pack-out–Wow! In the days and weeks leading up to the pack-out, we ran out of time to get a lot of things done that I wanted. We have been spending a lot of time catching up with friends and family, and that was much more fun! In the lead up, I also ran out of motivation to continue sorting through everything I owned and pretty much just said, “If it ships, it ships.”
The gist of the moving process is this: A team comes to pack all of your things. Then the individual parcels are loaded into wooden crates, nailed shut, and special seals placed on each of them so we can tell if they’ve been opened. Then, the crates are all driven on a truck to the port; either Baltimore or Norfolk, and are loaded into a shipping container and placed on a ship. The ship crosses the ocean, the crates are unloaded, and then driven by truck to Stuttgart. Once we secure housing, another team will come and unpack for us.
Packing day came and that morning, so many friends who have done similar moves like this reached out saying “You got this!”, “Everything’s going to be fine!”, “It’s going to go so smoothly!” I started to wonder what I had gotten myself into because I hadn’t put a lot of thought into the packing days. Why do they think I need uplifting at this moment??? They knew.
Three packers came and spent almost all day emptying cabinets, closets, and drawers and wrapping everything in paper and boxes. Ryan’s nerf guns that he had accidentally left out also each got wrapped up in their own paper bundles. Everything seemed to go pretty smoothly- it was even kind of exciting.
I had thought that on Tuesday, three more packers would come and finish up and Wednesday would be “truck day.” Well, Tuesday morning a truck showed up. My brain was not prepared for the sight of my things being loaded and nailed into the crates. It made everything so real and was super emotional. There were also some “mishaps” including my dresser being dropped on the way out the door and my clothes flying everywhere. As we got to the end of the day, a lot of our stuff was scattered around the driveway and yard and they started to run out of time. They threw everything back into the garage and said they would finish up the next day. They had brought five crates on the first truck. Each crate holds about 1000 pounds and we anticipated shipping 7-8000 so they knew they would have to return Wednesday anyway.
Wednesday morning came. We had to get up super early so that we could wash all of the bedding before it was packed. The truck came back, this time with only two guys. At this point they only had our beds and some random items from the garage and basement. Prior to the packing beginning, we had sorted the basement and garage into “pack” and “no pack” zones. Well, when they put everything back into the garage on Tuesday, these zones became intertwined so I had to hang with them almost all day to sort things out. In the process there were things that got packed that shouldn’t have, and inevitably, things that should have gone, didn’t. We found cabinets and corners that had been missed by the Monday packers and the inventory taker and had to be added quickly. They even missed a TV that needed to go, until the last minute. So much stress to try and iron it out.
The truck on the last day brought three more crates. Well, those got filled too and the packers ran out of room. At the end of the day, they were just putting our loose items, coincidentally some of our most valuable stuff, into the back of the truck and promised to pack it into a crate at their warehouse. This gave me even more anxiety since I wouldn’t be able to witness it being nailed shut and document the seal.
Coincidentally, the warehouse is next to Matt’s work. When he drove to work the next day, he saw all of our stuff out on their lot waiting for a crate. Cue even more stress. He ran over while we were on the phone and I was asking him “Do you see this? Do you see that?” Everything seemed to be accounted for (that I could remember) and Matt stayed to watch them load it into the last crate. Even though that is all done, I’m still worried about all nine crates arriving at the same time. Or, will we even get nine crates??? Now, we just have to wait and see….
One of the funnier things about this process is that we shared our moving team with our friends. What is this, the Truman Show? Our friends are moving with the Air Force to Tokyo (leaving on the same day as Matt and the kids too). I mentioned to my movers on the first day that I had friends heading there and they said, “Oh, we are doing them too.” Throughout the days, the teams actually swapped houses depending on the stages they were in. It was AMAZING relief to be able to swap stories and joke about the chaos with a friend- I may not have made it through otherwise!
In the aftermath of the packing, we can’t find some things like TV remotes that shouldn’t have been packed, and some items that didn’t get packed and should have gone. All of Ryan’s shoes got packed and he was even playing with a Rubix cube, set it down, came back and it was gone. Brooklyn’s Airpods got packed but luckily we were able to save those before they were loaded onto the truck. We meant to hold back some dishes and eating utensils but they all got packed too. All our toilet paper and paper towels were packed up too so I’ve been making lots of trips to the store. There were so many things we could have done better; many lessons were learned. Things got pretty messy but I also have to say, the moving company has done just about everything they could to make this go smoothly. Those guys work so hard! The work is brutal and they were nothing but nice the whole time. Things did get messy but I think that’s just par for the course. At the end of the day, the stuff is just stuff that can be replaced.
The next step is to ship Matt’s car next Friday. We have a checklist of things to do, then we need to get it detailed, and drive it up to the Port of Baltimore. The only other thing we are waiting on at this point is my passport. We have tourist passports already but in order to live in Germany, we need SOFA passports, which stands for Status of Forces Agreement. Basically, these are the laws that allow the U.S. Military to operate in Germany. We all applied at the same time and we received back Matt’s and the kid’s really quickly. Ironically, mine has not come back yet and I’m the one leaving five weeks ahead of them. Fingers crossed I get it soon and then I will be on my way!
Gilcrests Abroad 