Hi All!

It has been almost 3  months since we moved and now it’s time to share the experiences of moving to a new country with friends and family. I’ll start at the beginning, which I have categorized in my mind as simply- stuff. How much stuff? Too much stuff, that’s how much! I cannot believe the amount of stuff Susanne and I have gotten rid of in order to move and I’m not talking about the recent move. We started getting rid of stuff in Oregon, when we were getting ready to move to Florida in 2005. The amount is staggering for two people who thought they didn’t have much. I could go on for a while about this, but like the stuff we have gotten rid of, I need to throw these thoughts in the yard sale pile and move on.

We shipped what little we had kept to Germany by cargo boat. When I say little I mean 52 boxes, a small hand made shoe shelf and a secretaire desk and a rug that belonged to Susanne’s aunt. These last two items have traveled more than most people, having crossed both the Atlantic and the United States twice. U-Haul was our best friend, we made numerous trips to the store around the corner in Oakland Park to buy packing tape, bubble wrap, dish boxes, etc…

I gotta tell you, it was exhausting, at one point I didn’t think we would get everything ready in time to ship, nor would we get rid of all the stuff we were not taking with us in time. Can I say this?  “I’LL NEVER DO THAT AGAIN!” I am not as young as I used to be and this damn near killed me! But we did it and on Monday afternoon, April 27, around 6pm, the truck-with-no-name came and took our stuff away. Great right? Yes and no. We had only a few suitcases, my drum and the cats left. For once no stuff to look at. But on the other hand, where was our beloved stuff? On the truck-with-no-name, that’s where. Going to some warehouse, waiting to be loaded on some freighter, handled by lord-knows- who. Would we ever see it again, and the million dollar question, WHEN?

Well, I won’t keep you in suspense, our stuff made it okay. After a month and a half, a side trip to a North Carolina port and a week in Hamburg customs, our stuff arrived at our doorstep on June 11th. Susanne had to go through a lot of hoops proving that she was who she was and that she had actually lived in US for customs to release our stuff. That was scary. But in the end, everything arrived safely, nothing broken, all boxes accounted for. Both shipping companies, the US and the one we used here to get our stuff in Hamburg were excellent. I highly recommend both and will provide the names and links to their sites in the next post.

It was like Christmas again when we opened up the boxes. After a move like this, one tends to forget exactly what one packed and what one has gotten rid of. It is more than a pleasant surprise seeing something I was not sure I had kept. It was also nice to have more than a couple of pairs of jeans and a coat. It is not warm here. Someone told me it was summer, I don’t believe them. I’ll believe it when I see it!

So what have I learned from all of this? Too much stuff is not good. Susanne and I were being smothered by our own stuff. “Can’t throw that out, might need it one day”, “”I can just fix this up and yatta, yatta”, “I can’t throw that out, it belonged to my long dead…….”. Sooner or later one has to go through the STUFF one has accumulated throught out one’s life and say “DO I REALLY NEED THIS?”. I found the answer to be, no-probably not. I really don’t miss the stuff I have gotten rid of, hell I can’t even remember most of it. It’s  like getting rid of old baggage, I felt myself getting lighter, not being dragged down by material things. Life is better without a sea of STUFF. Plus I get to buy some new stuff! WOOOHOOO!