The Gwinners: Moving Day

The end of July, we packed out and vacated the lovely Lima apartment in which we've lived for more than 3 1/2 years.
We had a 20 foot container in which to put all the belongings to be shipped to our next post in Nairobi, Kenya.
This may sound like a lot of space, but it's smaller than the 1-car garage in our DC house that had been built in the 1920s to hold a Ford Model T.
So, we got into high "getting rid of stuff" gear. In fact, this move, even more than our past ones, was a sober reminder of all the junk we pick up in life - and how little of it we really need.
Late in the game, I came up with the formula with which I wish I'd started. I'll share it with all of you in case you face any major moves in the near future:
1. start by thinking to yourself, "If this place was on fire, what would I grab?" (This assumes that your loved ones are all safe.) It's an interesting thought process. My first response would be: old family photos and photo albums, because those are the things we couldn't replace.
2. then, think about what are the most valuable things you have and want to keep. For many of us, it's actually things like rugs, artwork, maybe jewelry if you have any of value, along with electronics and sports equipment - or fancy clothes if that's what you have. Interestingly, these don't take up that much space, relatively speaking.
3. now, what about furniture? This takes up space, so you have to really get an order of priorities. In our case, we have a very few pieces that are family heirlooms. So, they take priority. The rest we sorted out according to it's replacement value and how much we really wanted to keep it (or if it would fit in our new place).
4. with linens, I got draconian. The truth is, aside from the linen sheets hand embroidered by my grandmother, I don't give a fig one way or another about most of them. And they take up a lot of space. So, I gave away a lot of them. Easier to just buy new ones on the other end than to use up precious moving space for old ones.
5. and books? Like many people we know, we love to live surrounded by books. We read. We write. We like the smell of paper. But, really, do we need all those novels? the nonfiction stuff we've carried around since grad school? Once we got going, we culled at least 50% of our books - or more. We kept the art books, those written by family/friends, and the antique/early edition ones. We kept some other favorites, too. The rest we donated to a local organization, which organized a fundraising booksale in response. So that was good.
6. clothing? my advice: let it go. It's such a relief to get rid of much of it.
7. kitchen stuff? much of it can go, too. Really. And I say this as a person who does a lot of cooking.

So, we culled through and eliminated enormous amounts of stuff.
It was very late in the game that we realized we could actually sell some of our stuff, rather than just give it away.
So, Britt sent out a short announcement on his work intranet and I posted a few choice things (bike, surf board, and such) on the expat website. Within seconds, the responses came flying in. Britt's colleagues took to our bookcases, beds, couches, outdoor furniture, and other similar items like flies to honey.

In three days, it was all packed, donated, or sold.
The container was filled and sealed.

Hopefully, it's somewhere in the Pacific, making its way to Kenya, slowly. The expected arrival in Nairobi is in late October.

Happy travels to our container.
And for all those who bought or inherited our stuff, we wish you great pleasures with it.