Deciding What to Do With Your Belongings Before Moving Abroad
Ready to pack your bags and move to the other side of the world? Living abroad can be an exciting adventure, but it also comes with big decisions about shipping belongings overseas. Packing for travel is simple enough, but figuring out what to do with your furniture, boxes, and personal items for the long term is far less straightforward. Selling everything you own may feel like a step too far, while storing it all isn’t always practical either. Before you head out on your international move, should you store, sell, or ship your belongings? Read on to find out.
Convenience Versus Cost
The are readily apparent. You can avoid the emotional process of parting with your belongings.
If you’ve spent some time carefully curating the objects that fill your home, you may indeed have a strong argument that what you own cannot be easily replaced.
The idea of quickly settling into your new home makes a strong case for storage. Imagine curling up with your favorite mug, snug in your most comfortable chair, with your old copy of An American In Paris, just days after landing stateside.
Or imagine picking up just where you left off with cooking lessons, your cookbook collection, and knives waiting to whip up a new concoction. Storage offers comfort and practicality.
Many people reduce costs by selling or donating items before shipping belongings overseas. However, most travelers who have gone through the process offer a similar warning: it’s easy to underestimate how much you think you’ll need later.
Returning expats are often surprised by how many items they chose to keep – and rarely use again. Instead of being warmly reunited with cherished belongings, they often find themselves surrounded by things they could have let go of before leaving.
In other words, packing your bags for an international move is rarely as straightforward as it seems.
That’s why a focused decluttering session is essential for any expat-to-be. Try a few simple mental exercises to guide your decisions. Challenge yourself to fit all your belongings into just six boxes.
Ask yourself: if you could only keep 100 items, what would truly make the cut? Or take it further and imagine keeping just one of each essential – one serving platter, one set of sheets, one television.
A thoughtful pre-trip purge will make both your departure and your eventual return much easier.
The Hidden Costs of Long-Term Storage
The cost of a small storage unit may seem more reasonable than shipping belongings overseas. However, even modest costs can add up over the course of a long trip.
$100 or $200 a month means a lot of missed travel opportunities when you’re overseas. And the price of a quality storage unit, with insurance, climate control, and 24-hour staff, is even higher.
But frugal travelers should think twice before scattering their belongings among friends to save money. Kind-hearted friends may be happy to store your boxes in their basement, but everyone has their limits.
This is an act of generosity you can’t abuse and is hard to repay. Think carefully before you unexpectedly unload a sofa in someone else’s garage.
Moving overseas and embarking on a major life change is fraught with unexpected expenses, from extra pricey take-out coffees to accidentally forgetting to budget for travel insurance (say it ain’t so).
Selling your belongings can simultaneously solve your storage problems and boost your travel budget. But selling your items online is easier said than done.
We tend to value our own belongings more than the general public does. You could unconsciously set your price points to reflect personal pride more than fair market value.
To make sure you aren’t over- (or under-) pricing your prized possessions, invite some sensible friends over for pizza. They’ll provide impartial advice on how much your armchairs are really worth.
Sorting Household Items
Smaller items, like kitchen odds and ends, are a challenge. Are you really going to sell a spatula on Kijiji? Try a bundling approach. For one low, reasonable price, the recipient will get an entire bag’s worth of kitchen accessories.
Put the most attractive ones at the front of the photo, and don’t be afraid to brag about what a generous collection it is. Or, if the timing works out, take your sales to the local university newspaper.
Students will be keen to pick up second-hand housewares at the beginning of the school year and at the end (when the prospect of moving out of the dorms is looming).
Trading and Swapping
There’s an alternative to selling that might bring more value (and less hassle) for the prospective expat. Facebook-based trade and swap groups bypass cash in favor of exchanging goods.
If you’re starting the decluttering process early, this is an ideal way to pass along your belongings. And in return, you can receive just about anything. Coffee beans, wine, laundry detergent, and small gift cards are common and are just as useful as cash for a soon-to-be traveler.
Creative minded folks and zero-waste proponents flock to these groups so items you generally assume have no value (like old magazines or plant clippings), could very well be snapped up in return for homemade banana bread.
Exchange and Donate Unwanted Items
Regardless of whether you pursue cash or coffee swaps, organize exchanges in a neutral, safe location. To minimize aggravation, try to stack several exchanges at once.
That way, your time isn’t wasted if there is a no-show or two. And have a plan in place for all those items that don’t find a new home, so you don’t end up packing your bags with items you’re ambivalent about.
Research local charitable causes that accept donations to help you lighten your load. Expats often speak of using their local charity thrift store as a creative alternative to storage.
They donate their housewares before a big trip and, when they return, purchase inexpensive, near-identical items donated by someone else in a similar situation. Thinking in these terms might make packing your bags and preparing to move a little easier.
Combine Storage, Selling, and Shipping
In the end, most expats choose a mix of selling and shipping belongings overseas. They declutter many items, sell some to help fund their trip, and tuck aside a box of treasures and sentimental items to await their return.
With a little luck, you’ll pick up some extra special items during your travels to help you remember your trip for years -and homes – to come.
Vanessa Chiasson is an award-winning Canadian travel writer with over ten years of experience. Her work has appeared in major publications, and she draws on living in France, Ireland, England, and Malawi to bring global insight to her stories.
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