Should it stay or should it go?

We’ve had a little celebration this week – after a few months of squirrelling away a bit of money each month, we’ve had a ridiculously indulgent and extravagant shopping spree!  The end result was a brand new set of pots and pans and a super fancy toaster.

Yes.  Adulting sucks.

It could have been something really decadent, but here we are…looking at our shiny new pots.

OMG. This is me all grown up now.

But, while we were contemplating our new purchases, it brought back memories of our plans to depart SA and the decision we made to ditch just about everything we owned.  The burning question of course is, what DO you pack to take with you?  But the thing is, you can never really ditch EVERYTHING, so how do you choose what stays, gets sold, donated or repurposed…and what you take with on your journey to a new country?

Well, I had spent quite a bit of time trawling through the online forums before we moved and I already had a very good idea that our furniture would have to stay.  Our lovely, expensive lounge set…our super comfy, pricy bed, and….well, just about everything, no matter the price tag, wouldn’t be worth shipping over. 

The furniture in SA is bulky, clunky and built slightly differently so I had heard from friends that their efforts to hang on to their furniture was completely wasted.  They ended up chopping up their 5 beds and a whole lounge set into firewood, whilst their white goods stood uselessly in the garage taking up space but not useable here in the UK.

So with this in mind, we shed a lot, and I mean a LOT!  We came over with a small movecube filled with our really sentimental stuff and probably more Christmas lights than we needed (you can never have too many!).  I remember sitting in an empty house on overturned buckets and milk crates, watching TV on a borrowed set and with old sheets hanging over the windows.  Aaaaah, good times, good times.

Back to the movecube, it is bigger than you realise but also quite little so you have to pack really carefully.  Which comes full circle to my original question – how do you choose?  Or probably more importantly, what do I WISH I had brought with in that precious little space we had.

So here’s a quick list of the essentials that I think one should hang on to and a few tips for planning your own move:

• Kitchenware – We shed just about everything except two items that had been very recently bought and were the kind of purchases that you consider for years before actually doing it, so I wasn’t about to let them go.  These were the food processor and the ice cream maker, but everything else went.  And yet, I am so so so sorry that I got rid of everything I did from my kitchen.  If could do over my packing, I would keep:

a.       Knives and specialised tools

b.      Expensive cookware

c.       Ovenware

d.      Anything that you are attached to which makes preparing a meal more fun or even easier

Yes, you can get everything here – its also stomach churningly expensive and takes ages to find the right replacement.  It’s taken nearly 2 years for us to replace the £6 set of pots we bought because it’s all we could afford.  So there’s that to consider

• Personal and sentimental items - they can’t be replaced so pack them in.  Just please lose the decoupage project you did in Gr 6, because really – no-one cares about that.  You get the drift, pack the stuff that really means something and that will make your home more homey.
• Bedroom linen – if you have expensive covers (as we did, which were all wedding gifts from a year before), these will fit the UK duvet inners.  A Queen sized linen set fits a King Size inner over here – the only think that will not fit at all is your sheets, so leave those behind. 

That’s it – that really is all.  If nothing else, take your kitchenware – once you unpack all of that, you feel so much more at home and comfortable.  But failing that – here is my quick list of the best places to buy stuff:

• Electronics – TVs, soundbars, anything that need a plug and entertains you, can be bought pretty much anywhere.  Google for the best prices on something, or focus your attention on Argos and Currys for the best deals.  Bringing your own TV isn’t necessarily worth it, as the units here have built in Freeview – but if you decide to bring your massive flat screen, just get yourself a Freeview box so you can enjoy the multitude of options.
• Knives – TK Max has the BEST deals on chef quality knives.  Sabatier is our favourite and they can be bought for a steal in any TKMax store.
• Cookware – Lakeland is probably the best but brace yourself for the pricing.  This place is like Boardmans all grown up – and only for the fancy folk.  But having said that, if you have the budget, you’ll find the quality and variety here.
• Regular kitchenware – all the big supermarkets do regular kitchenware, so does Poundstretcher and Dunelm or the Range if your town has one.  These things are not hard to find, and you always have online shopping to make things easier.  Look out for seasonal sales for the best deals.
• Furniture – the best part of moving!  We actually relied heavily on Freecycle, charity shops and Ikea.  Nothing matches and I don’ really care, it serves its purpose and we will slowly grow into replacing everything with what we want.

This whole experience has taught me that you don’t really need all those things you think you do.  We hang on to objects but really, we can make do with anything that is functional. So be brutal, be brave and literally get rid of everything you can.

And really, don’t pack in our version of winter clothing.  Just don’t do that.  It’s embarrassing.