Pre packing

We finally got around to packing up the things we want to move to the Philippines.

There’s a service that transports packages to the Philippines by container ship. They provide a box of the appropriate size. To figure out whether we’d need one or two boxes, we went looking for a box with the right dimensions, and I found one in a friend’s basement.

Getting it home on foot and by public transit wasn’t as easy as I thought. The box was a bit too bulky to just tuck under my arm, and the enthusiasm of my fellow passengers on the crowded S-train was pretty limited. But now we have a nice, big XXL Bauhaus moving box that’s roughly the same size as the shipping box.

After lunch, we packed the clothes into vacuum bags to transport everything as space-efficiently and mold-free as possible.

In the end, though, it wasn’t quite as space-efficient as we’d hoped—or rather, the amount of clothing was larger than expected. The box was three-quarters full, along with towels and fitted sheets.

On top of that, there were bulky items like a climbing helmet and gear, long fins, shoes, a grater, a Bialetti pot, a rolling pin, power strips, cosmetics,....

Simon’s motorcycle helmet was supposed to go in there too, but by that point, a lot of other things already wouldn’t fit.

So now we know it’s going to be two boxes.

The neatly packed items now have to be unpacked again.

We’ve also looked more closely into health insurance and are now deciding between two providers. We even had an appointment with an insurance broker for this. Unfortunately, the reviews and sources of information aren’t very comprehensive since the concept is still relatively new, but it looks promising that we’ll find something suitable. Since the insurance can’t be purchased until three months before departure, we still have some time to make a decision.