Travelling Light, or not

Living out of a suitcase. It's not the sanest thing to do, particularly as it normally revolves around a big change. Taking 12 cases when you move Countries with 2 kids just because you can, isn't the smartest thing to do either!

As we were preparing to pack everything we own into a container to sail across to the other side of the world, I had to decide what items were going to be travelling with us. The things we would need for the next 9 weeks. We made life harder by including a visit to the UK and to Hong Kong enroute to Australia so had to ensure we had appropriate clothing.

Now we are a week into our stay, unpacked and waiting for our container, I realise that I made some poor packing choices. Actually, I realised very early into our journey that I'd packed too many cases. Or had I? I'm still in conflict over that one.

I definitely made our transit harder travelling with sooo many bags, buggy & 2 children. We had to pay for airport porters, double taxi's, plus a minibus at our final destination, which all increased the overall cost of our travel. We used our full checked luggage entitlement. Our hand luggage we used as extra suitcase space.

BUT... Imagine if our container was lost or destroyed. Unlikely, but we did hear a lot of horror stories about how strict Australian customs are so there is always the small chance it could happen. Therefore I did pack items you wouldn't take on holiday e.g. baby keepsakes and a lot of paperwork. The rules of our relocation company dictated some of the contents of our cases e.g. jewellery. I did pack too many of the same type of clothes and items like towels. Too many books for the kids, which added to the weight and would've been easy to replace over here. Kept forgetting I was moving to a country where everything is available in the same language!

We're in temporary accommodation until our container arrives, so its easy to convince ourselves we're just on a long holiday and that's why we don't have our usual creature comforts around us. There are things I go to use which we don't have but I don't feel we're missing out on anything, except our friends and family nearby.

For future moves I would try and stick to the following: items that can't be replaced; small toys; 2-3 types of each piece of clothing e.g. T-shirts, trousers; jackets/waterproofs; paperwork especially original documents; chargers/adapters; camera; small stationery set (you can never find a pen when you need one); toiletries; a little something from home that makes you smile

Things that worked: * I kept a list of what was in each suitcase * Marked all cases with same coloured ribbon on handles and patterned gaffer tape for quick identification off the luggage belt * 'New home' toy for kids * Pyjamas at top of case * Extension leads * Put everything we needed for actual flight into a carrier bag to pull out of hand luggage case once
on board to save keep opening and closing cases * Presumed that one or both kids would be asleep when we landed and how we would manage them and the bags

Another 6 weeks and we'll have to pack up again, this time it can all go in ikea bags for the short trip between temporary and long term apartment.

Thank you to our friends who provided B&B accommodation for us and our many cases in Amsterdam and UK.