How DO you move overseas?

What a great question. That, and “what will you do with all of your stuff?” are probably the two most-asked questions. I’m not sure that I have the right answers at this point, but I’ll tell you about our approach.

First, take a look around your house, open a few drawers in the kitchen, open a closet door, and walk through your garage. Imagine having to make a decision about every single item you’ve seen…welcome to our world.

Everything we own now falls into these categories:
- Put in storage
- Take with us
- Give to family/friends
- Give to charity
- Throw away
- Sell

I have to say, we’re very lucky to be pretty organized and are not major accumulators of stuff. This makes things less overwhelming, but the fact of the matter is there’s still a lot of stuff to go through.

We are taking the “less is more” approach, focusing a lot on giving things away. Beware: No one leaves our house empty handed! The items going with us are pieces of furniture that we’ve purchased in the last couple of years, our beds, clothing, and kitchen basics. Things for storage are pieces of furniture Dave has made and things that we know we’ll want in a few years – and not much falls in that category. Electronics (TVs, stereos, etc) will not work in HK and will be obsolete when we return. We have sold one of our cars and will sell the other before we go. Selling a house in this market is a story in and of itself – if you know anyone that is in the market, send them our way.

So, once we figure out what goes in the “take with us” category, we have to break it down into three sub-groups:

- Take with us on the plane
- Have shipped by air (14 days to receive it, limited to 750 pounds)
- Have shipped by boat (up to 10 weeks to receive it)

But, wait - what about your pets??


Pets can travel to Hong Kong in the cargo space on the plane; the logistics are complicated and it can be expensive (I had quotes of several thousand dollars! However, a friend was helping me sort it out to reduce the cost). There was no doubt that Sally, our 14 year old black Lab, would not make the trip. She’s too fragile and living in a high rise with no greenspace just didn’t seem right. Dave’s parents generously offered to take her.


Clancy, my Ragdoll cat, was a tough decision. He’s beautiful (see above), lovable, and slightly (okay, VERY) neurotic. Any change whatsoever freaks him out. Until about a month ago, I’d planned to take him. Then, as we moved things around in the house and the woodshop got moved out of our basement, it became clear to me that there was no WAY he’d make the trip without becoming a complete wreck. I couldn’t imagine dealing with a cat-gone-crazy while trying to keep from going crazy myself. Fortunately, I found a fantastic new home for him – I can’t believe I got so lucky.

Both of our pets have moved to their new homes. It’s awfully quiet around here – it’s been almost 14 years since I’ve been without a pet. But, it won’t last long…once we get settled in HK, we’ll get a kitten (or two).