A Life Shift

Does this sound like a daunting task?  It was!

The philosophy here, in my opinion, is the same advice many give about packing a suitcase.  Make a pile of everything you think you need.  Walk away.  Come back and remove half of everything.  Walk away.  Come back and remove a bit more stuff.  Now you’re good, if not still a bit on the over-packed side.

In my mind, for months leading up to the actual packing and moving, I was mentally piling and walking away, removing items from my mental list and then mentally walking away again.  It turns out this is an exhausting effort and I felt a lot better when I started writing things down.  “i.e. ‘Pack Dive certifications’, or ‘purchase new sheets for sofa bed, ships in container’, etc.”  Removing some items from the lists constantly running through my mind helped a lot.  And, no matter how many lists I wrote, my brain always felt full.

There were a lot of categories to consider:

1. Absolutely take to Hong Kong (pack in container)
2. Maybe take to Hong Kong? (evaluate closer to move date)
3. Take to Hong Kong if space allows? (evaluate once accommodation secured)
4. Don’t have but need for Hong Kong (purchase before move)
5. Take to Hong Kong but need in Canada Before Move (must be able to fit in 1 of 2 suitcases)
6. Don’t take to Hong Kong but need in Canada before move (don’t hide it away in a box just yet!)
7. Don’t take to Hong Kong but store for later (thanks Mom & Dad!)
8. Don’t take to Hong kong but not worth storing (donate or sell)

I’m sure there’s more categories but this is the gist.    To further complicate the packing effort, I did this work after Braden had moved.  There were a lot of things I just don’t know how to deal with, most specifically anything to do with electronics.  I sent many photos of little piles of stuff / cords / electronics to  figure out what we need in HK and what I could pack away.  The trick was to send the messages at the right time, because there was only a window of a couple of hours at the beginning and end of my day that Braden was available to answer because Hong Kong is 15 hours ahead.  I played a game with myself to see if I could guess what he’d say.  I was almost always 100% wrong.  Good thing I checked!