A year later, I am again packing my life and moving to a new destination. People see it as such a hard thing to pack your life, your apartment in 2 bags and leave. But guess what, it took me a total of 2 days, in which time I threw away half of my stuff, packed half of what was left for storage and managed to narrow the rest to 60 kg. I am amazed of my efficiency as well:)
It seems sad that I can detach so easily of the place I've lived in for the past year but it also feels good that I managed to not get attached to my things again and that I finally learned that I can live so lightly. The human is a gatherer and a hoarder by nature and learning to let go of all the material things and all the nice and useless crap that we constantly buy to fuel a consumerism society is so liberating. All my memories are in my head and I don't need constant physical reminders to know what's important to me or not.
On this note, here are my 10 things to do when moving abroad:
1. If you haven't worn something in more than 6 months, it's time to let it go!
2. You don't need to carry towels, bed sheets, pillows, duvets, books, beauty and hygiene products, hairdryer, and things that you can purchase cheap in any country, it's just not worth taking them from home.
3. The most important things you need are your documents (plus a set of copies), at least 2 or 3 credit or debit cards and any prescribed medication. When moving to a new country it takes a while until you get settled and find a GP so I prefer to be safe and carry some broad spectrum antibiotics with me at all times. Anything else can be usually purchased locally in case you forgot it at home.
4. Check the average temperature for each month in your destination and choose only proper clothes. If during summer, the maximum is 20 degrees, why bother packing 10 summer dresses? You have limited space and it is better spent on something else.
5. When traveling with more than 1 suitcase, pack a bit of everything in each other suitcase and one set of clean clothes and underwear in your carry-on; bags are lost all the time and you don't want to get there and realize you're left with only a bag of shoes and nothing else until they find your other bag and return it to you, ransacked and usually missing items.
6. Use vacuum storage bags for everything, they help you save a lot of space.
7. Before you go, close any contracts or leave notarized mandates to someone you trust in case there is anything legal to be done or even if they have to pick up some documents for you- bureaucracy is everywhere!
8. If you have things you don't need and don't want to store, call your friends over and show it to them; who knows, someone may want to adopt your books!
9. Research the city you move to before you get there and try to figure out the good neighborhoods to live in, how can you get from the airport to your primary destination, which is your primary destination (should you arrange for a hotel or maybe even rent something for the short term, until you settle in and figure out all the details). At the same time, take a look at http://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-living/ to see the average prices of food, clothes, gas, rent, etc. in your destination country. From this, try to forecast your monthly expenses and decide whether you want to live in the city center and save on public transportation or pay less for rent and buy a car.
10. And finally, my last piece of advice is try to let go of unnecessary items and take only things you truly need. Be honest to yourself and don't break your back just to carry 20 pair of high heeled shoes that you know you are only going to wear once a year. Also, be prepared for a new adventure- it will eventually be fun even though you may hit some bumps on the way. When you first get there, open a local bank account, you will need it for everything and it's a bit of a vicious circle. Find out if you need to apply for a national insurance number or social security number or any equivalent of that. Don't get stuck on issues you may have at first because people are usually willing to help you.
Eventually, just have fun with it and learn to let go of material things, your life will be so much easier!
For the nomads of this world: fly, spread your wings and explore, there's nothing better than new experiences!
And to you, my dear Romania, I promise I'll visit again soon; until then it's goodbye!
