Month: July 2016

I Have Laundry Duty even in Paradise

Valerie on the MoveLeave a comment

One month of hotel living:  Bag drag of seven suitcases through five hotels, three states, one long day of air travel.

Our family of four brought six suitcases and a booster seat for 2 to 3 months of living minimally until we are reunited with our household goods (hopefully).

After 30+ days, I have loads of laundry to do of the same tired wardrobe.

Hotel laundry facilities are not created equal. The first hotel charged $7.50 a load (!). Our current hotel charges $3.00 a load.  The 3 washers & 3 dryers are in high demand.

My forever friend Sylvia texts me: “I thought that in Paradise you just toss your beautiful flowing garments into the ebb of the magical waves and they flowed back to you on an ocean breeze.” (Quite the wit, she is!)

This is my reality right now:

Laundry duty in paradise
Laundry duty in paradise

 

Lessons learned:

  1. Never take more than you can carry.
  2. Wheeled luggage is essential.
  3. Make sure your family of 4 plus ALL your luggage fit in your rental car! (It’s a very tight squeeze for us!)
  4. Remember living on top of each other in 400 s.f. is only temporary.

Aloha!

Valerie

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Aloha…Life is Good in Hawaii

Valerie on the MoveLeave a comment

I am was in the middle of a chaotic, logistically challenging move to Hawaii, and I just don’t remember previous moves being this stressful.

HOWEVER,  This is my current view…

Our view of Waikiki Beach, Honolulu, Hawaii
Our view of Waikiki Beach, Honolulu, Hawaii

 

I operate with these thoughts/guidelines/procedures when it comes to moving:

  1.  If it can go wrong, it will.  * Murphy’s Law always makes an appearance. ALWAYS.*
  1. Hurry up & wait.
  1. Accept that It just won’t make much sense when it comes to military policy & procedures.
  1. Agencies & their agents don’t care about you, your move, your stuff. “It’s not my problem.”

We received orders 35 days before his Report No Later Than Date (RNLTD) for an overseas move.  The Transportation Management Office (TMO) assured us that scheduling our 3 shipments* under deadline would be no problem.

Naively, I believed them.  [Insert patronizing “oh honey, what were you thinking?” right now.  It’s ok, I deserve it.]

*  3 shipments:

  1. Household Goods – Our stuff, blissfully accumulated during our marriage.
  2. Non-temp storage – More stuff, which we could probably do without but can’t bear to part with just yet. We do know we don’t need or have the space in Hawaii for these things, but presumably we will want to reunite and use these things down the road, whenever that may be.
  3. Unaccompanied Baggage – The essentials to survive while waiting for the blissfully accumulated stuff. Limited to 1,000 lbs.

The disclaimer from TMO, especially when it’s high volume season, is we should be flexible with our dates.   See Operating Procedures #4 above.

Y’all, I was stressing big time, and now I’m here and it doesn’t matter much.  We eventually will get our stuff and our car.  We eventually will move into a home.

Everything is going to be alright.  Life is good!

Aloha!

Valerie

 

p.s.  I will eventually post a few helpful hints & lessons learned, just not today.