Moving

packing and preparation

Moving

Moving to Europe has its own set of challenges. Expense is of course the primary factor. A quote of $5,000 and actual cost of $6,000 will ship a crate 7 feet high by 7 feet deep by four feet wide. These are loaded into a container that measures 8’x8’x20.’ You can secure an entire 20’ container for around $15,000. Shipping includes door to door delivery by most companies, but not all. We used Allied.

We set off a 7’x7’ area in the dining room and carefully packed our prized possessions in boxes until we had the area filled.  Then we called to let Atlas know we were ready to move.

“Hello, I am just calling to arrange a moving date. We are ready to go,” I told Ronnie, our contact.

“Great, we can send a crew to pack your things and load the crate on Thursday. Be sure and not pack anything into boxes yet, let the packing crew do that,” Ronnie informed me. He had said nothing about this on our previous discussions.

“What? We’ve already packed everything, Ronnie.”

“Oh no, anything that is packed by the customer is a red flag to customs. They will open the crate and tear into everything looking for contraband. It’s much better if our people inventory, wrap, box, and load everything.”

“Oh great, we spent a week packing everything,” I said, thinking of the small fortune my wife spent on bubble wrap. “OK, when can we expect delivery?”

“In about four to six weeks,” Ronnie said proudly.

Wow, I thought. They must be taking it over by row boat.

“I will give you the contact number for the receiving agent in France. You will need to call him to take delivery.”

“Thanks, Ronnie. Good bye.”

“Honey,” I yelled to Alice in the other room. “You better put everything you want to have with us in a big box and we’ll mail it to France. Mail delivery is in about a week.” I didn’t realize she would fill a 2’x2’x2’ box with Irish Spring bath soap, Pepto-Bismol, Ivory hand soap, Lipton Tea, Earl Grey tea bags, and twenty pounds of other everyday household items that we could have bought in France.  In fact we wound up mailing two twenty pound boxes (the other box contained clothing) and a new computer we had just bought for her.

That was in October. On November 7th the moving company came and packed up our must have stuff and hauled it away in a plywood box seven feet tall, seven feet deep and four feet wide. Our furniture would not fit in the new house in France, so all the furniture went into storage, along with many years of accumulated possessions. 

On December 7th the plywood box was loaded onto a cargo ship and began its voyage to France. Estimated arrival date in France: 23rd December. Estimated delivery date to our house? Unknown.