Although I read up on purging ‘things’ reducing clutter, storing stuff, not to mention the copious amount of lists I wrote so I wouldn’t forget anything, it still took way longer than I thought it would. I would never have thought I could get 16 boxes out of my office – the smallest room in the house!    Although I had great intentions of detailing and using the website as a place to list and use for reference I have learnt that I am still very much a pen and paper girl!  Not to mention that getting this website up and running has been the most frustrating thing within the whole process.

Initial planning started in an exercise book where I first started a page for each month and listed which jobs I wanted to have completed in that month. For example May was; decide on real estate agent to rent/send off for new passports for the girls/request friends and family to ‘billet’ items.  Other pages were dedicated for educational resources as I came across them, another for automatic payments to stop, mail to redirect, things to buy, low cost carrier and airlines notes, a list of odd jobs around the house that needed doing.

A month out from departing then necessitated the use of a ‘Day Planner’ with jobs listed and ticked off, every couple of days doing up a new one and carrying across anything not completed as so many things all seem to fall to the last month. The lists seem to get longer and longer during those weeks only really reducing a few days out from departure! We really did leave everything down to the wire.  The keys for the house were handed to the agent only 10 days before flying out and the few weeks prior to this were spent packing, taking trailer loads to the shipping container, cleaning the house room by room, last minute renovations including putting up a new cladding on the front of the house and putting window stays and door handles on!

Oh and did I mention selling a car – which was only finalized at 4pm the afternoon before flying out!  Yes we like living on the edge! In the last week we also fit in some catch up play days with friends, spent a day at the food and wine festival not to mention driving up to an hour each way getting the children to school from our ‘temporary’ home with David’s parents.

At this point I would like to express our love and gratitude to David’s Mum and Dad for not only putting us up for the last three weeks before leaving, but also taking care of our washing, for feeding us up (often two and three course dinners each night!) and on more than a few occasions looking after the girls and putting them to bed so we could get on with loading up the trailer, another run to the container and unloading (often at night and by the light of our head torches) not to mention storing a myriad of our bits and pieces all over the house and in many a cupboard! We couldn’t have got away without your help!

Thanks also go out to Debbie and Jim for saying yes to having a shipping container plonked on their front block.  To my sister Marg, thank you so much for coming to my rescue the night before the garage sale and helping me set up and price items and also for an afternoon of wrapping and packing up my kitchen cupboards.  To Kylie and Dayna for taking some items to store and use and Lisa and Guy who are not only eating at our dining table but driving around in our remaining car! Last but not least to my Mum and Dad for taking a few key pieces of furniture but mostly for looking after our beautiful Cavalier King Charles Spaniel ‘Dipsy’.  You’ve no idea how it puts our minds at ease knowing she is staying at her ‘second home’ with those that love her.