Household Good shipment to Germany

We just received an Email on Sept 17th stating that our Unaccompanied Baggage (UB) arrived in Germany, It only took 30 days, I was expecting 45. It's there waiting on us in temporary storage until we arrive and acquire housing.  We are a little less than 30 days from our flight out and just had our House Hold Goods (HHG) picked up.  I wanted to let you know a little more detail about that. 

Kim and I have done quite a few moves since we have been in the service. Most of the stateside moves we chose to do the DITY (Do IT Yourself) move. That is where the Government will pay you 80% of what they would normally be charged by a moving company for you to move yourself.  We have done this so many times that I am now an expert at Tetris!  After the rental truck fuel and food expenses we have always ended up pocketing close to $2000 which is great when you are moving to a new area to get everything set up.

Going overseas you do not have that option. This is our second overseas duty station (Iraq doesn't count, LOL). Korea was our first and we learned a lot on what to ship early.  You can go to the first blog and read about our Unaccompanied Baggage(UB) shipment.  Having the shippers come may sound like a nerve racking ordeal but its really not that bad.  Before they come have a garage sale or sell your unwanted items online (bookoo, craigslist, or local FB page) this will save from having to unpack and store items you really could do without. Wash out all your trash cans before movers come so they don't stink when you get them back.

Clean out all those drawers that accumulate all crap, make sure all your trash is emptied.  We have heard stories of the movers packing up trash cans with trash in it.  What a nasty surprise that would be after 60 days!  Take everything off the walls and pull everything out of cabinets that is higher than arms reach.  If you don't want it packed, tag it with a note that says "DO NOT PACK".  We cleaned out one bedroom and placed all of our luggage and bathroom items in it and marked the door "DO NOT PACK".

I thought this was funny "Lady Clothes"

 

We also shipped a lot of our unopened dry groceries and canned goods.  We took them out of the pantry and left it on the kitchen counters and labeled the pantry "don't pack".  I also went and bought my favorite spices that the Commissary may not have or may have a limited supply. You need to make sure you take pictures of all your high value items and their serial numbers.  The packers should document the item on the outside of the packing box and write the serial number on the box. Make sure all the high value items are documented on the inventory sheets.

Also make sure you at least provide drinks for the movers. We always provide them lunch, we use to buy them pizza because its easy.  My son went to work for the moving company that moved our stuff into our house when we came to Georgia from Korea.  He told us he gets so tired of eating pizza, I never thought of that. So this time we bought sub sandwiches, chips and water from the commissary. I cut the subs into smaller portions too. The packers seemed to really enjoy it and so did the movers the next day (we had to go back and get some more subs for next day). 

Since we were going overseas the movers that came on the second day loaded all of our stuff into shipping crates.  This was great because we had some items missing years ago.  We did a stateside move and the movers loaded all of our items in a 18 wheeler and crated our stuff at their warehouse, we ended up with someone's waterbed parts and a few of their boxes, and they ended up with some of ours.  We did get reimbursed for it but it was aggravating. 

The only thing that did not fit into the shipping crates was our couch they had to put it into a "sofa box" and it will ship in the box instead of a crate. The movers had to leave and come back because they only brought out 6 crates to begin with. We ended up with 9 crates and 1 couch box.  I wrote a note on my inventory sheet about crate #9 because they did not seal it up in front of me, all it had in it was our elliptical machine and the side rails to our bed.  The movers were saying they might be able to ADD (build) two more feet onto the crate and fit the sofa in the crate with the elliptical.  We shall see :)

Right now we are living out of our suitcases for the next 7 days until we leave for a little family time in Texas, then its off to Germany!  I will post an update when we receive it in Germany.

UPDATE ** IT TOOK 32 DAYS FROM WHEN WE SHIPPED TO WHEN WE GOT THE EMAIL IT ARRIVED