HHG

HHG - What is it you might ask?  If your military you know it stands for House Hold Goods, and you go there when it is time to PCS to another place.  Well, it was time to visit there today since we are off to Japan in just a couple very short months and orders have been processed through. 

So today I set my sights on getting a start on the taxing process of scheduling shipping and storing all of our household goods.  I knew that this one would be tough because Japan is a weight restricted shipment of goods meaning that we are allotted so many pounds for every move and on this one we are only able to take a portion of them.  So what does that look like?  We are allotted 14,500 pounds on any given move, and to Japan . . . ????? We are allotted only 25% of that!!! That's right folks that equates to 3,600 pounds and that's it.  I knew it was going to be low, but good gracious when she gave me the paperwork with the estimates (one room is on average 1000-1500 lbs.) and I started walking around my house I became a bit overwhelmed with the idea of what the heck am I supposed to bring and what do I store? 

As I walked around the house randomly picking up items wondering how much each of them weighed and wondering to myself do I really want to use up one of my precious pounds shipping the wok I have never used, I realized that most of the stuff in my house I will put away for 3 years not to be seen or accessed.  I then had a horrible thought, what if things get mixed up?  What if all the stuff I want to go to storage ends up on my doorstep and all the stuff I want to bring goes to storage? I had a visual of me sitting in Japan with 20 Disney dress up costumes strewn about, knick knacks, an old tv, and no clothes, beds, or linens! 

In all reality I don't think that will happen, but really what do you bring and what do you leave behind, how do you decide? The items we ship will take 2 1/2 months to arrive, I mean if I can live that long without it do I really need it?

So if you see me around fervently writing out lists and asking random people how much they think a twin bed weighs or if you could only bring three things from your house what would it be?  Know that I am not completely off my rocker, just dealing with HHG.