How did you wind down living in the US before you moved?

You guys all seem so much more organized than me. I'm just now in the process of going through my back bedroom - it is full of crap. I just started this two days ago (should've started it a month ago) and I'm coming to the realization that I might be a hoarder.  I found a birthday card from when I was 6 (that was 20 years ago), I found a valentine from when my now sister-in-law was dating my brother (they've been married 17 years) and I found an invitation to my niece's 6th birthday party at Chuck E. Cheese (she's now 16).

I need to get through all this stuff in less than 2 weeks and this weekend won't count as I'm going to a bachelorette party.

AHHHHHH!

You guys all seem so much more organized than me. I'm just now in the process of going through my back bedroom - it is full of crap. I just started this two days ago (should've started it a month ago) and I'm coming to the realization that I might be a hoarder.  I found a birthday card from when I was 6 (that was 20 years ago), I found a valentine from when my now sister-in-law was dating my brother (they've been married 17 years) and I found an invitation to my niece's 6th birthday party at Chuck E. Cheese (she's now 16).

I need to get through all this stuff in less than 2 weeks and this weekend won't count as I'm going to a bachelorette party.

AHHHHHH!

Oops! It took me a long while to go through my "spare" room (aka, throw it in there and deal with it later room!) before I moved out of my apt! Good luck. Hopefully you're not working right now and can use the daytime to work on it (I was coming home after work to clean/pack when I moved out of the apt.)

Well I really lucked out on one aspect of my stuff. My bestie is getting ready to divorce her husband so she's going to take all my furniture and either store the stuff i want to keep or buy the major stuff I want to sell. So now I really just need to get rid of my couches! And some kitchen items. I've been selling off stuff for the past two years now and am really down to the donate it or garage sale it stuff.

I've just decided to start packing small boxes of things and mailing them to the UK via the post office. Probably not the cheapest way to get stuff there, but the easiest for me. I have loads of clothes over there all ready so now it's those knickknack memory things that are going. I plan on taking 1 large suitcase and a carryon when I finally move over of those last bits I think I need.

aricarai, good luck with that room!

I've also been busy donating to Goodwill, my church and the local jail (A great place to get rid of books of all sorts!) and collecting receipts like crazy from all of them to help with the tax situation for next year.

Red5- you are the kind of organized and efficient I want to be about this!! I love the notebook idea. Did you get fair price at carmax, do you think? I'm thinking that's my best option if my mom doesn't buy my car herself.

If you could see my desk right now you would reconsider calling me organized! 
It was back in 2005 that we sold our cars to carmax.  We did receive a fair price for both cars (a Mazda mini van and a Toyota Corolla). 

aricarai, good luck with that room!

I finished after 5 hours of nonstop work last night. And now I need to space bag the heck out of my clothes and get to packin'!

You guys all seem so much more organized than me. I'm just now in the process of going through my back bedroom - it is full of crap. I just started this two days ago (should've started it a month ago) and I'm coming to the realization that I might be a hoarder.  I found a birthday card from when I was 6 (that was 20 years ago), I found a valentine from when my now sister-in-law was dating my brother (they've been married 17 years) and I found an invitation to my niece's 6th birthday party at Chuck E. Cheese (she's now 16).

I still have a big 'ol box of that kind of stuff at mom's, all sentimental silliness that I should part with but can't bring myself to do it. I weed it out from time to time, like keeping my prom invitations, pictures and the program from those nights, but forcing myself to throw away the price tags from my dresses. Why in the world would a person hang on to those? I even have a few notes that friends and I wrote in high school, and one from third grade! I've only kept about 10 out of the hundreds (thousands?) that friends and I wrote back and forth, but just can't part with those.

So glad I'm not the only one TamaMoo. I've got a whole bunch of notes from high school. I just can't part from them.

@TamaMoo: that quote by Dr. Seuss is one of my favorites!

I am one step closer today. Got the news that my apartment was successfully rented out so I will be out of my lease 2 months early. Which means I have about 1.5 months to get my act together before I start living out of a suitcase!

I am thinking about how I did this and am having a hard time remembering!  It was less than three years ago, but I honestly think I almost checked-out a bit during all of this and just did what I had to do without thinking too much about it.

I was lucky that I rented my house to a family member and kept living there until the day I moved. I sold my car about a week before moving and sold almost all of my belongings (this is probably where I checked-out as looking back I think it would have been soul destroying to do such a thing).  I used UpakWeShip to ship three boxes, mostly clothing, thick coats and extra-sentimental things.  In hindsight, I should have done this as excess baggage as a more than a few things were broken in transit and it took FOREVER!

I am thinking about how I did this and am having a hard time remembering!  It was less than three years ago, but I honestly think I almost checked-out a bit during all of this and just did what I had to do without thinking too much about it.

I was lucky that I rented my house to a family member and kept living there until the day I moved. I sold my car about a week before moving and sold almost all of my belongings (this is probably where I checked-out as looking back I think it would have been soul destroying to do such a thing).  I used UpakWeShip to ship three boxes, mostly clothing, thick coats and extra-sentimental things.  In hindsight, I should have done this as excess baggage as a more than a few things were broken in transit and it took FOREVER!

Interesting! I was checking out their site yesterday and it seems really excessive for not a lot of stuff and a long wait. My current plan is to just do excess baggage as much as possible (already sent one over with Stuart in April.) Plus, the added bonus of having the items immediately.

I wish I could just take everything I know we don't want outside and have someone whisk it away

Big Brothers/Big Sisters of Rhode Island did that! I rang them up, put everything I didn't want in bin bags in the garage then went to work; when I came home, it was all gone!

@TamaMoo: that quote by Dr. Seuss is one of my favorites!

The man was a genius. A lot of people may not realize it because of the nonsense rhyme of his books, but when you read some of his quotes, you see just how brilliant he was.

Interesting! I was checking out their site yesterday and it seems really excessive for not a lot of stuff and a long wait. My current plan is to just do excess baggage as much as possible (already sent one over with Stuart in April.) Plus, the added bonus of having the items immediately.

We brought a lot of our stuff over in suitcases, over several trips. I had loads of clothes and things I didn't want to part with, and hubby had been in the States 4 1/2 years and had accumulated a bit while he was there. It is ideal if you have a place to store everything, such as with family, and can do it that way. Even paying for a second suitcase 2 or 3 times, it ends up being cheaper than shipping for the same weight. A mix of extra baggage and shipping bigger things is how we did it.

We brought a lot of our stuff over in suitcases, over several trips.

Even paying for a second suitcase 2 or 3 times, it ends up being cheaper than shipping for the same weight. A mix of extra baggage and shipping bigger things is how we did it.

This is how I'm doing it. I'm going to try to space bag everything into two suitcases and then when we come back at Christmas, load up some more.

I'm leaving most sentimental things here, so it's just clothes and shoes for now.

This is how I'm doing it. I'm going to try to space bag everything into two suitcases

The trouble with space bags is, although you can cram a lot in a smallish space, it's going to be heavier!  So, unless you're taking a Sherpa along with you, it might be a struggle. I'm contemplating wearing six layers or so -- you can always peel off layers and use them as pillows or blankets on the plane.  Oh wait, you can wear only one pair of shoes though!

I did the layer thing a couple times, and carried a jacket AND coat each time I came back, even in June and September. There were a couple times I also shoved my carry on FULL of books just because they can be up to 40 pounds and I saw it as a 'free' way to get some of my books over.