In preparing to move to Italy, we had to prepare for several different shipments of our stuff. First came the slow-boat-to-China (or in this case -- Italy) shipment. It was forecast to take a minimum of 2 months to reach its destination. Next came the fast shipment that would arrive in about a month. We also had a storage shipment of things that would stay in San Antonio. Finally, we had the stuff that would travel with us or get packed in our luggage.
The slow boat shipment went first, so I dutifully made many lists and sorted out a minimum number of cooking supplies, clothes, toys for the kids and school supplies that would stay with us. All of this stuff deemed most critical (and our luggage) got shoved in the master closet so it didn't accidentally get mixed in with the stuff to be packed and shipped. Two gals came and were able to pack our stuff in just one short day. They were thrilled that we were so organized. I was thrilled that a lot of questionable items the company representative wasn't sure they would take (like brown sugar?) had been packed. We had an interesting moment when I realized they had packed all of my cooking oil! Yikes! No shipper (even within the U.S.) has ever done that. I had it separated out, thinking they would just leave it (and the candles), but all of it got packed. So we're gambling. Gambling that no one will stick a box knife into the box filled with oil! And praying that our years in Italy won't be remembered as the years that slid by (thanks to an excess of cooking oil on the surface of every item we own!)
Anyway, the next two days we watched (and made lunch) for two guys who we hope carefully stacked all of our stuff into 9 large wooden crates on the back of a trailer. Kind of like a gigantic game of tetris. Whew! Shipment #1 done.
We lived minimally for the next 2 weeks...but we had all of the things we use a lot in the kitchen, all of our bedding, pillows, clothes, etc. In anticipation of living in Italy until December without our original shipment, I saved all of the bedding for the fast shipment. My thought was that if we had to sleep on the floor, we could make pallets out of the blankets and be a little more comfortable.
The storage shipment was pretty standard. They came. They packed. We fed them lunch and bought them drinks. The day they loaded our stuff (again in huge wooden crates), we were informed (as I was finishing the last load of laundry) that the washer shouldn't have been used for at least 2 days prior to storing in order to ensure it wouldn't leak. I'd like to know why these kinds of details aren't addressed before it's too late? The guy was a little put out, since if there was damage, it would be a claim filed against their company. My feeling is that if it were that big of a deal, the rep from their company should've said something when we showed him the washer during the walk through...The put-out guy was an interesting character anyway. There were only 2 of them, and he seemed to spend a lot of time assessing the pile in the crate and telling the other guy (who looked near senior age) what to move here or there. At one point I heard him say something to the other guy (who had asked for helping moving the gigantic couch out to the garage) about the fact that he (put-out guy) wasn't burly enough to be expected to move furniture. Did he really think the old guy was going to haul the piano solo?
Anyway, the fast shipment went next and wasn't quite as smooth as the others. The company chose not to do a physical walk though, so just called and asked for info over the phone to find out what we'd be taking. Whoever did the call underestimated the boxes, weight, etc. and only planned a 2-hour window for packing...then they called and gave us an afternoon start time (which was weird...packers always come in the morning). The next day we received a call from the packers asking why we weren't at home (by this point we were living in a military hotel 20 minutes from our house). They claim they were told to start at 8 a.m. The dispatcher told us 1-3 p.m. My question was if they were supposed to start at 8 a.m., why didn't they call us until noon?! Then we had a scare when they declared our stuff was likely to be over the allowed weight limit...I was sweating for a few days wondering how much overage fees on a fast shipment to Italy were going to cost!
In the midst of this, I had several e-mails from a family who had just arrived in Italy telling me of their nightmare shipments -- half of the fast boxes were lost, the long shipment was taking even longer. She advised me to mail anything I wanted to see before Christmas to our APO address...but as I started making a huge pile and contemplating getting it to the Post Office, I just ran out of energy to deal with it. One of our friends offered an old suitcase, and The Linguist packed it with as much of the pile as he could fit, and we checked it on the plane.
After arriving here we found out that if we find a house before our stuff comes, we can borrow beds from a military warehouse in Vicenza and just return them once our slow shipment arrives! If I had known that, I wouldn't have saved all the blankets for the fast shipment...and worried about whether it was over the weight limit. I guess I'll know what questions to ask next time.
And during this time we've received no information at all on the slow shipment, and we've been wondering exactly how slow it'll be. Well, now we know! Today we got e-mail notification that our slow boat shipment is in Vicenza, and they'd like to deliver it tomorrow! So as soon as we can get things squared away with a house we'll have all of our stuff. Well, most of our stuff. We'll have beds and a piano and toys...just no kitchen supplies, and the killer -- NO BEDDING! It's all in the fast shipment -- that's already had the delivery date pushed back once.
I'm sure we'll survive...it's just funny to me how a person can spend so much time and energy sorting, packing, planning, etc. in order to be prepared and still end up in Italy with a pot, a skillet, 7 sets of Ikea kids plastic dishes, a pillow, 2 twin-sized blankets, 3 dishrags and 5 children! Next time I guess I'll sort all of the fast pack stuff into two piles and ship 1 pile with the slow shipment and then...So much for the best laid plans...
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