Lessons learnt from a DIY move

[DZ]

Well, dear Friends

At last, here we are in France.  We arrived exactly a week ago but it has taken me all that time to recover from our DIY move (ie. no removal company involved and cramming everything plus 5 people and 2 mice into one car).  I have learnt the following from this experience:

1. Start packing what you consider you meagre few belongings a long, long time before you move!

We transported most of our stuff to France in June by a self-drive van and camped in our house for 6 weeks.  A day would be surely enough to pack all that?  No.  Big mistake.  I packed all day and the entire night and we still managed to miss our train by 3 hours...

2. A car is only as big as it is and will not take any more.

We tried and we tried but had to leave loads of good and useful stuff behind (some lucky bits with the neighbours but the rest by the bin).  We travelled for 2 days with an average of 4 heavy bags per every knee. 

3. Tiredness is not conducive to clear thinking.

Very obvious, but not when you are in the middle of it.  So, on the journey from hell we managed to: leave our new road atlas on the boot, only to see it fly away on a motorway; lost the first peage ticket, dropped all the money under the car at the next one; got on the wrong side of the road, got lost...

BUT we are here at last and love it!

So, lesson number 4: don't worry if the journey is hell - it is all worth it![:D]

[Rose]

OMG... what a journey!  You must have settled in ok as the one thing you haven't lost is your sense of humour!   [:D]

On a similiar note... maybe not quite as bad... I remember a good few years ago my mum was moving house and I popped in to see how it was going and to lend a hand on my way to work... I arrived to find a panic stricken mother who hadn't packed a bean shoving her wordly goods into bin bags and carrier bags... she thought the removal company were going to do it all for her!!! That turned out to be a long day too as we had lived in the house for almost 20 years!!![blink] [blink]

Thank goodness she was only moving across town!  The 64,000 $ question would be... would you do it again DZ? [Www]

[nectarine]

DZ, welcome to France and good luck with your new life!!!  We too arrived a week ago but used a removal company - sure, you have more space to take things but as the word "declutter" doesn't exist in my husband's vocabulary he thought that gave him carte blanche to take everything ... which of course he did.  Hence one overloaded stuffed-to-the-gunnels pantechnicon for which we paid a small fortune.  We had to drive ahead to France so of course everything was done in a rush, but we got here ahead of them.  And as the removal men unloaded our entire life's acquisitions - most of it which I now wish I had dumped in a skip (what on earth did we bring it all for?), and the removal men sweated and staggered under the weight of our worldly goods solidly for six hours, and the house is full of boxes and tools and furniture and boxes, etc., etc., my dear husband turned round to me and said "we could have saved ourselves a bit of money if we'd done this move ourselves".  I swear he lives in a different universe to the rest of us!!

So, DZ, I take my hat off to you for being brave enough to undertake a DIY removal.  I hope you take some time out of unpacking to sit back and pour yourself a strong drink to recover from the move ... ![B]

[AnOther]

Nothing like a well planned operation efficiently carried out is there [:D]

We did our own but bit by bit over the course of about 6 or 7 months whilst our UK sale was going through and with an estate car and big box trailer it was completely untraumatic. Until the actual completion day that was, which, due to a solicitors cockup came 3 days before we expected, so my dear OH was left to do in less than a day what she though she's got 3 days to do, I was away offshore so unable to help but with the assistance of a few hastily summoned friends who rallied round and in some cases carted stuff off to their own garages to temporarily store, she made it.

Congratulations from me anyway and I hope you enjoy and make a success of your new life [8-|]

[DZ]

Thank you, all, for your welcoming words!

The funny thing about decluttering is that I sort of did it quite conscientiously over the past 6 months, had a man with a van take a full load of rubbish, distributed various bits to charities etc but still ended up with so much stuff that I do not know what I am going to do with!  Half of the things I thought we would need is stored in a friend's garage here but as I haven't missed a single thing for a long time now, I can only presume that we really don't need it and could have saved ourselves lots of hussle and money by just chucking the lot away.  Why do we accumulate so much stuff in our lives?!  I am determined to be very careful before buying anything new here!

 

[Lolasmum]

Been here three years, decluttered before we came! put what we didn't need when we first moved in into the barn, yes you guessed it there it s a full 3 years after

[Christine Animal]

There is a saying (Chinese or something)

Chaque possession est un fardeau.  Each possession is a burden.

 

Then why are we so possessive?!   [:-))]

 

[Polremy]

Whereabouts are you DZ?

We are close to Perpignan - might be neighbours.

[Keni]

Congrats DZ!

We too are starting the countdown - I have today shredded 3 sacks of paper (why have I still got pay slips for 1992/93)?

Having lived here for nearly 20 years Ican see it is going to be a long haul. What do I do with three very old knitting machines or a couple of tea chests full of miniatures? (I feel a party coming on)!

I was once given a great tip - which I have spent my life ignoring - if it is not used/worn or touched for 6 months, bin it!

Enjoy it DZ!

[Judith]

[quote user="Keni "]

Congrats DZ!

We too are starting the countdown - ......I was once given a great tip - which I have spent my life ignoring - if it is not used/worn or touched for 6 months, bin it!

[/quote]

Me too!!  Trying to get like with like at the mo!  And quotes for removals!!!!!  I was given the same tip too - BUT - it does not take into account the fact that you are moving to a new life, when you may have the space (as we do not in C London) to use the things you haven't been able to get to for years .......  just found some photos ....  going yellow .... happy memories ...... must get on ...!!!

[DZ]

[quote user="Polremy"]Whereabouts are you DZ? We are close to Perpignan - might be neighbours.[/quote]

Hi Polremy

We are over an hour's drive from Perpignan, closer to Beziers.  The weather is stunning here this week.  All our neighbours complain about la chaleur but I simply can't get enough of it!

Judith and Keni - all the best with your move and be ruthless with that decluttering.  I wasn't!  The stuff we have so carefully stored in our friends' garage here is now growing a nice moldy layer.  We might yet chuck the whole lot away as we don't have enough space in our little house here anyway.  Somehow, I no longer care - I am just so happy to be here!

[Keni]

Yes, I have just done the pics bit, but can anyone tell me why the OH had aroound 30 pics of the Settle Viaduct. Yes, I know he's a Yorkshire bloke but we had a huge tin full of scenes, half of which he could not remember where they were and the other half all seem to be around the same views! Have kept just a few family pics, but the youngsters don't want to know who great aunt polly is and I think she's been dead for about 30 years!

That just leaves the family heirlooms then (Ha!). So that will see me with a few early rises for the next few months doing the car boot rounds.

Judith, if you are Cowoman, I expect I'll bump into you at a few of the local ones then? Good Luck.

[nectarine]

Decluttering - how I love that word and wish we had done it.  We lived for thirty years in the same house before moving here last week so, as you can imagine, there was a lot of stuff that we couldn't envisage doing without!  However, dear Mr. Nectarine is definitely of the squirrel mentality and cannot throw things away.  I have written here several times that we brought with us the petrol tank for a motorcycle that he hasn't owned for thirty years, a haynes workshop manual for a car we have never owned ("just in case"), tools tools and more tools as you can NEVER have too many identical screwdrivers, spanners and other obscure oily tools.  Oh, and 18 saws, all look the same to me but I am assured they are all different. [8-)] But I should have known this when I married him, as he is an inveterate totter, always picking up dropped nuts and bolts from the pavement and peering into roadside skips in case there is something useful there.  Being honest, we have rescued some very nice antique furniture from skips, so I cannot complain - it's just the garage stuff that drives me potty.

But I have my faults - unpacking the clothes boxes I am asking myself "why on earth did I bring a thick winter woollen coat?", plus two business suits, high heeled shoes?  This last week has been spent in shorts and T-shirts and I cannot ever envisage shoe-horning myself into a formal business suit with a pair of tights and toe-squeezing shoes .... but where do I get rid of them?  I don't see any charity shops, have enquired at the local mairie and been told of a church programme to dispense to the poor (but can't see they would want those clothes).  Does anyone have any ideas how to dispose of this stuff?

[Pierre ZFP]

I'm begining to think that Mr. Nectarine is my long lost identical twin brother separated a birth.

I think my best effort was leaving some pieces of wood at the top of the stairs for some time (we are talking weeks here) and when tackled about it said honestly

'What wood?'

That has now become the standard phrase when I might leave anything laying about (or in a handy, ready to use place as I like to think of it)

[Keni]

Yeh, I have a tendency I am told to not be able to see things that hang around for several weeks.

By the way nectarine, haven't got to the original thread but have you found the box of kitchen scraps?

For those of you in sunnier climes (I hope), weather here very wet & warm & windy. Here in Evesham every time it rains now everyone starts looking at the Avon and begin to move stuff upstairs! The only problem is the tips can flood, then what do I do?

Do they have charity shops in France in the rural areas and would it be hard to start one? It means a non-profitable association thingy I suppose? But just think how much stuff they would glean from us removers!

[Poppy]

[quote user="nectarine"]

But I have my faults - unpacking the clothes boxes I am asking myself "why on earth did I bring a thick winter woollen coat?", plus two business suits, high heeled shoes?  This last week has been spent in shorts and T-shirts and I cannot ever envisage shoe-horning myself into a formal business suit with a pair of tights and toe-squeezing shoes .... but where do I get rid of them?  I don't see any charity shops, have enquired at the local mairie and been told of a church programme to dispense to the poor (but can't see they would want those clothes).  Does anyone have any ideas how to dispose of this stuff?

[/quote]

Please hang on to your woollies until November and see what you think then [;-)]

[Clair]

Emmaüs are always happy to receive unwanted items.

In the Lot-et-Garonne, they can be found here:

EMMAÜS AGEN (antenne Auch)

5, rue Jourdain

47000 AGEN

tel : +33 (0) 5 53 48 10 62

Fax : +33 (0) 5 53 48 10 62

Poppy is right about your woollies though!

[AnOther]

I once had 2 or 3 sheets of plasterboard leaning in the hall in our old house in UK for about 6 months. Convinced 'er indoors that it needed to acclimatise [:D]

[Catalpa]

[quote user="nectarine"]

Does anyone have any ideas how to dispose of this stuff?

[/quote]

www.leboncoin.fr

[AnOther]

How about a blind junk swap [I]

I give you a sealed box of x kg in exchange for same from you [:D]

 

[Judith]

[quote user="nectarine"]

But I have my faults - unpacking the clothes boxes I am asking myself "why on earth did I bring a thick winter woollen coat?", plus two business suits, high heeled shoes?  This last week has been spent in shorts and T-shirts and I cannot ever envisage shoe-horning myself into a formal business suit with a pair of tights and toe-squeezing shoes .... but where do I get rid of them?  I don't see any charity shops, have enquired at the local mairie and been told of a church programme to dispense to the poor (but can't see they would want those clothes).  Does anyone have any ideas how to dispose of this stuff?

[/quote]

Nectarine, don't be too hasty to throw away the winter coat - it can be cold in winter (and in L&G wet) so you may just need it.  Admittedly 47 is usually milder and wetter than 11 (spent 10 years going to family house in 47 so I do know) and the last 3 winters here in 11 have been much colder than expected (also sunnier, and windy as well!).  Unless you are going to be going anywhere smart, I do admit the heeled shoes and busines suit might not be needed though (Note to me - bin them when the time comes!).

I was going to suggest Emmaus, but was beaten to it, glad to see they have one in 47 too.  Don;t know if such thngs are to be found in a vide grenier or some such as another idea.

[Judith]

[quote user="Keni "]

Judith, if you are Cowoman, I expect I'll bump into you at a few of the local ones then? Good Luck.

[/quote]

Sorry, Keni - je ne comprends pas!

[Keni]

Sorry Jude,

I was chatting to another subscriber called Cowoman, she too is a Jude I believe.

As to the Emmaus, is that really the only charity 'shop' in the whole country, do not the French have a local animal charity or hospice shop or something? I find that strange considering the size of the place - or does that again come down to beauocracy/burocracy/paper chasing?

[Judith]

Keni,

Granted.  Indeed, there seem to be a few of us about on here, though I am not (and never have been a Jude, Judi, or even Judie) but always a Judith!!!

Like you I'm always surprised at the lack of charity type shops here, but again did wonder whether it is because even voluntary organisations here seem to have to have official approval before they can do anything.  I have not yet seen any charity shops in our local largish town(s).  For a town of comparable importance in England you would find several.  Of perhaps the French do not throw things out towards others - only the dechetterie????