PCS Purge Talk #1

Over at Kacey's Kitchen this week, I talked about purging the foodie supplies before a move.  I love to clean, organize and get rid of clutter, so we'll be covering lots of those topics here.  Pictures in this post are from our PCS¹ in 2011 from Florida to Oklahoma.

We still have 8 months until our move date (exact departure date tba), so some of you may think it's waaay to early to start.  If you think that, I would make a pretty hefty bet that either 1) you've never moved or 2) someone else does ALL the moving for you...like you live with your parents and they do it all for you.

I say that it is never too early to sort, organize or purge.  I think it's true whether or not you are planning for a move.  The less clutter and hoarding you have, the easier your life in general will be.  You'll know where stuff is, no more tearing rooms apart looking for that one piece of paper.  Your house will look much cleaner!  When you do decide to move...it will be much more of a 'pick up and go' rather than something you dread.

(PPM aka DITY move²)

I understand it's easier to say than to actually do, and it may be even easier for me to organize because I ABSOLUTELY LOVE IT!  It's also a bit easier for us, because for the foreseeable future, we will always be moving.  We are conscious of that when making nearly every purchase.  Is it something we want to move around with us year after year?  Will it fit in most apartments and houses?  Will it survive multiple moves?  If any of those questions answer 'no', and we still want the item, we ask, how easily can we sell it before we move?

There are a few things that we find trouble balancing:

• We don't need a a lot of stuff, but we want to live comfortably and be able to host family & friends comfortably.
• We don't need fancy and brand new furniture, but it's nice to live like adults, and not on plastic crates like in college.  Not that there is anything wrong with plastic crates...it's just, we've been there, done that.  You know?
• We don't want to spend a lot of money on furniture in case it gets ruined during all of our future moves.  Than again, cheap furniture isn't gonna have the quality to survive multiple moves.
• When people want to buy us stuff.  This one isn't such a big deal, but it comes up.  We love receiving gifts, don't get us wrong, and our gift givers are awesome and always get us stuff we love and use.  But it's still more stuff.  I've moved 6 times including college. One of those was a military move, and we are currently preparing for an overseas move.  Everything that enters our doorway, I think about moving it.

 (HHG³)

I should probably clarify, when I say 'we', I mean 'me'.  Aaron thinks I'm insane for my love of organizing and moving.  Yup, you heard me. I love to move.  I love packing and unpacking and setting up and all that jazz.  Aaron hates doing that stuff, so it works out really well.  He's willing to help, but he knows the best thing to do is let me handle it all.  Basically....when I'm on the move....get outta my way!  When I need help or his advice or input, he knows I'll ask him.  He's also extremely cooperative when I ask him to sort through his stuff in order for me to do something with.  I'm careful not to get rid of/shred anything that he might need without checking with him first...cause that could end up being a bummer.

I've already started getting rid of lots of stuff, we had our first yard sale last weekend.  I've been scanning documents like crazy.  Backing up digital files like crazy.  Reading & giving away books like crazy.  Although I forgot to take pictures of the 'before' stage of my current purge projects, I'd still love to share with you what I've been doing.  Going forward, I'll be taking lots of pictures of my projects to show you.  One of those projects will be informing the cat of an overseas move and what that means for her.

¹PCS:  Permanent Change of Station.  Well, as permanent as a military move can & will be.  This is when a military member moves from one duty station to another.

²PPM aka DITY Move:  Previously known as a DITY Move (Do It Yourself Move), a PPM is a Personally Procured Move.  This allows you (the mover) to move all or some of your HHG.  Following the appropriate procedures of a PPM, you will be reimbursed up to the governments cost. Most moves will include at least a partial PPM, which is what we did when moving from Florida to Oklahoma.  The movers packed most of our stuff, but we filled our vehicles to the brim with things we didn't want damaged or lost, and things we would use right away at our new home.  We got our vehicles weighed empty & when we were fully loaded.  We were able to receive our PPM reimbursement, per diem, and mileage reimbursement, all for driving our 2 vehicles to a place we were going to have to drive them anyway.  There are two major things that are awesome about this.  1) We made money off of doing a PPM and 2) We had a lot of our stuff with us, which was awesome when our HHG shipment took 2 weeks to arrive.

³HHG Shipment:  HHG stands for Household Goods.  There are lots of details involving a HHG shipment, so meeting with you Transportation Office or Readiness Center would be your first step for a move.  We've only moved once within the states, so that's all I can really speak about.  Basically, the government pays to move your stuff when sending you to another 'permanent' duty station.  The service member (or designated other person, like a spouse) coordinates the packing, shipping, and arrival with a contracted moving company.  This is typically your 'bulk' shipment, unless you are doing a full PPM.

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