What are your top tips for moving overseas?

[Foldinthecheese]

We’re leaving for the USA on 8 April. That’s DH, me, three kids and a dog. The dog is sorted door to door, but I am starting to feel a little panicked about the rest of us.

We are renting our house out but taking furniture with us. The movers will be doing most of the packing, but that will be done after we’ve left, with oversight by my SIL.

What do I need to do in advance to ensure the packing and moving process is smooth for the movers? What are your tips for making the entire experience as straightforward as possible? Any recommendations for making the transition easier for the children? They are 5yo twin boys and a 2yo girl. Would love any advice.

Have an "arrival suitcase" in which you put everything you need for everyone for the first 24 hours, Pjs and toiletries, clothes, breakfast items in case you arrive late and don't want to search for shop at 2 am, a couple of children books for morning, clothes. And more importantly a plug adaptor UK=> US and a multiple outlet for you can charge several UK phones/iPad with just 1 adaptor. Maybe buy now from amazon US chargers for phone - iPad.

US has a different voltage so you better check how and if it is worth bringing anything electrical - electronic with you or if useless in US.

Have something super cool and super fun planned for the first day. Even a simple park, followed by ice cream .

For the movers, prepare labels "twins' room" "DD's room" "parent" Lounge, kitchen and so on and ask that they add the labels to boxes accordingly to the rooms they are packing.

You don't want to take your clutter with you, so you should take the opportunity to clear stuff, from the messy drawer, to repair project, ... even kids' art and craft. take a picture of their "arty" creations and make an album and keep only the ones you want to frame. Get rid of broken toys, cars with only 3 wheels, ...

The movers will pack your house so quickly you won't even believe it.
They won't sort. They open a cupboard and just pack straight into a box.

Some products such as Kinder Surprise eggs are banned so check what you can and can't bring. You must declare food, so just check the custom website.

So helpful! Thank you! I wish we could plan something exciting for the first day, but unfortunately we’ll have to quarantine in our house until we test negative on day five. We may order some new toys to be sent to my husband’s office, though, and his colleagues can drop them off so they are waiting when we arrive.

Best get to de-cluttering!

Yes to new toys, small things like toy cars, a barbie ( and then accessories, barbie dog,...) and then hide them in the house and organise a treasure hunt or a cold-hot for the youngest. Put toys on every single room, mini books, toy animals ( they come in big mix bag or buckets so you have 20- 50 for a few bucks)
Contact tourism office and order brochures about the city and on the second day, rip the pages of the brochures and make the longest paper chain ever. You will “ discover « the city in a fun way ) you will need scissors and glue times 3)
Third day, I would seriously consider buying kapla ( a 200 pieces box) and a couple of easy kapla books. My kids were crazy about kapla .
4th day, cooking and baking an American meal, bonus point if you manage to use all the pots in the house. Peanut butter cookies or whatever. Order a cooking book in advance.
5th day put bedsheet on top of dining table, all the house cushions underneath and pretend you are in a submarine, tent, rocket ship on its way to Mars, or a bus going east to west coast and make a stop in all major US cities
6th day abandon the kids with DH and escape the house after receiving negative results. Remember to drive on the right! Remember mask unless you are drinking a martini at a spa!

Hi! We moved to the US in 2018 with boys aged 5 and 7. Before packing, I put smaller electrical items in a box for the loft but actually wish I hadn't - at the last minute, we brought over the tv and computer and they work just fine with an adapter. So do include any food processors, PlayStation etc that you currently use for the packers. A big bag of adapters is not much on Amazon, do buy them in the UK though as I've struggled to get them here.
We had a big toy clear out and sold a lot - the boys were happy to be given the equivalent funds in dollars to spend when they got here.
We opened an international bank account and credit card with HSBC to have funds ready for when we arrived.
Pack suitcases for travelling - we took the maximum baggage allowance on the plane - so a large suitcase each. Filled with seasonal clothes, a few favourite books and toys, and important documents eg birth and marriage certificates, deeds to house etc. Children's vaccination records are important as the school will demand them on arrival.
Make a separate pile for Air freight - it arrived only a couple of weeks after us - we had a desktop computer, and mostly toys but I regretted not using this better as we were in basic furnished accommodation for longer than planned and I missed some kitchen utensils etc. And you'll end up with two of everything when the rest arrives.
Put a kettle on your Amazon order too as I had to make tea from a saucepan until I'd chosen a new one 😂
When we arrived, we had to apply for Social Security Numbers straight away. You can't get a mobile contract for example without one, meanwhile t-mobile have a good pay-in-advance contract which we've actually kept but the one with Verizon wouldn't work with uk handsets. That was a frustrating day!
Good luck! I don't know if you can download an Amazon US app before you leave, but they do Whole Foods deliveries within 2 hours so it would be handy on day 1!

More excellent tips. Thank you! We have a bit of an advantage in that I’m American, but I have lived in the UK for about 14 years. As a result, we’ve got my SSN and the DC’s all sorted, and we’ve already got bank accounts. It’s mostly DH who is the complicated one.

I’m slightly panicked about sorting out doctors and dentists when we arrive, as I think the boys have to have a health check within 30 days of starting school. Although I grew up in America, I’ve never been a proper adult there, so there’s a lot I don’t know and I won’t even have the benefit of a foreign accent to explain my ignorance!

My tip would actually be not to take furniture. Edpdcuallly beds. You’ll struggle to find bedding to fit. And furniture from the UK tends to look lost and twee in a house here.

I came with two suitcases when I moved here (alone) and sent 30 crates of stuff by ship. In the crates I had books, baking things, family photos and mementos. That’s all. My husband had almost nothing when I moved here because he was sharing a flat with some friends. It was fun getting new furniture together for our new life together. A fresh start.

Pack name tapes/name labels for school clothes, new lunchboxes, etc. Not so urgent in an pandemic, but I was scrambling around trying to name things and order stuff.
Also, make sure wills and life insurance are both up to date and applicable to where you are. Inform HMRC.
Yes yes to arrival suitcases.
I managed to take a micro scooter on the plane (it was business though, booked for the extra luggage allowance). It was a godsend 😆

We’ve committed to taking the furniture, but also to getting lots of new stuff. We already have a sofa waiting for us, and we’re planning to get a couple of new beds. The house we’re renting is quite old, so doesn’t have that sprawling American style that would be likely to dwarf our current furniture.

I very much wish we could pack the scooters on the plane. I think we could probably take the toddler’s because hers is pretty small, but doubt we could manage the big kids’. We’re going to get a couple of footballs and goals for the garden as soon as possible, though, so hopefully that will pass some time.

@Foldinthecheese I may have looked them in the eye and said it was a pushchair 😁

If you are business, you should manage it. Depending whether anyone is seeing you off, you could take it and try and check in. If it's refused, have someone courier it on to you? Those sort of things are really helpful to have from the start or pretty soon after you land.

@Foldinthecheese I may have looked them in the eye and said it was a pushchair 😁 It was a large on, non foldable.

If you are business, you should manage it. Depending whether anyone is seeing you off, you could take it and try and check in. If it's refused, have someone courier it on to you? Those sort of things are really helpful to have from the start or pretty soon after you land.

Oops. It said it hadn't posted sorry.

Be ruthless and bin everything you may not want to take. We did a big overseas move and had random boxes of crap that we subsequently moved to two other houses. Lots going on in our lives and eventually I cleared them but majority went in the bin.

Agree re the clear out, and specifically, consolidate like objects. eg pens. There will probably be about 200- 500 pens scattered around the house in random drawers etc. You need to get them all and put them in a box together or chuck them. Otherwise you'll have random pens in all your boxes. When the packers come they'll just empty a drawer into a box as is, so avoid having the "junk" drawers that we all have unless you want to recreate it stateside. Doing these consolidations made it much easier to chuck stuff as you realise that you dont need 200 pens and 15 staplers

While I found the TV and computers work fine with adapters, things like my slow cooker and hand mixer do not, so I wish I'd left them behind!

Depending on what State you're in, you may not have to do a full medical for the kids. We just needed to fill in forms and give dates of vaccines.

Yes to a big clear out, we have so many random things that we don't actually need!

Join local mum FB groups if you haven't already. Source of invaluable info and may also be a place to arrange meet ups with local parents. This has probably been my most useful tool in terms of ideas for days out, school info, Covid stuff, local news etc... hopefully you'll find an active one!

Keep routines for the kids the same as much as possible, and bring some favourite foods of there's eg cereal, snacks that are harder to get here.

Sounds like a silly thing, but as your kids are younger, if they watch cbeebies I would prioritise getting a VPN so they can still watch it! I miss the BBC!

All the best with the move!

Thank you so much for all the great tips! I type this from my bed in our new house.

I think our biggest takeaway was that we needed to start all our preparations much earlier. Not easy during a pandemic with very limited childcare options! In the end, we made a lot of trips to the tip and sold a lot of stuff, but probably still have things on the boat that we don’t really need. I guess we’ll deal with that in 4-6 weeks.

Definitely working on getting a VPN as soon as possible, as the youngest’s addiction to Duggee doesn’t appear to be waning and the downloaded episodes will expire soon.

Welcome to new home and country!!

We use NordVPN (paid) on laptops and I have Psiphon (free) on phone .
don't worry about stuff on boat, it will make the new home feel like home.
Not every need is physical, like I need a bottle opener, some objects are needed for our emotional wellbeing, a connection to the past, countries, memories and they make us feel good, even if we technically don't need them.
I have thousands of books, and every new posting, we argue about them, because they do take space in containers, but I don't care, they were my companionship, I remember where and when I read each of them (some still have boarding passes or sand in them) and even if I will probably never read most again, they are part of me.

This to say, you got rid of a lot, you have a big house, don't feel obliged to dump more.

Our possessions are an extension of our self. Keep some!!!