Making the Move
Making the Move
“The biggest adventure you can ever take is to live the life of your dreams.” – Oprah Winfrey
TEACHME TEFL
Moving to your new adventure
Now you have completed your TeachME TEFL course, you have secured an online job, you are ready to go!
Wait, one more thing… moving, this may be more challenging than you initially think.
These tips will help to take the stress away, so you can enjoy your new adventure.
Moving out
You first need to decide if your move will be permanent or temporary. It may be that you choose to trial moving for one year before packing up your entire life.
If you chose to move on a temporary basis then it may be best to find someone who can live in your place while you are gone. Alternatively, if you own your place this will help you to continue to make repayments as your tenant pays their rent.
On the other hand, if you are renting yourself, your landlord may allow a sublease, or they may find a tenant in your absence.
Maybe you are ready to start this adventure permanently, then this will take some considerable planning. You will need to establish a time frame and ensure that you provide adequate notice in relation to the laws of your country. In Australia for example, you must provide at least 28 days’ notice of your intention to move.
In the event you own your home, you may want to put it on the market, which may also take some time to sell.
Therefore, it is important that you set a timeframe for your move so that you have a goal to work towards.
Packing Plan
It is easy to get overwhelmed packing up your entire life, so it is best to attack this one room at a time.
Most of us have a spare room, storage room or garage. The place we store all of the things we may one day need, but in reality, never use. Start here, sort this room into four sections: take, store, give away/sell and throw.
Make sure your home is still ‘livable’ while you pack up for your new adventure.
Take
Moving overseas will often mean you have one suitcase to bring with you, you may choose to pay to have an additional bag, but this will no doubt also be full of necessities. When choosing to take an item, do your research and check how expensive buying that item would be in your destination. If you are convinced the item is a necessity, pack it straight into your suitcase. This will also help you to see how quickly your suitcase fills up.
Store
There are some items you may wish to store, keep in mind the more you store the more you may need to pay. However, you can also be creative with your storage, if you have a bookshelf or chest of draws you would like to store, see if you are able to store some additional items inside to save on space.
Give away/sell
You may have family or friends that could use some of your old items. If you don’t have any willing takers you may also look at selling some of these items to fund purchasing new items in your destination. See the eBay section below for more details.
Throw
There are always items we love but no one else is going to need or want, some items will need to be thrown away. Also remember all of your receipts and paperwork can be stored electronically. Just make sure you are familiar with the tax guidelines in your country and try to minimise the papers you have.
Take action
Once you have sectioned out your first room, take action. Call your friends or family to give away the items you have set aside for them. Get your phone, take pictures and post your items to sell online. Arrange a garbage collection for the items to throw away or dispose of them yourself.
Once your first room is complete you will feel ready to tackle the rest of the house.
Now writing a list of all the rooms in your house will help to see how much is left to do. You will also have an idea of how long each room will take based on the time your ‘spare room’ took.
Assign each room a specific week or day to complete and ensure that you order the rooms from most used to least. Starting in the least used room will allow you to pack up rooms almost entirely as you move through the list.
Since you still need to live in your house, you may need to add a new category: items for now and store for later. These are the items you need to live while you pack up your home but you don’t need to bring with you to your destination. This will allow you to arrange all the other items just leaving the essentials while you finish your packing.
Also remember that you still want to enjoy your final weeks with your family and friends. Try to pack up and leave your house ‘livable’ at the end of each packing session
Storage
There are many storage places that rent out small to large storage spaces. However, there may also be family or friends with space in their storage area that you may be able to use. Ask around first, if you are able to store your items with family or friends this will cut down on your weekly expenses, leaving more funds for exploring your new destination.
Whichever storage option you choose remember that your items will not be used while you are away, so your beautiful leather lounge will not look so beautiful at the end of 12 months in storage.
You need to keep in mind that storage doesn’t include cleaning, or even standard temperatures. The items stored will go through all of the seasons and will stay in the same place for the entire duration of their storage.
Keeping this in mind, ensure you pack your storage items very well. If you are storing clothes, sheets, towels or anything similar you can use vacuum seal bags to keep these items sealed. If you have items such as keepsakes and small items, you can invest in heavy duty storage boxes.
Be sure to wrap items that may get damaged and use zip lock bags to seal items that may be susceptible to water damage. To minimise damage to your larger items, wrap these in plastic wrap or bubble wrap before storing. This will also provide an additional layer of protection from dust and other elements.
Most importantly, label everything. Label each item in multiple places, in boxes and bags write on the outside what each contains. Take photos of your labels or write a list of all items, this will make sure you are able to easily access any item if you need it. Also, if you choose to insure your storage container then your insurance company may request this list.
eBay
You will be pleasantly surprised by what people are willing to buy on eBay. You may be able to sell your used jeans for $50 or that dress you loved but never wore for the same price you brought it on sale. Clothes and items with a ‘name’ will sell best, you can choose to have the items on auction or buy it now.
Auction will mean the items are listed for a set number of days and then sold to the highest bidder, if the item doesn’t sell often the item can be re-listed until it sells.
Buy it now means that you set a price and if a customer likes the item they can simply purchase it. Items can be online until they sell, and you will not need to re-list the item. Also, you can add the option to accept offers, if a customer offers you a price less that your ‘buy it now’ price you are able to accept or give a counter offer.
eBay can also be linked to a PayPal account, ensuring your payments and your customer’s payments are secure.
There are also a number of other sites that may allow you to sell items locally, in Australia a popular site is Gumtree and all around the world there are also ‘marketplaces’ on Facebook that will connect you with customers in your local area.
While there is a lot involved in preparing to move, all it takes is some organisation and planning. Start your list now and get ready for your new adventure.