Our Life in Bags…Again
If you’ve followed my blog for a while you’ll know that when we started this life, one of my first blog posts was called Our Life in Bags. I thought it was only fitting that at the start of this new journey I would start with the exact same topic, with some tips and tricks, I’ve learned along the way. As a disclaimer, some of the links in this blog may be affiliate links… but I promise I love all the items I’m recommending and personally own them myself!
The first set of movers came and they took 1,000 pounds of our UAB (Unaccompanied Baggage or air shipment) if you’re not familiar with the lingo this shipment is “suppose” to arrive quickly and sometimes beats you to your house (best case) Below you’ll find everything I packed in our UAB. *Please note I did not pack our kitchen as Tyler and I have been married 10 years and have owned the same kitchen stuff our entire marriage… So I put 90% in storage to be used when we come back stateside, and HEY there’s an IKEA right up the road from my new home.
- blankets
- sheets
- pillows
- CrockPot/ InstantPot
- cups
- towels
- book bags
- school supplies
- toys
- BOB Stroller (we won’t have a car for a while so we’ll be walking A LOT so the BOB was a MUST!)
- breast pump (I didn’t want to carry mine on the airplane)
- storage bins
- scooters/helmets
- swimming stuff
- bumbo
- portable highchair
- EU box of kitchen appliances (coffee maker, iron, blow dryer, straightener)
- Dean toys
- Jackets
PACKING HACK #1 was buying about 20 of these IKEA storage bags from IKEA and packing all our sheets, blankets, soft toys, pillows, clothes, jackets anything that would fold up and fit in a bag I put it in one of these bags! The movers commented that it was one of the easiest moves because they just had to pick up the bag and put it in a box. I also made sure to put a fabric softener sheet in each of the bags to keep everything smelling fresh. I went a step farther and weighed every single bag and placed duck tape on it so I knew EXACTLY the weight of my UAB and it ended up matching perfectly to the movers’ weight. The movers did weigh every single box on a scale for our UAB shipment.
PACKING HACK #2 I also purchased these bags for items that I knew we didn’t need immediately. I wanted to be able to put them in a closet and not have to unpack them immediately. I thought these were great because they were a little bit more decorative than the clean IKEA bags but still served the same purpose.
One thing that I knew we needed in our new home was plastic storage bins, our new house has a TON of storage! We aren’t bringing a ton of stuff however we have kids and have a bunch of random little stuff here and there. So what I did was pack all the toys in their own plastic containers. I made sure that they were all sorted and that all the toys I packed sparked joy (thanks Maria Kondo) I wanted to start fresh and make sure that everything we packed WE NEEDED! I weighed each of the containers and marked it with duck tape with the exact weight too.
These items made packing our house sooooo EASY! I’m super EXCITED to actually unpack because it’s going to be a walk in the park!
Now let’s talk about our airlines’ bags… I’m not going to lie I get all nerdy… talking about packing and it secretly makes me really really happy to get new packing supplies.
This was my first move with a baby… OMG, I didn’t realize half the crap you “think” you need for a baby… I kept thinking to myself people had babies way before the pack n play, baby bath, bouncy seats, etc were EVER around! So why do I have a million things packed for Dean?! Let me just say after about three whole days of packing unpacking repacking I got him down to ONE BAG!!! Nolan and Heath this time around were a walk in the park and I got them both in ONE BAG, and I packed myself in ONE BAG too! To be honest that one bag is pretty HUGE it’s 120 L and I’ll talk all about it below! Tyler on the other hand… he had two bags but he has lots of different types of clothing to pack so I let him slide!
The one thing that really helped me pack Dean’s bag was buying these clear makeup bags. These bags were perfect to put paci, paci clips, diaper rash cream, travel shampoo, baby toys, nail clippers, baby brush, etc If you have a baby, kids, or just yourself I suggest investing. These clear bags also worked really well on the airplane too! It was so easy to spot what I needed and grab it!
Packing cubes if you’re a packing rookie you might not know what these are…and that’s okay because I once had NO CLUE! However, I’ve come a LONG way and you NEED these! I color-coded everyone in the family to make getting dressed while on the road a little bit easier.
During our last move, one issue that we had was all the charging cords, USB, different plugins, etc. So this time around I purchased this and I think it’s going to make my life so much easier!
One question I get all the time is what bags do you guys use to pack in? Do you use rolling suitcases, hard shell, duffle bags? The simple answer is we use duffle bags because it’s so much easier to fit into cars when traveling and so easy to store after the traveling is done! Our last move and about 30 trips we have used these duffle bags and WE LOVE THEM!! We have had ZERO and I mean ZERO issues with these bags and I can speak nothing but WONDERFUL things about them. I LOVE the color, I LOVE that they fold up into basically nothing, and I LOVE that they are easy to throw into a car and go! We own 15 of these bags and I think they are GREAT! (They come in about 20 fun colors) The colors make it super easy to find them at the airport!
But recently Tyler discovered another bag that he fell in love with… they are AWESOME bags and waterproof which was a HUGE plus for us since Lithuania gets a TON of rain. So we upgraded and now own 4 of these bags… I love that they work like a duffle bag, but they also have straps that you can wear like a backpack. They also fold up into a tiny square for storage.
I’m excited about the new bags and I hope they work out great on this trip! (Side note they come in fun colors too! I choose purple because it was girly… and the cheapest, Tyler is all Black, Nolan and Heath are both in a blue one.)
I hope this helps you pack and get ready for your BIG MOVE! I plan on writing a couple more articles about my consumable shipment, trip to Nashville, and flying on an airplane with a baby and kids and how we survived part 2! Please feel free to send me an email to brittany@brittanymcanally.com if you have any questions.
