Making a Suitcases-Only Move Abroad
It's been almost a year since we let go of most of our stuff. Were we crazy?
When we moved to Lisbon from Seattle almost a year ago(!), we did so with only suitcases (no shipping things), checking three bags each along with a carry on. In our suitcases were clothes, toiletries, some books, a few sentimental items, a handful of board games, some legos, some small kitchen items, and one towel and one set of sheets each (to hold us over as we were moving into an unfurnished apartment.) In the carry-ons we had our electronics and important documents, along with the usual stuff you need in-flight. The process of whittling down our lives and an entire house of stuff was at once liberating and daunting, and, in the very last hours, a bit frenzied as we jettisoned things we otherwise would have kept in order to get our luggage within the weight limits.
So how does one downsize a house full of stuff anyway? Were we totally nuts to go with that approach? And, a year later, do we miss any of our old stuff?
For us, this move wasn’t just another move, swapping one place for another, we were hoping for a lifestyle change—simplifying and embracing experiences over material things. We know people who shipped everything and essentially just transplanted their old life here. But, we were intentionally blowing up our lives as we knew them (can blowing up have a positive connotation? ha) and rebooting. As a practical matter, we were also going from a house with basement and yard to a two-bedroom apartment. And shipping things halfway around the world in a container isn’t cheap. So, it made total sense to us that we would jettison most of our material possessions and bring just the essentials (however we each defined that), and then buy furniture and necessary household items when we got to Portugal.
Fascinatingly, this part of our move seemed to inspire a lot of wistful envy in people. Almost everyone responded with some version of ‘oh that must be so freeing. It must feel so good to get rid of so much stuff.’ And it did. The dopamine hit of decluttering is real. But, it sort of begs the question, why are we all allowing ourselves to get so bogged down acquiring material things in the first place? To the point where we feel the need to do something drastic to get out from under the metaphorical leaning tower of junk lurking in our homes?
As a practical matter how did we even downsize and get rid of so much? First, we made ample, and I mean ample, use of our neighborhood buy nothing group. (Shout out to buy nothing groups everywhere!) I felt like I was spamming everyone with my posts, but at least people were getting useful stuff they wanted. We also sold some bigger items, mainly furniture, on facebook marketplace. Which…ugh…such a pain. The amount of mental energy one must put in to get even a measly amount of money for decent stuff that should be worth way more really doesn’t pencil out. And people are weird! And they ask for measurements which are already clearly bulleted in the post. And they ghost you! Or, my favorite, they text ‘here’ from the curb instead of coming to your door like a human. Millennials and Gen Z, are we ok? Do we not know how doorbells work? Is this a covid thing? Like, seriously. Ok, enough with the facebook marketplace flashbacks.
We also scheduled a junk haul for all of the random beat-up stuff that one accumulates in one’s basement and garage, which my husband naively underestimated and which basically ended up filling the whole truck. Whoops. Seriously, you don’t realize how much junk you likely have until you examine every last nook and cranny of your home. Especially if you have a kid. And of course, there were many carloads of clothes and household things brought to goodwill when it got too tedious to keep on top of the buy nothing posts.
Initially the process was quite easy. I’m sure just about everyone could fill a bag with random crap and outgrown clothes in the time it takes to make a quick lap around your house. But sooner or later you get to the sentimental stuff, or the stuff that is truly useful, but which won’t fit in a suitcase. Some of those things—the nice serving ware we received as wedding gifts, photo albums, my prized kitchenaid, books that we weren’t willing to let go of, we sent to my parents to stash in their basement. This summer we’ll take a look a look through it and see what if any of it we want to being back to Portugal with us. I know our son is eagerly anticipating being reunited with the missing half of his lego collection.
Once we were down to a fairly empty house, the packing began in earnest. And, oh, what a process that was. We supplemented our existing suitcases with some big plastic duffel bags from amazon, which I would highly recommend using for any move. We doubled them up and secured them with straps. We also made great use of vacuum seal bags for clothing, especially bulky things like sweaters. I’m a total convert to packing cubes now. However, weight rather than volume was our biggest obstacle. It was pretty comical trying to stand with legs splayed and lift those heavy blue bags up off the ground with this handheld luggage scale we bought to see if we were still under the airline’s limit or if we had any weight to spare. Spoiler alert: books, shoes, toys, and kitchen items are HEAVY. We even had to borrow our neighbor’s car (since we had sold ours) mere hours before we were leaving for the airport in order to take one last round of things to goodwill that didn’t make the weight cut. There were beloved books that didn’t make it. And I had a nice Lo & Sons weekender bag that I let go of that I now miss every time I take a short trip. But, by then there was no time to dwell, just axe it and move on.
We then got to be that comical family at the airport with an overflowing cart (or two? It’s a blur) of luggage at check in. I overheard a younger woman in line behind us making some snide remark about it, and as a proud member of ‘team carry-on’, I wanted to respond to her and defend myself. But, I resisted. And honestly when you consider that those bags represented our only remaining possessions with which we were embarking on a whole new life, I felt pretty dang accomplished.
A year later is there anything that I miss? My cookbooks. A few kitchen items that turned out to be hard to find. A good pyrex measuring cup took some hunting down and seemed pricier than in the States. And I haven’t found a replacement for my handy citrus squeezer. Given the expense of replacing good quality kitchenware, I am glad we brought a few things—knives, a microplane, our well-worn Le Creuset dutch oven. And I’m really glad we brought lots of pictures to make our little apartment feel like home right away.
On the flipside, as much as I pared my clothes and shoes down, I probably could have pared down even more given that my Seattle wardrobe had so many long-sleeve blouses or heavier fabrics that were great for the office, but just don’t get worn as much here. If anything I’ve discovered I have a summer wardrobe gap. But for the most part, I think all in all we did ok, and I don’t miss 99% of our old stuff.
So, no regrets. Here’s to decluttering and embracing experiences over things.
Ah! Such a great post. We only came to Portugal with suitcases too and moved into an unfurnished home. We still have a home in the states and some belongings but the process of getting rid of most of our stuff was overwhelming and traumatizing. I might need therapy from that. The only thing I miss from home are my books. So if we return, I think I’ll be able to get rid of the remaining belongings easily.