A couple of years ago we sold our house in Italy.  As a result this necessitated moving the possessions that we couldn’t let go of to England.  Three years is a long time to be separated from the majority of your possessions.

Here are a few points that I have learned from our two major moves – the first was from Australia to Italy, the second from Italy to England.

If you get a container don’t fill it

This was the first error of judgement that we made.  Given that we self packed the container when we moved from Australia to Italy, it was tempting to add as much as possible to it thinking that when we were in Italy we wouldn’t need to buy everything.

It doesn’t explain why the children moved all their toys.  I guess we were just unwilling to be too ruthless.

But initially we had space issues as our dream house looked like this.

This meant that for a long time our goods were stored in a friend’s garage.

Unpacking can be avoided

I am hesitant to admit that some stuff that we moved from Australia was only unpacked when we were preparing to move our stuff to England.  We just never got around to doing something about it.

Culling does eventually become necessary

During our 6 years in Italy, even though space was an issue, we still managed to accumulate even more stuff.  Since we have moved to England, our trips back to Italy have been working holidays.  Working mainly towards culling unnecessary stuff.  Many black bin liners were filled to the brim.  The local tip has been the recipient of much junk that we needed to get rid of.  All of us developed a ruthless streak.  Although the mini Britalian insisted that all his gaudy sailing trophies accompany us back.

Stuff might break

My husband’s stone table that he commissioned, once looked like this.

But thanks to careless removalists it ended up like this.

Treasured possessions are kept and safely transported

Jemima is a well-travelled boat.  She has made the journey all the way from Australia to Italy and now has a berth in England.

My piano also made the journey over.  I just really need to make the effort to use it more…

Have you ever moved country?  Were you able to take some of your treasured possessions with you?  If so, what were they?