For the most part, we all remember the basics of what we should be packing to stay with us when we’re moving from one duty station to another. Of course we’ll have all the paperwork for our new duty station, our important family documents, our kid’s toys and clothes.
But there are those few small (yet important) items that always seem to get left behind or packed on the moving truck anyway.
When you find yourself knee-deep in the PCS crazy, chances are there are a few things that may slip your mind. That’s expected to a certain degree, but if I can help anyone avoid them I’d be glad to put my mistakes out there for the world to see! Here are 5 things you might want to keep with you as you journey towards your new adventure!
1. A ‘Parts’ Box.
When the movers took apart our kid’s bunkbeds, I thought it was really smart that they put all of the nuts and bolts into a zip-lock baggie and taped it to the undersides of the bunks. That is, until they were trying to put it back together at our new home. Somewhere in the hustle and bustle of the move, the zip-lock bags came untaped and were strewn about the truck. They never found all the pieces and we ended up just getting new beds. Sure, we could’ve found a hardware store and tried to do it ourselves, but by that point my ‘give-a-damn’ was busted. Now we put all nuts, bolts, screws and tools into labeled zip-lock bags and keep them with us in our vehicles.
2. Portable Hard Drive.
Since my milspouse side-hustle as a freelance writer requires me to have access to PC devices on the daily, it’s absolutely necessary for me to have all of my files backed up on a portable hard drive. I learned this the hard way during our last move. I was so caught up in making sure that all of our physical documents were in order that I completely forgot about our digital ones! It wasn’t until we were on the road that I realized there were several saved documents on our desktop that I never printed out! So instead of being able to whip out the info I needed to pick up the keys to our new place, I had to jump through so many hoops before we reached our destination. Thank GOODNESS my husband was driving!
