Three Suitcases Each!!!

We have culled all of our clothes and belongings down to the minimum and have done a preliminary packing run. The good news is that it looks like we will be able to fit everything into our three suitcases each. The bad news is that the weight of the big suitcases may be more than the airline allowance. Right now we can barely move them. We have got to find a scale to weigh them and see if we can take them onboard. We would hate to get to the airport and find out that this is not the case. That would be a disaster. Of course we sold our big scale this past weekend which was a dumb thing to do, so we have to figure out some way of checking the weight out. I am thinking of taking them over to a UPS store and having them weighed on their big scales to get an accurate reading. Then we can figure out if we need to freak out and whittle down some more. I just don’t know what could be left behind though as we have been pretty relentless. At first Glenn wanted to bring the baby Cuisinart, our great electric kettle and a few other items, but those got shot down. He is managing to bring quite a few books, a tiny humidifier and an Indian sandalwood statue though. I pretty much packed clothes, even managing to fit my pink scarf in since they do women’s marches in San Miguel. We still have to fit a bunch of important paperwork, our laptops, two iPads, our Kindles, a set of small speakers, our Apple TV and a few other items we can’t do without in our carry-ons. But then we should be all set.

I am afraid our Airbnb host in Albany will get the wrong idea as we show up with the suitcases, carry-ons, 4 file cases, an afghan throw, the printer, my photo scanner for all the negatives I still need to finish with, a rice cooker, bags of food from our fridge and freezer and wine of course! She may think we are never going to leave.

The great thing about renting in San Miguel is that most places are completely furnished so that makes things easy. Just show up, get the keys, unlock the door and unpack. We have heard that it is good to bring some things down like nice sheets (quality ones are hard to come by) but I don’t think we can manage those in this run. Maybe once we get down there, get our bearings and see what we need we will ship down some hard to find items. We need to remember that part of this adventure is for us to simplify our lives and do with less. So right now this lightening up is a good process and lesson for us.

Note:

We went to UPS to drop off some papers for shredding. Boy are we in the wrong business! $77 dollars for one and a half regular letter sized office boxes full. While we were there they allowed us to stick our suitcases on the big scale. Glenn’s was the one we were really worried about and it came in at 74lbs. Right under the limit. Phew!! Mine I didn’t even weigh since it is quite a bit lighter. So that stress is quieted. Let’s see if we can maintain those weights as we get closer to departure.