Things have certainly shifted. Last time I wrote I was ready to give up, but in a matter of days we have managed to get answers to four major worries:

• London flat: The landlord has agreed to release us from the tenancy agreement. We will have to pay penalty, which is still quite a lot of money, but at least we won’t have to cover the rent (£15,000) until March, 2019.
• Switzerland flat: We have secured a flat until end of April. So good news – we won’t be homeless! Though all the papers were signed online and we haven’t seen the place in real life. So, I really hope this won’t turn out to be one of those catfish stories.
• Job: I was given an opportunity to freelance from Switzerland!
• Moving our belongings: we found a reasonably priced man that does removal services from the UK to Europe.

I must say that everything turned out better than expected. Of course, it is still quite costly to move, but somehow things just worked out. Now, all that needs to be done – pack all our stuff. Oh, the joy…

Packing

During my life, I have lived in 6 different places, 3 of those required extensive packing and moving. And unless you haven’t done it yourself (without any help from friends or family) you cannot even begin to imagine how stressful this is. I usually go through 3 stages while packing:

1. Okay, this is not that bad. I will colour code my bags and boxes. I will know where everything is. It’s easy to be organized!

2. Why do I have all this stuff? There are so many small things! I have already packed 5 boxes of small useless things and there just randomly appears more and more around the flat.

Okay, let’s put this charger in a box filled with kitchen stuff. I will certainly remember where it is once I need to unpack!

3. It is such a mess! There are bags and boxes everywhere! I have worn the same shirt for the last 3 days and I have no idea where is ..“this one thing I need right now”. I give up!

To be fair, the more you move the better you become at it. There are loads of tricks on the internet that can help you. …Of course, that’s until you reach the chaos phase and just toss random things together.

Anyhow, our move this time will be slightly different. On 21/12 we are flying to Germany and then going to Latvia for New Years. We will only be back in London 2 days before the official move date – 11/01. So even though Switzerland is one month away, we actually have one week to prepare and pack before we go away on holiday.

Packing = terrible
Packing in a rush = disaster.

This article was written on 15/12/2017