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About once a year or so it is good to review the subject of what was shipped that ultimately wasn't needed. On the building thread about what to bring in a container the proverbial thought quoted from KeaauRich,
"the other transplants we've met have all said "I brought too much stuff..." I, for example, took early retirement from a megacorp to move here. What made me think I needed to bring 4 suits and 6 wool sweaters??? Might be interesting to hear what other folks shipped - but wished they hadn't...
WHAT did you bring that you should have left behind? Curious minds and all!
mella l
"New York London Paris Hilo"
mella l
Art and Science
bytheSEA
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I like watching this threads as I'm paring down stuff prior to our move. What I wonder is, if you have room in your container, why not fill it? You can always dispose of stuff once you get on-island. I know if there is any room left in my conatiner, I'll be filling it with building supplies (namely wood)
There have been a few trips to Volcano where I wished I HAD a sweater!
Thing I'm interested in is how well (or if) certain things survive in Puna. What I've learned so far is don't bring books, leather funiture and video (tapes) since the humidity kills them.
Puna: Our roosters crow first
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Mother-in-law ]
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LOL Jade how is Eden Roc?
Well when we pack up we will bring only the necesities and include some winter clothing. It seems once you acclimate then 70 can feel cool to the skin especially if a breeze kicks up. Going up Mauna Kea to the observatory will require a down jack and gloves also as well as good shoes, no slippah. Loads of clothing you know the kind small medum and large, will be left behind. Some furniture and many decorating items will be left behind as we will adopt a more casual lifestyle and include more resort type bamboo and teak, no moisture collecting pillows and such.
We have pared down things like bedding and linens for the bath dining room and kitchen. I'm tempted to leave the iron and ironing board on the mainland, and bring two harlies!
There will be room left over and since you pay for the container and not the weight we will pack up the things we would ordinarily leave here for charity and donate it at our new home, just those quality items that still have good life in them. Some tools unneeded, bit of furniture, loads of kitchen gadgets and gardening stuff that is of quality.
EightFingers, I will bring two leather chairs, I understand if you protect them with a good cleaner and wipe them down every 4 months or so they are fine. Of course this depends on your location and circumstance. The open air 24 7 probably won't work.
mella l
"New York London Paris Hilo"
mella l
Art and Science
bytheSEA
I haven't had any problem with my leather couches, and if anything they are cracking because I forget to treat them. But I don't live up mauka. Closer to sea level they have been fine.
Leather jackets, they did mold in the closet. Mainland clothes, no one really wants them. Donated a lot, should have done more.
Should have gotten rid of more books,
Where I blew it was selling off (cheap) my collection of Indonesian pots ... only to find pots cost a fortune here. That's changed since Home Depot and Lowe's arrived, but I should have brought mine.
I didn't have regrets about much. We had to make cuts on stuff going into the container. We had two of our sons sharing the space on a 20 footer, and we were short of room.
As for furniture, it only took me a year or two to get tired of a lot of the casual island style furniture. Other than on the lanai, I prefer well made furniture. Not that my furniture is great. I have bits and pieces put together over the years. I was never in the position to envision buying all new furniture, so I brought what I had. It's familiar to me. At first when one gets here there is a sense of letting the past go, and the liberation that goes with that, but, and this may just be me, as time goes on I am happy to look around and see stuff that I've had for thirty years. It gives me a sense of continuity.
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Because my first stop was Waimea, I wish I had brought a few colder clothes in our container. I left all the "cold" stuff at my mom's for visits. She had to dig through the boxes and send me a few sweaters and things I needed.
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I followed the suggestions I read about getting rid of mostly everything & wish I hadn't. It's difficult & very expensive to replace the cobalt blue glass collection, all the books, the corning ware, tools, important memorabilia . . . Since I was coming from FL, & on a tight budget, I only mailed 6 plastic containers of precious possessions. I'm not continually remorseful, but "if I had to do it over again", it would be different. It's difficult to get some items here & I didn't get that freedom of material possessions feeling that some people esteem. I let go of many personal items that are irreplaceable, but have accepted that price for paradise. Given that choice again, I would still pick paradise at mostly any cost.
Books especially are cheap to ship, so that would be the major thing I would change. Oh well, my lifetime collection of 100's of books are now residing at the library for many to share. Mildew here is a problem, but a bookdealer said bright natural light & air movement (even slight) are the keys to keeping mildew off. It's worked for my leather & books here.
A Hui Hou & good luck
Dory
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We had plenty of time to plan on the move here and got rid of a
lot of stuff. About the only thing that I feel we brought too
much of was mainland clothes. Now they will just hang around
until we decide to get rid of them. We had also set up house before
we moved here and did not get rid of duplicate pieces, ie hand mixer
ect. Otherwise, tips from PunaWeb gave us a lot of insight on what
to bring and what not to bring. We had a 20 foot container and
could not get everything in, so we have a supplimental shipment
coming of items that we used just before our move and wish they
were here because they are some of the things we use most.
"From knowledge comes understanding"
"From knowledge comes understanding"
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What did I ship over and wished I hadn't? Video tapes. Lost most of 'em to mold.
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Connie, if you haven't junked the tapes & they were personal, Jimbo was able to save some tapes for a friend (not mold encrusted, but they did have mold...), recorded them to digital, then junked the molded tapes (cannot do this with commercial tapes, only personal... something about the formatting...)
ETA: Procedure:
Dry the tapes as much as you can in a sealed container with desiccant (we used crystal kitty litter)
Vacuum the tapes to vacuum out as much of the dry mold (we vacuumed while turning the tapes)
Run the tapes in a cheap rewinder (not the 'rewind' on a tape deck) vacuum the rewinder & tapes
Using a sacrificial tape deck, play the tapes while copying onto digital format... we vacuumed the deck often. Some of the images had been 'mold scarred', but most of the memories were preserved.
****My first rule of what to bring:
No matter what you bring, make sure that anything that cannot be cleaned easily & often, is stored in a sealed container with a desiccant. Mold seems to grow on just about anything here (even on the "dry side", we are finding out...).****
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