Our shipment from Kazakhstan arrived yesterday so I have been knee deep in boxes and wrapping paper. The unpacking team were here bright and early yesterday and unloaded both vans. Despite my best endeavours with project 'get rid of some of this sh*t' we still have a lot of 'stuff'. It's ironic really as we have been managing perfectly well in this house with the landlord's furniture and just some of our bits and pieces. Still, 350 packages arrived and need dealing with. Oh joy.
I must confess to a bit of a wobble last night. The unpacking team have the organisational skills of a turnip so by the time my poor husband came home (who had only arrived from the US at 1 a.m. in the morning) there was not enough room to swing a cat as there were boxes everywhere and the unpacking team had chosen to unpack boxes containing items that needed to be placed in items that had not yet been unpacked. Mark, bless him, then spent several hours opening boxes of books so we could them on the bookshelves that had been unpacked to create some space so the unpacking team could get stuff done the following day. I spent several hours trying to sort out the kitchen. I finally decided that everything without a home could go in the utility room and then I just shut the door so I couldn't see it. Problem solved! And we now have room in which to swing a cat!
The move in all fairness has gone so much better than I thought it would. There have been some minor breakages but that is inevitable. Ikea is the expat's best (furniture) friend. Stuff from there is relatively stylish and, most importantly, relatively inexpensive. So if it does get broken, it is easily replaced and not a great deal at the end of the day if it is damaged. The only consructive feedback I have is that the description on the various packages was at best random and at worst a nightmare to decipher. In one instance the Kazakh packing team had written a description in Russian, which was clearly no use to a Danish/Romanian unpacking team and an English speaking client. Just saying!
I must confess to a bit of a wobble last night. The unpacking team have the organisational skills of a turnip so by the time my poor husband came home (who had only arrived from the US at 1 a.m. in the morning) there was not enough room to swing a cat as there were boxes everywhere and the unpacking team had chosen to unpack boxes containing items that needed to be placed in items that had not yet been unpacked. Mark, bless him, then spent several hours opening boxes of books so we could them on the bookshelves that had been unpacked to create some space so the unpacking team could get stuff done the following day. I spent several hours trying to sort out the kitchen. I finally decided that everything without a home could go in the utility room and then I just shut the door so I couldn't see it. Problem solved! And we now have room in which to swing a cat!
The move in all fairness has gone so much better than I thought it would. There have been some minor breakages but that is inevitable. Ikea is the expat's best (furniture) friend. Stuff from there is relatively stylish and, most importantly, relatively inexpensive. So if it does get broken, it is easily replaced and not a great deal at the end of the day if it is damaged. The only consructive feedback I have is that the description on the various packages was at best random and at worst a nightmare to decipher. In one instance the Kazakh packing team had written a description in Russian, which was clearly no use to a Danish/Romanian unpacking team and an English speaking client. Just saying!
Thanks for that. I am now SO looking forward to our boxes full of stuff that we haven't set eyes on for nearly two years arriving from the UK to a fully furnished house.
ReplyDeleteIs it too late to cancel the movers????