Adventures in Packing - Preparing to Leave

Craig and I had planned to leave Abu Dhabi on May 16 to spend about a month at home before returning. Because we would be coming back, we had planned to pack up the majority of our clothing and all of our household goods, to be stored for our return. On our return, however, we will need to be able to pack everything into suitcases for a trip home that includes a several day stop in Tel Aviv. I had some complicated suitcase-management planned.

Unfortunately, some schedule changes meant that Craig would be flying home a week after me. As a result, I would not be able to pack everything for storage. I would not even be here, with all the suitcases, to adjust packing at the last minute. Instead, I packed everything up, took pictures and made detailed lists, and upacked everything again. I left Craig with overly complicated directions to ensure that everything would work.

I packed his suitcase in layers, so he could see where everything would fit. Of course, after doing this, I realized that even if he couldn't make everything fit into the suitcase, he could toss any excess into the bins with the household goods. I had proved that everything would fit into the suitcase, so I was covered for our August trip.

 

Craig had purchased several storage bins for our household goods. I made a checklist of things to put in each bin, so that everything would be organized. Of course, to make this list I had to put all the things into each bin to make sure things would fit...and then I had to unpack everything again so that Craig wasn't forced to live out of boxes. Here's one side of the checklist:

Craig sent me this picture of everything packed up before taking it to storage (only the three suitcases will ultimately return with us):

I probably went to more work than was absolutely necessary. We weren't even gone for a month. And I have confidence in my ability to pack things when we finally return home.