3.74 cubic metres

After various ummings and ahings, and 'ouches' over the cost, we have decided that we will try and minimise what we ship to Australia. This gives us the interesting challenge of deciding what to keep and what to sell. We have had several sale lists go out, and one yard sale, and we have pretty much got rid of most things we wanted to. The only major things left are one of our sofas, and the car! (Priced to high - will be exploring other avenues...). Also our piano, but until I am able to get this fixed, it will be a hard (and unprofitable) sell. Unfortunately the process of trying to get it fixed (again) is proving very African :(

So our target 'volume' is 3.74cbm (cubic metres - not to be confused with 3.74 meters cubed, which is a whole different ball game!) This is where we are up to so far:

The eagle-eyed amongst you will notice the green markers, which is the outside boundaries of the 3.74cbm (1m x 2m x 187cm, for those of you who want to try this at home!) I think we will be OK, and may even be able to be a bit under - which all helps the budget.

We are trying to get the balance between what we can cope without for 10 weeks (transit time) and what we can manage to fit in our luggage. Once the shipment has left, it will be too late to add anything to it, but until we finally pack our suitcases, we won't know if we have too much!

Australia is also VERY fussy about what they let into the country, so we are having to think about everything that goes into each box as to whether it will get us into trouble. Hopefully we won't send anything prohibited, or forget to itemise anything restricted...

The packers are coming on Tuesday to crate it all up, so we will see how it goes.

The joys of  transition...