If I am not wrong I think it is the armed services that are packing and moving her...you might want to ask someone on base if they have moved with the services before and ask their experience...It is a great idea to put like things for each room in a box and label it as such...anything vital like important papers etc have with you don't pack them...I am assuming you will get there before your boxes...if i am wrong then have a open me first box with toilet paper and real essentials you don't want to go looking for like one set of sheets, one towel etc etc...that often helps...even a favorite toy for each child...and I would pack the christmas towels...

Actually she'll be allowed two shipments. One is Hold Baggage, which is air freighted and contains all the stuff you need right away after arrival. The other is Household Goods, which is all your furniture etc. It goes on a container ship.

We work for a private company and had the same type of move. We packed a package of toilet paper, kleenex, paper towels and a stash of kitchen stuff (paper plates, plastic ware, etc.) in the air shipment so we could survive if we had to. Oh, and the computers should always go air freight, not by sea. We didn't have the movers in Italy unpack anything except the furniture. The came back a couple of weeks later for the box pickup, but we didn't want them seeing everything we had (think theft). And, we didn't have enough places to put it at the time so it took a few IKEA visits to get storage.

Yup Bill knows what's going on lol.

I will actually be dividing my stuff up into 5 catergories......3 for the movers......unaccompanied baggage (linens, clothes etc....by plane), household goods (furniture etc...by sea), and storage.

I also need to sort what is coming with me in luggage on the plane ride over (I'm hoping to get enough clothes in for a week and some toys). My laptop will be my carry on lol.

Also especially since Jason will be going ahead of me, I will send a box or 2 to him at our own expense. This will be the survival box. We could wait a month or so for unaccompanied baggage and 90 days for household goods. Till then we'll get stuff from the loan closet. Much of our furniture isn't even coming. It needs replacing and we plan to do so when Jason gets his bonus about a month after we arrive. I really do not have to put anything in storage as we are far from exceeding our weight limit.

The army will issue us wardrobes, major appliances, and if needed kitchen cabinets. So what I really need to concentrate on is sorting and purging here, the actual elbow grease of the move. I'm pretty sure my mom is coming next week to help, and Jason should be going on leave as well.

This isn't my first move without my hubby, when he left for basic I packed up a whole house and moved everything into storage and moved to my mother in laws pretty much by myself, although my family kept the girls, and I had some muscles come help with the big stuff one day. So if I did that I'm sure I can do this. Not to mention I won't be such an emotional mess this time either.

If you mail anything keep the receipts and file a claim form at the transportation office at Ft Gordon (the people who are coordinating your move- in the Air Force it's called TMO). You can get reimbursed for stuff you mail rather than ship.

Thanks Bill, I wasn't sure if that was possible or not, I was gonna ask. Someone had mentioned that to me. Since Jason will be there ahead of me I think it'll be smart to mail stuff to him that we'll really need.

We're Navy - have you taken any classes at the Army's equivalent of the family service center? That was the thing that eased my mind the most. Learned everything we need to about the big move and allowed me to relax and just worry about a bit at a time.

The movers have always disassembled stuff for me (ie beds, mirrors from dressers, etc.) without me even asking. taking pics off the walls wasn't difficult.

Since you are so stressed out - why not ask for help. Have a friend come over and help you do an inventory. I admit, I've never bothered with doing a "real inventory" before. I'll probably start one on the expensive stuff but I'm not going to make myself crazy over it.

Biggest things to worry about:
Getting your reg passport
getting your military travel passport
getting a visa
submitting travel request 3 months prior
arranging to ship your vehicle
arranging your move(s)
everything else is gravy!

Good luck!

Things are so stressed for us because we're only getting about 6-8 weeks to have everything done, my husband was supposed to be gone at the end of June and just got the assignment in the beginning of May. And was misled to think that we could take care of anything to get me and our kids ready until he had his orders in hand, so we got an even later start.

3 months for submitting travel requests is impossible for us. And thus all the stress.

Yeah, my orders to Italy were short notice too. I left after a few weeks and my wife got stuck with all the moving chores, then joined me after 2 months or so. She did a great job but it sure was a lot of additional stress on her.

Hi all!
this is my first post on here, My husband is in the airforce in New Zealand and we have been told there is a possibility we may be in Italy for 2 years by the end of this year. nothing is set in stone yet but the idea of it all both really excites and really terrifies me- and just looking online to see what there is to italy and what we might be facing very soon! I know what you mean when you say your husband doesnt really like you contacting his sgt etc unless its an emergency- my husband is funny about that too dont have any advice for you as im in the same boat and have never been to italy- but just thought id let you know you arent alone! if we are going to be moving ill be on here a bit so its nice to see im not the only one in the dark about all this
good luck with your move!