PCSing: Household Goods

Haven't posted in a few days because.... our household goods are here! It's pretty exciting! We spent all weekend finishing unpacking and putting everything in it's proper spot and our apartment still isn't completely put together. Here are some tips for shipping and receiving your HHG.

• Ship your HHG as early as you can. It is really hard waiting for your stuff to arrive once you get to your new location. you'll end up buying stuff just because you need it. It'll be a lot easier to go without for a little bit before you leave rather than keeping everything until the last minute and suffering for over a month after you arrive.  
• If you have room in your weight limit for it, bring it! Since we PCSed overseas we thought we wouldn't be able to use a lot of stuff such as some small kitchen appliances, yard equipment, some tools, etc. We ended up having to buy a lot of this stuff. Don't leave it behind if you can bring it with you, chances are you'll have plenty of storage for it if you end up not being able to use it. We have two whole storage rooms here.
• If they took it apart, make them put it back together! The movers are supposed to assemble anything they took apart to ship such as desks, bed frames, etc. However, they won't do it. They typically have more than one delivery a day and they do as little as possible at each one to save time. At least that's how I see it, it could be that they are lazy but I'm being nice. You can bribe them with food and soda. Especially here, the Germans love coca-cola from the states since it's a little bit different.
• Make them take the boxes! Just as they are supposed to put everything back together, they are supposed to unpack the boxes and take them away. They won't. My husband was inside directing them on where to put the boxes. While he was doing this, he also unpacked them. Just put all of our stuff in a pile and stacked the boxes separate so they would take them away. He didn't have time to get them all unpacked but now instead of having 50 boxes to recycle, we have about 10. The movers also say they will come back to pick them up if you call them. However, my friend did this and they stood her up at least 3 times. 
• Keep calm! If you're like me and hate clutter, try your best to stay calm, it doesn't all need to get put away on the same day that it arrives. Relax and be happy that you finally have your stuff!

Happy shipping!