It was just about eight months ago that the idea of retiring to Portugal first crossed our minds. After all the research and the endless lists and spreadsheets of to-do items, the actual move is finally within sight. In six days, truckers will (hopefully) pick up the two 6-foot tall pallets of household goods that we are shipping. Two days later we will rent a Uhaul to haul-away the remaining furniture and miscellaneous items to completely empty our temporary apartment. We’ll move with our mountain of luggage to stay with family until we go. We’ll have a few days to visit friends and family (and take a breather) over New Year’s before flying to Portugal on the 6th of January. In between, we have all the tedious jobs to do such as cancelling cable, internet, and insurance.  We’ll set up Google Voice and port our cell numbers over so we can stay in touch with everyone. We also need to send taxes to our accountant, clean the apartment, and sell Wayne’s car.  We’ll be tying up all the remaining loose ends and repeatedly asking ourselves “What are we forgetting?”. 

We have seven suitcases lined up on the floor and hoping we don’t need to add an eighth one.  (That is in addition to a briefcase & a back-pack.) We just keep tossing in things as we think of them.  We are trying to think of what we’ll wish we had for those first several months before our shipped goods get delivered to the apartment we eventually hope to buy.  All our clothes are going with us since we’ll be straddling seasons. We’re using those roll-up sealed bags to compress clothes so the first thing we’ll need to do after arriving is buy an iron. 

We’ve read numerous posts from other Americans in Portugal listing products they miss or bring back from the U.S. when they visit. While you can find just about anything there that you can in the US, some things are more difficult to find or pricey because they are imported. Things mentioned that we are packing include multi-vitamins and real vanilla extract. Wayne packed his favorite Mexican chili powders. We’re packing favorite pillows, toiletries, and coffee mugs. One suitcase has my computer monitor as I’m getting too blind for the tiny screen of my laptop. Then there’s all my camera equipment, printer, scanner, electrical adapters, converters, and other technology. Plus there’s all the important papers we need for applying for our first residency permits and getting driver’s licenses. It all adds up so quickly. Others have successfully made the move with just a suitcase or two and bought everything else new after arriving.  We just can’t afford to spend all that extra money and don’t want to be forced to shop before we learn our way around. We’ll be paying a chunk in shipping and extra baggage fees but it’s still much cheaper overall.

Neat freaks that we are, we are so tired of living in a messy limbo and so ready to be there. The count-down app on my phone tells me we should be wheels-up in exactly 2 weeks, 2 days, and 2 hours!