Job Discussion Forums

[Omeo]

If you're planning on making a career out of teaching English and doing it for a long time, what do you do with your stuff? Y'know, I got a buncha clothes and photo albums and artwork I've made and lotsa books and such; am I gonna hafta give up most of this stuff when I leave for my first job? Are there long-term storage places I can put it in until I can have it shipped to me? How do you get your stuff from one country to another? If I'm in China and I take a job in Brazil, for example, how do I move my stuff around? Am I going to have to minimize my possesions and travel light? Just trying to grasp the logistics ofd the whole thing, y'know? Thanx in advance.

[Guy Courchesne]

S'what mom and dad are for, bless their souls.

[been_there]

rent a storage locker, but be sure you can pay by automatic deposit so you dont have to sweat it each month....

(or get mom and dad to do it...)

[Jazz1975]

Glad I saw this thread . It's something I'm going to have to think about as well if I do end up going to Japan. For me, I'll just leave everything with mom & dad. Omeo, another option, if at all possible, is to have your friends "foster" your stuff. If that's not possible, go with what the others have said.

[Glenski]

I've had some stuff in paid storage back home. Never realized how long I'd be away, so the costs have piled up. I sold my car in the second year, and I sold many of my other belongings later. Whether you have parents or friends or relatives to help you, I strongly suggest it, too. Keep as little in paid storage as possible.

Also, my first storage facility actually CLOSED, so my relatives had to move my stuff to another place while I stayed here in Japan.

Plan ahead.

[Irish]

And be honest with yourself about what you really need to keep. Try to pare it down so you don't overburden family and friends or run up unnecessary storage costs. Photo albums and artwork are keepers -- that's not even a question. But clothes? Hmm... It depends on what you have and what you're saving it for. Maybe that's something you could store now and ship later or pick up on a trip home if you wind up working in a place where you have difficulty buying clothes.

Books are tough. I gave away much of my library (very difficult for me -- I love my books!) and stored the rest with friends. On my first trip back to the US, I mailed them to myself via sea bag (aka M bag). It was fairly cheap and I'm happy to have them. It took about four months to receive them, but they arrived undamaged. However, I only did it for things I had to have and I'm fairly set here for the next couple of years. If you plan to bounce around frequently or the books aren't vital to your life in country, store them or sell them.

Don't forget that, wherever you go, you'll probably be picking up more stuff. How much do you really want to lump around with you?

As for shipping between countries, it's difficult to say. How much will you have? Where will you be going? Obviously you don't know that right now. There are international shipping companies, of course, but they're not cheap and you probably won't have enough stuff to justify using one if you're only in country for a year or two. If it's not too much, you might be better off paying excess baggage when you fly out. Again, you'll have to be honest with yourself in distinguishing between "valuable peice of memorabilia" and "useless bit of crap".

[Omeo]

Yeah, I definitely planned on seeing how much I can part with before I start looking at who I can get to baby-sit the rest until I can retrieve it. I'll probably sell a lotta stuff, which is good 'cause it'll raise money for starting out wherever I end up first. Anybody interested in a Playstation 2 with a Korean mod chip in it?

[tedkarma]

A few years from now - you won't even remember what you have stored at your mom's house! I didn't.

I'd say get rid of 98% of your stuff. Keep only photos and items of strong sentimental value.

When I looked in the boxes I stored at my mom's house - I was quite surprised that most of it meant anything to me at the time I left.

[Jizzo T. Clown]

Be sure you don't leave anything too valuable with friends. I learned that the hard way when I went to Japan. I'd left my DVD collection with a friend, and when I returned (a year later) he had sold them all to a pawn shop!

For shipping, I found that when I had to return to the states, it was a helluva lot cheaper to go with DHL than to go with an over-limit charge on the baggage.