Not shipping

Friday, 7 Jul 2006 | Leaving the Netherlands

It’s about time I make up my mind about what to do with my stuff, meaning if or not I will ship it to Asia. I’ve written about this a couple of times before, and decided I should make up my mind today. This upcoming weekend, I’ve got plenty of time to sort through Kim’s basement, where I’ve got everything stored at the moment, and prepare it for it’s final destination.

I’ll move to Bangkok with a minimum of things at first. Whatever it is I am allowed on board the airplane basically. Well, there is that and a couple of boxes I’ve got. This together makes up what I feel I need in Bangkok. These boxes weigh in at about 10kg each, one is filled with books and the other with some basic things that I for some reason want to get to Bangkok too. I will either mail these boxes or perhaps a friend flying to Bangkok can take them for me.

There is also a bunch of stuff that I certainly will not ship to Asia. I mean, who needs a wintercoat in Bangkok? I’ll store this stuff with my family. And Kim has also offered her basement. So plenty of space.

But then there are the things that I could use over over there but don’t need right away, the so-called ‘nice to haves’. I decided early on that I would not ship this stuff to Bangkok right away, but would store it and have it shipped to whatever city I end up finding a job in. It’s this category that I’m not wondering if or not I will actually ship. All together, including my espresso gear and a bed, it makes for about 2 m3 of stuff to ship. This is the minimum allowed by shipping companies and I got a quote for 1000 euro to ship this.

An alternative is to not ship, sell the items in Holland and buy replacement items locally. That is, all but my espresso gear. I would ship my espresso gear using the postal system, 40kg in total with insurance would cost about 150 euro. Yes, I know, it’s weird. But I love my espresso machine.

How to make this decision? Well, it turns out this is what it comes down to:
the cost of shipping everything vs. the cost of shipping my espresso gear only + the price of having to buy things - the money I would make from selling things here

Selling what can be sold would make me about 600 euro in total. I wouldn’t buy all those items again. I mean, a hammock is a ‘nice to have’ but hardly something I would buy again. I’d probably get a basic kitchen outfit, speakers + amplifier, bed (!), iron + board and a vacuum cleaner. The big question is, can I buy that for 1450 euro?

I’m guessing I can. So there we go. Decision made. I’m not shipping anything. Wow, that means I’m really moving abroad bare bones … just a couple of boxes by mail and my suitcase filled with stuff.