My Life in Totes

The shipping company came yesterday to pick up my belongings. Thirty two years on

this planet and I've been reduced to 17 plastic totes. I've always hovered somewhere between an organized hoarder and a minimalist. I love procuring things.....but very few things have sentimental value to me and I end up giving much of what I buy away or tossing it. In that sense, much of what I packed will probably seem foolish to many of you. Still, it will be nice to look around my apartment and see items I've had for years or that I can recall the level of excitement I had when I purchased them. 



All my wordly posessions - toted



The largest quantity of anything I packed was my scrap booking supplies. I'm guessing I won't find a Happy Stamper or Archivers in Hyderabad, and I've been hoarding supplies for years so I used that to my advantage and packed 6 of my 17 totes full of my favorite scrap booking/card making supplies. A few totes contained my full GardenLites collection from Party Lite, some fabulous dishes and glassware made up another 1-2 totes, and of course I need a few clothing items.

The company I hired to ship my items is Ocean Star International (http://osishipping.com/). According to Kevin in the sales department, India is one of the top countries they ship to, so they are very familiar with the rules and regulations related to such a shipment. They gave me a phenomenal price and offered door to door service. All of the reviews I found online about them (on sites other then their own) were phenomenal.

  

The local company they contracted to pick up the items at my house was fantastic to work with. Mike, the driver, took very special care to stack, wrap, and load my items and was courteous and professional each step of the way. He'll haul them out to California, where they'll be put on a boat and floated over to India, for the bargain price of just $1700 USD. I did take  insurance on the shipment, which only covers catastrophic issues such as a boiler blowing up on the ship or the ship sinking, and was a little disappointed to discover that I was not being protected against pirates. I'll be mad if they steal my great grandmothers hope chest and use it to store their buried treasure.

I'll be curious to see how they deliver my items to my Madhapur flat, as I don't think there is a truck on the Indian continent big enough to handle 150 cubic feet of cargo. Lucky for them I'm on the ground floor and they won't have to haul them up multiple flights of stairs!

Now I can only hope I get shipped there in time to meet my things. So far I have not been given a departure date, but need to be there in order for them to deliver my items as they will not allow them to be signed over to anyone else.

It was a little sad seeing all my things roll down the road. But being reunited with all my stuff will be a joyous day indeed!