Packing all of your belongings up for being away for a year is surprisingly different from simply moving, where you pack up, move, and then immediately unpack again. We expected it to be different, but our preconceptions were not very accurate. We are both organized, list-making, plan-ahead people. We’ve moved efficiently in the past, so we didn’t feel particularly challenged by the idea of packing everything up, and then moving back into our house again a year later. While we didn’t fail spectacularly in any sense, it wasn’t as smooth as we’d hoped. In hindsight, we found a number of things we wish we’d known to anticipate. If you’re packing up for an extended period—whether for travel or not, we hope some of these realizations will help you.
