We bought the house in Bonaire with it's contents. The sellers, a nice Dutch couple, said they were leaving with their toothbrushes and we could bring ours and move right in. That was way too simple for us.
As we liquidated and packed our house in Arvada, we had one room where we collected the things we wanted in Bonaire. Everyday we added something to the room. Each time we had enough to fill a box we packed and taped it shut. And believe it or not we ended up shipping 19 boxes weighing 800 pounds.
A friend that had lived oversees for a long time, said there were two things that were hard to get....cosmetics and underwear. So we packed a box or two of cloths including a bunch of swim suites, summer cloths, and lots of underwear. We also packed a box of toiletries like shampoo, lotion, sunscreen and stuff we like to use. We didn't want to pitch half used bottles of things so we shipped them.
Rick and I like to cook. The last time we were in Bonaire we had trouble finding spices we liked. So we shipped a whole box of spices, specialty cookware, Gelato machine ( Rick loves to make Gelato), Dutch chocolate (yes, the Dutch don't import their own Dutch chocolate), and a food processor. The sellers had every appliance we needed except for a food processor so we shipped ours.
Scuba gear, wet suits, pool toys and floatation devices, snorkel stuff and beach chairs and towels took a couple of boxes. We shipped a small air compressor because island cars are notorious for getting flats because the roads are so bad. We wanted to feel at home in our new house that is decorated with African art and Zen-type statues, so we shipped some of our water themed art, and sailing statues, and my tacky fish collection.
Rick will be working part-time so we shipped our HP printer, office stuff, American copy paper (Bonaire uses that A11 size paper). Plus, Rick is handy so we shipped a tool box with a good collection of things to help us work on our new house if needed. Interesting factoid...the Dutch use the English system of measurement when it comes to construction and everything else is done in metric.
When you move to Bonaire the first shipment is duty free. After that,
they charge you for importing things. So we had to really think about what was important and what wasn't. I will let you know how our choices turn out in a later blog.
This is great, Sally! Even though we talked about some of this, it is nice to read the thoughts behind it all. I'm so happy you are finally there and look forward to pictures of the house once you get moved in.
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