Luggage carts…practical or foolish?…

We deliberated over buying luggage carts. Would they simply add additional weight to haul around the world?  Would we be charged extra baggage fees to store them on the plane?  Would they serve as a invaluable resource to make the transportation from location to location more manageable?

After spending several hours researching baggage restriction on flights and after analyzing and weighing our load, thus far, we came to the conclusion that we must take the risk and buy the carts.  Restrictions on cruises are only a “per bag” limit weight of 70 pounds to avoid injuries to their handlers. There are no restrictions on the number of bags on cruises.

What if we could place each of our two 50 pound suitcases, our 40 pound carry on bags, our computer gear and my handbag on each of our carts? (No money, passports or important papers will be in my handbag. The allowed space for handbags will be utilized for clothing, shoes, etc.)  Important items will be tucked away in our carry on bags with an exterior zippered pouch for our easy access to our travel documents.  Our wallets will be secured under our clothing. 

We purchased two of these luggage carts each with a
250 pound capacity at Global Industries

The potential total weight for each of our luggage carts is anticipated to be approximately 180 pounds, an amount impossible to wheel and carry at one time without a cart.  Buying a cart with a capacity of 250 pounds would ensure a more stable structure, enabling each of us to be able to wheel our own carts.

Our cart, folded for easy placement under the seat on an airplane

Researching airline baggage restriction, we found that most airlines will allow any wheeling or carrying devices aboard as long as it will fit under the seat. After investigating the folded up size of the carts we chose and the size of the space under the seats on most aircraft, we determined that the carts will fit.

The thought of easily wheeling our bags to cruise ships, through airports, on trains, ferries and in and out of our vacation homes, provides a great sense of relief. Recently, some family, friends and followers of this blog have asked why we don’t just throw some stuff in a suitcase and take off without all this planning.

In our minds, the answer is clear. Most people, when traveling for a few weeks or months have a home to which they return to at the end of their travels. We won’t.  We will continue on. Since we aren’t considering this a “vacation” but rather “living” (as Tom describes it), we need to bring things with us that we need, want and use.

Under no circumstances, do we want the burden of finding a mall, a drugstore, or a post office. Neither of us enjoys going to stores, although I enjoy grocery shopping which we will obviously need to do wherever we go. Whether an outdoor farmer’s market or a tiny little shop on a corner, we will enjoy shopping for local meats and produce.

Neither Tom nor I would enjoy wearing the same items day after day. We tend to wear an item once and then wash it, sloppy that we both are when dining (mostly me)! We make a point of trying to look nice for each other.  It’s a part of the attraction we both fell for each other so many years later; fresh smelling, clean, attractive clothes, well groomed, and for me; some makeup, earrings, manicured nails and polished toes (I have always done these myself). 

Currently, through instructions online for how to cut a man’s hair, I will strive to cut Tom’s hair to his liking. We don’t want to have to spend time looking for a barber or Tom feeling frustrated with a peculiar cut. A few nights ago, I suggested that he grow a beard and a wear a ponytail. Here again, he wants to be “himself” and wasn’t interested. We’ll figure this out together.
None of our quirky traits will change when we’re traveling the world or when and if we ever settle down. It is part of who we are individually and, as a couple. For us, it is a part of the magic. (We accept that we are giving up so much to gain this experience together; seeing our loved ones, drinking coffee, enjoying familiar foods, my kitchen gadgets, watching US TV, reading the newspaper, our home, our friends and neighbors, the 4th of July, having a dog, access to a health club, and on and on.

Thus, this reality adds greatly to the packing. There’s “stuff” associated with feeling “put together.” We are willing to bear the consequences of our picky choices, by wheeling our carts, paying extra for baggage on the fewer flights we’ll experience and for packing and unpacking the “stuff” each time we reach a destination.

This weekend we’ll load up the carts with the two already pack bags, adding several more items to get the feel of wheeling around 180 pounds. If it doesn’t feel great, I will up the weights at my workouts and build more muscle.

After all, we still have three months and six days until we walk out the door!

Shredding a lifetime of papers…

As October looms nearer and nearer to our Halloween departure date, I lay awake at night prioritizing my tasks. With Tom gone to work Monday through Friday for 14 hours a day, the sorting and packing of a lifetime is logically in my hands. 

A portion of the most unbearable tasks has been started or completed, including the cleaning of our formerly junk laden attic, the messy top of my closet, many overstuffed drawers and hangers with outdated forgotten clothes, much of which I already hauled to Goodwill.  

We’ve scanned over 500 photos thus far with hundreds more to go.  A few months back, I removed every photo in a frame in our house, scanning the photo and saving an entire plastic tote filled with frames to be sold at our upcoming estate sale.

Looming in the back of my mind these past months have been the papers; boxes, drawers, file cabinets, banker’s boxes filled to the brim with receipts, tax records, legal documents, forms, medical files, certificates, insurance policies and on and on. 

Although not hoarders, we’ve kept that which we thought we’d need to keep, 90% of which we never referenced in all of these years. After assessing the paper inventory over the past months, I came to the realization that saving these documents would require no less than a 5′ x10″ storage facility, costing no less than $50 a month.  Goodbye, papers!

I called our accountant asking a few pertinent questions:

How long is one required to keep tax returns?

How long must one keep the supporting receipts for the tax returns? The answers to these questions are vague (Isn’t it surprising that the IRS would be vague?)  If you cheat on your taxes, you’ll need to keep your records indefinitely!  If you don’t, please see the IRS link for the vague answers.

Final question for the accountant:
Will he be able to do our taxes when we are no longer residents of Minnesota? Answer: Yes, as long as we have access to the internet.

The magic of the Internet with the availability of keeping digital personal records is steering us further and further away from the necessity of keeping paper copies of everything.  Our medical records, bank statements, income records, financial records, and other legal documents an now be kept online in a secure “cloud.”  
I made a list of the documents we’ll need to keep and subsequently store. (This list may be different for you depending on your personal circumstances).  

Documents to store:
  1. Original titles to cars (until we sell them both before we leave the US).
  2. Tax returns past 5 years (accountant has these also)
  3. Tax receipts for the past 7 years (per the advice of the accountant)
Documents to bring with us:
  1. Passports, upcoming visas, travel documents
  2. Originals of birth certificates, baptismal certificates, marriage certificate 
  3. New driver’s licenses for new state of residency
  4. Health: Insurance cards, current prescriptions, actual prescription bottles, immunization records, emergency contact information in states
  5. Checkbook (some property owners would like the balance of the rent paid via check) and recently renewed debit and credit cards
  6. Travel insurance documents
Today, after a brisk 45 minute walk on an otherwise lovely morning, I returned home with a certain sense of dread knowing that I must begin the sorting process.  When beginning a dreaded project I’ve always preferred to begin with the “worst first.”  

First, I attacked the old style wood two drawer file cabinet in our bedroom that loomed in my mind in the middle of the night. 
My next concern is the disposal of the papers, shredding and recycling as the only logical choices. After researching online I found a free shredding event which I put on my calendar with a plan to haul my two big bags of papers on June 23rd to the grocery store parking lot where Shredit will be offering the service to the community. 

After sorting for most of the day, I’ve discovered few simple steps to keep the amount to be shredded to a minimum:
  1. Place two plastic totes on either side of your chair, designating one bin for recycling, the other for shredding
  2. Place a cabinet, drawer, or box of papers in front of you on the floor
  3. Go through papers, removing envelopes, advertising, printed booklets and anything that doesn’t reference your name, address, social security number, bank account numbers, dollar amounts, etc., placing papers in appropriate tote; all personal items go into the shredding bin, all peripheral papers in the recycle bin.  (Tear off parts of forms with your personal information and save the rest for the recycle bin).
You’ll be amazed how much smaller your shredding pile is, as opposed to the recycle pile.  Place papers to be shredded into containers as suggested by your free recycle event into either bags or boxes.  Deliver them to the specified location on the specified date and time.  If one has additional shredding beyond that which the shredding event will accept, one can plan to repeat this process closer to the next arranged date in the area.  
Often, waiting for a free event is difficult when we so much want to get this cleaned up and out the door.  Most office supply stores have a shredding program (prices vary by locations and promotions).

Although I still have several more days of papers to toss, it’s less intimidating with this simple plan in place.  Hopefully, by week’s end this task will be completed, leaving me with little piles of the documents we will be taking with us on our journey.  I am looking forward to an enormous sense of relief.

Tomorrow is Round #3 of vaccinations which will include the first  of three rabies shots.  I’ll keep you posted!