We have safely landed across the pond, and are settled in a hotel in the tiniest town of Germany!
Getting here was half the battle.
In this post, you'll find some of the ups and downs of what we in the army world refer to as a OCONUS move, and plenty of helpful tidbits that I wish someone had told me before we embarked on the journey.
First thing first:
ORDERS
Without your official orders, you can't do much.
Once we had them in hand, about 120 days out (which is the soonest they become available), we made sure they listed all dependents (including myself) as "Accompanied".
Check.
The next important step: We debated/talked dates.
This is thee MOST important thing to plan out, if you want a seamless move.
Our report date at Rose Barracks, Germany was October 10th on our orders.
Knowing we wouldn't want our kids to miss any school or have an ugly transition, we settled with the idea of early report before the school year began in our new duty station (Early Report is now standard across the board: CONUS & OCONUS of up to 60 days before your report date without a Commander's signature).
That meant that the EARLIEST possible date we could fly out would be August 11th. So we stuck with that.
Now, this is where stuff gets super tricky...
Our lease would expire on July 31st.
11 days before we'd prefer to fly out.
Whomp whomp.
Before you begin to shout at your computer screen, we knew we had a few options in dealing with this pickle. I even talked to a military lawyer about it, just to be on the safe side.
We could have signed a new 12 month lease, and presented our orders to our landlord when we were ready to ditch the place, enabling our Solider/Sailor Act claus, BUT it was a sticky thing to do.
Our landlord required a 30 day moving notice, or for us to re-sign our lease agreement 30 days before it was up.
Even with the Soldiers/Sailor Act in play, we had our arms tied behind our backs.
The Soldier/Sailor Act does not allow you to stomp all over anything in your way.
If we signed a new lease to stay, 30 days before it was up, and presented orders to the landlord just a couple weeks after the fact to get out of said lease, my landlord would know our orders were cut way before we signed (the orders ARE dated for April 2014).
This is a big NO NO.
Legally, even with the SS Act on our side, that scenario would benefit my landlord. Meaning he could sue us for misrepresentation of documents. This would put us in a big, legal bind that honestly we didn't have time for.
I'll put it this way, if you know you are doing something shady to benefit your cause, just don't. You can end up with more problems, which is not something we wanted while trying to leave America
So we took the honest route, knowing my landlord was a soldier himself (stationed in another state). We contacted him through our rental agency, explained the situation, and requested a prorated extension of our lease to accommodate our flight plans. We thought maybe he'd understand since he was a soldier, too.
NOPE.
He said absolutely not, unless we wanted to pay the full month of August.
So much for having a common understanding...
We knew we would HAVE to vacate the house on/before July 31st. This meant that between the afternoon of July 31st and August 11th (flight date), we'd have no home. Which really frustrated us to the bone.
But since we knew our absolute, final date of living in the house, we were able to begin scheduling our movers!
I wanted at least two full days of cleaning time with an empty house before having our final inspection and turning in keys on the 31st of July. We really needed every bit of our security deposit back. I already had some European travel plans!
That put us at a (pushing it) date of the 29th. But movers need at least a few days of pack and load time.
To play it safe, we scheduled our Household Goods movers for Thursday July 24th. That meant they'd be done by/on Saturday the 26th. Giving me plenty of time to prep/clean the house for our move-out inspection on July 31st.
As for our Unaccompanied Baggage (UB), we scheduled that according to advice of many others who have moved OCONUS.
If you want to effectively take advantage of Unaccompanied Baggage, ship it LONG before your HHG (Household Goods). Don't do it the same day!
Our UB was scheduled for pick up July 6th; 18 days before our HHG.
UB goes by plane to your overseas location rather than travel by cargo ship like HHG does, but it still takes some time to get to your final destination.
Our UB arrived in Germany on August 10th!!! It made it before we did. Though it sat in storage for almost a month, it was ready for delivery when we got the keys to our new place on September 5th.
Our HHG? That shit didn't arrive until October! A month after moving in.
Le sigh.
Sure, we could have shipped our UB on the same day as our HHG, but there's really no telling if it would have arrived in time for our move in to the new house, defeating the purpose. For many folks who ship UB and HHG on the same day, they generally arrive around the same time. Murphy's Law, I suppose.
Better early than sorry!
Murphy's Law says so.
Helpful Tips for Unaccompanied Baggage:
This shipment is meant to help you deal with house life while waiting for your bigger shipment of household stuff.
You are only allotted so many pounds, which differs person to person.
What I packed in UB:
Towels/Wash cloths
Bed Linens
TV X 2
DVD/Blu-ray player
Xbox/Games/Dvds/Blu-Rays
Books
Kitchen Cooking Utensils
Can Opener
Silverware
Plastic Cups/Coffee Mugs
New Set of Pots and Pans
Juice pitchers
Tupperware
Baking dish/Cookie sheets
Coffee Brewer
A few lamps
Laundry Baskets X2
Hangars
New Pillows (still in plastic)
New shower curtain & Liner
New bath Mats
Husband's ASUs/shoes
Winter Apparel for entire family
Now the reason I mention that some stuff was new:
Since we still had to live in our stateside house for a few days after the movers would be taking everything (except what we'd fly with), I purposely bought new towels, sheets, bed sets, pots and pans, etc, to put in UB so that we could keep the old stuff in the house to live with. Once we vacated the house, we dropped off the old stuff at Goodwill (or the dump), and called it a day.
It was time for some newly updated towels, pillows, and pans, anyway!
The ONLY thing we could not fit in our luggage to take, but wanted to arrive quickly, was school supplies for the kids. I had heard that it sells out fast at our destination duty station, so we got in contact with someone we knew already stationed here, and asked to ship the supplies to his CMR, APO box. He didn't mind.
Crayons, glue, pencils, and junk were waiting for us when we got to our new Duty Station. Oh, and yes, the PX was fresh out of supplies when we arrived!
Things I Should Have/Could Have Put In UB:
Microwave
Rugs
Window Curtains
Cooking Spices
Home Decor Items
You live, or move, then you learn!
As for HHG, almost anything goes.
I was warned that ANYTHING flammable was a no-go, but my movers proved that to be wrong. They said it really depends on the individual moving company's policies, not the army's policies.
The list you get of No-Go items during your LEVY Brief is more so a guide.
My movers packed my perfume collection (which I was going to put in my check-in bag). They also packed non-perishable food items (cans only) and nail polishes galore.
They did not pack any aerosol products/liquids. Like spray paint, hairspray. Nor cleaning supplies, which I didn't assume they would.
We did have to sell off our washer and dryer, which was not a huge loss, but I WISH I DIDN'T sell my deep freezer!!! We were told at our stateside briefing that any big appliances were an absolute NOPE. So we sold the deep freezer first (after depleting our freezer stock due to the impending move), before the movers even came.
If I knew then what I know now, it's that you CAN bring a 110v freezer over here to Europe! And my movers would have gladly packed it up.
Thanks, Army!
Not.
Well, on July 28th, my movers were done packing and loading, and drove off into the sunset with our material possessions in a big truck!
And then we got to cleaning. Ick.
And after hiring a carpet cleaner, patching a few nail holes, and mowing the yard, we were ready for our final inspection on the morning of July 31st.
We passed with flying colors, receiving every penny of our security deposit back, and were even able to pick up the return check the next day.
We said goodbye to the house, and drove away to a Clarksville hotel without looking back.
Next Post:
Living In Hotels: The Bad and the Ugly.
There is no good.
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