Advice needed for moving to Hawaii

[DebbyDiver]

When you land and have rested a bit please come to dinner, we'll make it early so you get home to the doggies.

:kiss2:

One thing about divers...you can go anywhere as a total newcomer but if you are a diver...you always have instant friends.

---------- Post added at 02:01 AM ---------- Previous post was at 01:58 AM ----------

CDs, records, tapes, hard drives, games, any printed material, it covers a lot of ground. I hope you'll join us too ... but then you're only a block away.

Interesting post...I digitized my photo and music collections before I moved to STX last year. Put them on my computer that I shipped here, and also put them on my Digital Passport. Now, Tom wants me to digitize his music and he already has a home for the CDs (and yes he also has an ext HD for backup). But he is totally resisting my digitizing his photo albums. Never mind that they are already moldy from decades in America's Third World. Ah well, they are his pics, he'll pay to ship them, not my problem, mon.

 

[knotical]

...I hope you'll join us too ... but then you're only a block away.

Thank you! I'd really enjoy that. And we'll surely meet before that, as well. We expect (hope) to close next week.

 

[gkndivebum]

Books are really cheap to ship. Media rate. The one thing I really, really regret is getting rid of most of my library. The take a while, if you find that you don't want them when you're here, there are some really good used book stores that will buy/trade for more than you pay for shipping.

Ooof - why did you do that? When Vicky and I sold our house in San Diego and moved here full time, we had two fully furnished houses to reduce to one. Lots of things got donated/sold in both places, but the books weren't among them. While I have a Kindle and like it, I have a very strong affection for paper (and hardback books in particular).

 

[DebbyDiver]

Like I said, retired librarian. Don't have much affection for books. Weird, I know. I dont' miss even one of the couple of hundred books I sold or donated when I moved here. I think I brought 30 with me and I'm leaving with 12-15...all reference, about diving or dogs.

---------- Post added at 02:15 AM ---------- Previous post was at 02:13 AM ----------

(Before anyone gets the "retired librarian" stereotype into their heads I want to say that I'm also a retired dive instructor, retired comedienne, retired rock n roll singer, AND I retired last year at 55...people here all think I'm only 45...work ft here as a webmaster in order to have health insurance...when you meet me you will not think stereotyped "retired librarian", LMAO!)

 

[Thalassamania]

Eh ... a wife with a thing about clutter, which includes, in her mind, the bookcases that lined most every room in our house. It was great insulation, at least.

 

[DebbyDiver]

Eh ... a wife with a thing about clutter, which includes, in her mind, the bookcases that lined most every room in our house. It was great insulation, at least.

It's the man in our family who likes clutter...until he got the Come To Jesus quote on shipping lots of useless old crap from an island to the mainland to the other side of the mainland to another island...now he's giving everything away, gotta love it. :snicker:

 

[DiveMaven]

Keep in mind that if you ship your books via USPS (or anything for that matter), it could literally take MONTHS to arrive in Hawaii. We shipped some picture frames last year to Maui and the packages took 3 months to arrive!! Also, if you ship anything you may want to replace, buy insurance and at least you'll have some cash if you don't have your stuff.

I'm very envious of your new adventure and can't wait to hear how you like Hawaii.

 

[DebbyDiver]

Thanks DiveMaven, we are aware of that; and we couldn't imagine shipping anything of value without using insurance. In fact, I ordered a large package from a Hawaii business last year, paid extra for priority mail, and waited six weeks for it. And here we thought shipping times from the Virgin Islands where we live now are bad! Things we absolutely need (week's worth of clothing, dive gear, dogs' needs) are coming with us on the plane; we're figuring 2-3 suitcases each should be plenty.

We're actually not shipping much to ourselves. We are excited about a fresh start in life, free of clutter that we don't need. The house is fully furnished and if we really need something, we know we can buy it there. My role models are another SB family who moved to Panama last year as missionaries, they got rid of everything and only took one suitcase each. I've yet to hear them say "oh, I wish I'd brought ____" I wish I could be like them! I think I'll be shipping half a dozen boxes to myself. That's way too much, maybe I can cut it down between now and then. It's just...stuff!

We're more concerned about shipping times to the mainland after we settle, as we have an internet business. We're looking into having a company on the mainland drop shipping our non-custom items. We currently use flat rate priority boxes and they get to the mainland in two to five days. Do any of you have experience with shipping TO the mainland? And how about to other countries? We probably have one international customer a month and so far they receive things fairly quickly.

 

[justleesa]

If the time ever comes to move, books will be our down fall!

 

[Thalassamania]

Flat rate USPS boxes to the mainland seem to work just fine.