Shipping to Bush Alaska

Confession time: I’m a lazy mover. It’s a sad fact, considering how many places I’ve lived. I tend to get rid of stuff rather than carry it somewhere new. (I even wrote a post about what I won’t be packing.) And worst of all, I tend to pack things in garbage bags rather than boxes, with little to no packing material.

So, moving somewhere only accessible by tiny plane is a challenge for someone like me. Furniture will be provided, but everything else must be mailed in. And, since it will be hard to replace most items once I get there, I want to make sure nothing breaks. I mailed my first 18-gallon tote this past weekend, and this was the process…

First things first, heed this warning.

It may be tempting to mail your children rather than splurge on their airline tickets, but this is not advisable.

Next, choose your packing material. For this tote, I used socks, oatmeal, and dry beans.

Fill the tote.

Then have a friend drill holes in the tote, secure with zip ties, and add Gorilla tape. Thanks, Marc! (Fun fact: I had my Skype job interview in this very tire store. It was fun explaining to the interviewer why there was a fish on the wall behind me.)

Finally, write your school address on the lid. Also make sure to number your totes and keep an inventory of what’s in each one. Tote 1 contains a combination of hard and soft materials:

• scarves
• towels
• sweaters
• jewelry
• kitchen utensils
• Pyrex
• Microcooker
• glasses
• oatmeal
• beans
• socks

The lady at the Post Office didn’t look at me too strangely when I brought in this tote. She did, however, charge me $62 to ship 38 pounds at the slowest possible rate. Yuck! Thankfully, I’m only planning to send about five of these.

Please pray that everything arrives, intact, by August 6th!

 

What I Won’t Be Packing

It’s normal to purge your “stuff” before a move, but the purge before a move to rural Alaska may be more extreme. There are a few things that most movers would keep, but I will be getting rid of…

My Car

All roads lead to Rome, but no roads lead to Pilot Station. So, I won’t have much use for a car! I’ll be selling Sylvia Plath (my 2009 Honda Civic) at the end of July. I might replace her with a snowmachine or ATV when I get to Alaska. I think I’ll name it Desdemona.

Furniture

There’s not a lot of real estate or rental property in rural Alaska, and air delivering large items, such as furniture, gets expensive. Therefore, most rural Alaska districts lease furnished housing to their teachers. According to my district’s website, housing is “furnished with sofa, recliner, dining table/chairs, box spring/mattress, dresser, running water” — that’s not always the case in Alaska! — “washer/dryer, refrigerator/stove, and freezer.” So, I won’t be bringing my own.

Pots and Pans

Have you noticed how awkward it is to pack these items? All those concave surfaces and stick-out handles! I’ll be sending my stuff to Alaska in 18-gallon totes. Each costs about $50 to ship USPS, uninsured. It would be wasteful to spend that kind of money on a box that’s half empty because it holds oddly shaped things.

This is a matter of personal preference; I’m sure many teachers ship their pots and pans. But mine are all hand-me-downs; it’s the curse of those of us who didn’t get married, and thus, never had a wedding shower (LOL)! I can get a new set with free shipping for the same price as shipping my old set.

Bedding

This is mostly a matter of timing. I have a few options for getting my stuff to Alaska:

1. Ship it six weeks ahead so it’s ready when I get there.
2. Ship it less than six weeks ahead and wait for it to arrive.
3. Bring it with me on the plane.

The problem with bedding is…I can’t really go six weeks (or a day) without it, but I also don’t want to waste precious luggage space with the bulky stuff. So I’ll have new bedding shipped to the village ahead of me.

PRETTY!!!

That’s what I’m getting rid of! Anyone wanna take some stuff off my hands? Anyone wanna BUY MY CAR?!

…No?

Well, maybe next time I’ll post about what I will be bringing to Alaska.