PACKING TO MOVE ABROAD FOR A YEAR

It’s officially one more sleep until I embark on the adventure of a lifetime: moving to China for 12 months! A whole year. Pretty much the entirety of 2020. Ahhhh!

So with a glass of wine in hand, I thought I’d hop on here to give you nosey buggers a peek into my suitcase.

As you can imagine, packing for a year abroad in an entirely different (hotter/humid) climate has been a mammoth task, and daunting at times. I also only have one piece of checked luggage, so I’ve been conscious of over-packing! The last week or so I’ve been laying things out on my parents’ dining room table and adding items of clothing, toiletries, and random little trinkets daily.

1. Packing cubes for clothes

One of the best Christmas presents I received this year was a set of packing cubes in a range of sizes. They’ve been so helpful for dividing up and organising my clothes and restricting how much I can take. With my clothes, I have 3 of these cubes and I’ve rolled everything up so they fit, and in a couple I actually have spare room!

2. Small personal possessions

In another I packed some little wall hangings I was gifted, photos of my friends and family and a beautiful painting my sister made of our star signs. These are all completely unnecessary but they’ll make my new apartment in China more cosy and homely, so I thought if I have room in my case then why not!

3. Toiletries

When it came to packing toiletries I may have gone a tiny bit overboard, as I’ve included extra toothpaste, some essential first aid (paracetamol, ibuprofen, plasters, sun cream, vitamins etc) and stocked up on feminine hygiene products. All of these will be available but they can be difficult to find and more expensive in Asia, so I thought I’d kit myself out so I don’t have to worry about them if I fall ill during my first few weeks. I also made up for these extras by packing only 5 items of makeup, ‘cause I will 100% sweat those off within 10 minutes of stepping outside.

4. Hand luggage

Packing my hand luggage was far easier. I can technically take a cabin bag and a handbag, but I’ve managed to fit everything I need into one decent sized backpack which I’ll then use for weekends away while I’m in China (plus I fit my handbag into my main luggage)! In this I’ve packed my laptop, chargers, kindle, purse, passport, small cosmetics bag with toothbrush, hand sanitiser and lip balm, and my reusable water bottle which is currently empty to get through security but I’ll fill it up for the plane journey.

While this hasn’t been a particularly helpful ‘guide’ for anything, nor a fun travel story, I hope you enjoyed this insight into the beginning of my China adventure! Next time I post will be from 6,000 miles away, so I hope you all have a good January and I’ll be back with an update soon. Follow along on my Instagram for story updates @livedwardss !