Hello!
Today I'm going to write about the dreaded TMO. This was our first PCS and all I have ever heard about was how horrible TMO is. So I was not really looking forward to this part of the process. I was mentally preparing myself to have my stuff missing or broken. Luckily for me, I don't own any stuff that I would consider super valuable or irreplaceable. I figured if stuff gets broken, we'll just get new stuff.
So our TMO journey began by scheduling it. You can't schedule TMO unless you have hard copies of your orders which can be tricky for some. I felt like we waited forever to get hard copy orders and we were kind of cutting it close. But thankfully, we were able to schedule TMO for the dates we needed. I think we did it for 2 weeks later. It wasn't a big deal to get a date for them quickly. I believe my husband attended a brief where they explained how everything worked. Truthfully, I wish I could've went to that. Sometimes men don't know the right questions to ask when it comes to your home. More on that on my Unaccompanied Baggage post.
So there are 3 parts to your TMO move.
1. Household Goods - Furniture, the big stuff. Pretty much everything in your house that is not going in the next categories.
2. Unaccompanied Baggage - Anything you want there right away. This shipment is supposed to get there sooner than your household goods. You will have a specific weight limit on this so you have to pick and choose what is important for you. I will make a separate blog on this.
3. Storage - Anything that you feel you don't need to take with you but you still like to keep. For example, you don't need a washer and dryer when you move into base housing here in Okinawa, so you can choose to store those if you want. I also know of people who just have a ton of stuff and have to store some since the houses can be a lot smaller here in Okinawa. This category also includes cars since you are not allowed to bring your cars here.
I chose not to put anything in storage. We sold one of our vehicles and took the other one to my parent's house for them to maintain. I didn't like the idea of a car sitting in storage for 4 years. As far as our stuff, I chose to sell the stuff I wasn't gonna bring. My thinking was "Do I really want to store something for 4 years??" and "If I don't need it for 4 years, do I need it at all?" I'm the kind of person that hates to accumulate things. If I haven't used it in a while, it needs to go. So this brings me to some tips I have before TMO shows up in your door.
1. "Spring Clean" - Get rid of anything you don't need. I tried to start this process early on, but as the date got closer it got more and more overwhelming. First, get rid of stuff that you don't feel is useful to you anymore. Throw it out or donate it. Go through your clothes and get rid of anything you haven't worn in a while. Go through every closet and get rid of stuff that's been sitting there. You would be surprised how much junk one can accumulate over time. I was hauling stuff off the Airman's Attic constantly. And I'll admit, there was some stuff that just kept lingering around because I wasn't sure what to do with it. Be strong! If you are not sure, get rid of it! You want a fresh start in your new house, free of clutter.
2. Make the decision -- Is this coming with me? - A couple of days before the movers showed up, I went through the house asking "Is this coming to Okinawa? Yes - keep it there. No - needs to go now. At some point you have to make the final decision. They are showing up and will literally pack everything they see, so it's your job to make sure they only see what is going. I think I had the hardest time with this step. Like I said, little stuff just lingers and it's so hard. Is my McDonalds happy meal purple Minion coming with us? lol. I had to keep going over the house and getting rid of stuff until I felt like they can come today and take everything.
3. Organize - This step was more for me. New house, new start. And I wanna start with an organized house. I bought a bunch of different sized tubs and started storing some of our stuff. Depending on your movers, they may or may not let you pack stuff on your own. But I figured they could just put my tub in a box anyway (which they did). I started with my Christmas decorations. I wanted more legit storage for them than cardboard boxes. So I neatly packed those in big tubs. Then I stored some of my son's old baby clothes in small tubs. I also started packing some of the stuff on his shelves since those were special to me. I then packed some tubs with stuff I didn't necessarily want the movers touching, like my bras and breastfeeding supplies. So just organize what you can and pack what you don't want them to touch.
4. Separate and pick a special room to keep stuff - I chose a couple of rooms in my house that I labeled as "Do not pack." One was my son's room where I kept stuff I wanted in our unaccompanied baggage and our luggage/clothes that we were taking with us. You might have to switch it out depending on how your shipments were scheduled In our case, household goods picked up our stuff first. I also didn't let them pack the laundry room. I kept our cleaning stuff there and just last minute stuff we might need. It is really nice having designated rooms where you can throw stuff and know they won't go in there. It also saves you a headache from the last minute stuff you might find going through your house for the millionth time. If you were putting stuff in storage, same method applies. Separate your stuff depending on what shipments they are going into and label rooms.
I gotta admit. This was a bit stressful. But the earlier you start, the easier it will be. Of course, if all else fails, just let them in and let them pack. But I found that being a little organized helped me feel better about the whole thing. And trust me, it definitely helps once your stuff arrives. That is a stressful process on its own. I hope you found this helpful on how to get ready for TMO. I will be making a couple more parts on my TMO experience as it is just so much to blog about.
Until then... Thanks for reading :-)
