Packing up: How to take everything home after living abroad

It’s time to go home. But it seems that you have more stuff than when you arrived. So what’s the best way to pack up your life abroad and head back home?

You’ve been an expat for a while now and in that time you’ve built quite the life for yourself. You’ve bought clothes and souvenirs; you’ve collected tickets and gifts; you’ve splurged on home comforts and big-money items. At this point, you’re basically a dragon with a hoard of treasure that you’ve managed to accumulate. But home beckons and, with it, the challenge of transporting all your worldly possessions across the globe. Do you throw everything away and venture to your home country with just the clothes on your back? Or do you try and box everything up and mail it home so that it’s there waiting for you when you return? It’s a shame to have to say goodbye to reminders of your life abroad. However, trying to take it all home can be costly. So how declutter your life effectively and move home with the least amount of hassle? 

Moving home vs moving abroad

When you left your home country to start your new life as an expat, you had to think critically about what items you’d need to take with you out of your huge selection of clothes and items. Maybe you were aware that it’d be challenging to find jeans in your size in the country you were moving to, so you packed more of those. Perhaps you were worried about getting hold of your favourite skincare brand in your new country and so you bought a large supply in your luggage. You sifted through your possessions, took what you needed and left what you didn’t. (If you’re still deciding what to take, look here). But now you’re returning home and you’re discovering that the packing process is subtly different from what you’ve experienced before. Here are four reasons why packing to go and packing to return are different:

1. You’re more familiar with the products available to you back home. 

The benefit of growing up in the country you’re returning to is that you have a lay of the land. You know what products you like and what you’ll be able to get your hands on. You might have been more uncertain when you left to move abroad, leading to over-packing or under-packing. I, for example, didn’t need to bring the work slippers I’d carefully selected before going to Korea. In the end, the pair I bought in the UK weren’t appropriate (and not comfy). Packing too little probably won’t be a problem on your radar when returning home.

2. You might already have possessions that you left back home. 

If you know you’ve left a whole wardrobe back in your country of origin, you can be more cutthroat with the things you throw out when packing to return home; however, when you were packing to leave your home country you had to make sure you had all the necessities. This difference means you can worry less about the basics when going home. 

3. It all has to go. 

You might not be able to leave anything when you plan to return home, so it’s either got to go with you or be thrown away. You likely don’t have a permanent home in the country you’ve been living in as an expat and unless you want to leave everything in storage for some unknown length of time, you’ll have to say goodbye to some things.

Packing to live abroad was filled with uncertainty and opportunity. Packing to go home is more familiar but somehow more final. This means the choices you make with your packing at the end of your expat journey can be more difficult. You’ll have to think deeply about what you need and what you can part with forever. Still having some trouble with figuring out what to bring home? Here are five easy steps to follow.

How to pack up to go home

1. Find out your luggage restrictions

An advantage of booking your ticket home early on is not only that this increases your chance of cheaper prices but also the fact that you’ll know your luggage restrictions in good time (and you can always check out the TSA website for the latest updates on luggage rules). For a long-haul flight, you’ll usually have at least one check-in suitcase as well as one piece of cabin luggage. For most of the flights I’ve been on this equates to around 23 kg of luggage in total. However, every airline is different and it’s important that you measure your suitcases carefully to avoid disappointment and stress on check-in day. With these figures in mind, you can think carefully about whether you’ll need to buy more luggage from the airline or whether you might need to get rid of some of your heavier items. Alternatively, you might even consider a different route home if this is viable, as you might be able to bring more home for a cheaper price. 

2. Box up and send heavy items in advance

You’ve bought your plane ticket and worked out how much luggage you’re allowed to bring, but it still isn’t enough. Plus, the thought of trying to lug two or more suitcases to the airport sounds very unappealing. How about boxing some bits up and sending them via post? I found that this method very helpful for some of the chunky items that I wanted to bring home like albums and picture frames. You can choose to send boxes by air or sea, with boats usually being the cheaper but more time-consuming option. Make sure to send your boxes in plenty of time so that they arrive home before or at the same time as you. 

3. Sort out your wardrobe

Clothes are going to take up the majority of your space. And if you’ve lived away from home for some time, it’s very likely that you’ve filled up your wardrobe with frocks from every season. This can make packing challenging as winter coats and jumpers can take up a large percentage of your luggage capacity. Therefore, sort out your wardrobe in good time and think very carefully about the climate you’ll be returning to. If your home is in a warmer country, you probably won’t need that thick jacket so you can consider donating or selling instead. 

4. Make a sell or throw pile 

From the pieces in your wardrobe and knickknacks lying around your room, make a to-go pile. Don’t sort out your stuff and immediately throw it all away – you might end up missing some of the pieces you choose to get rid of. Instead, organise your possessions in good time and leave this heap in the corner of your room for a while. If you find that you end up using anything from the pile, you might want to think about keeping and packing these items. The things you don’t touch in the pile can be disposed of close to when you leave. 

5. Get ready to go

A week or two before you’re due to depart, take one final look around your living space. If it’s feeling a little emptier, you’ve done your job right and you’re ready to head home. Hopefully, by this point, you’ll have your suitcases on standby and it’ll be a matter of chucking everything in a bag and heading to the airport. Do one final scan of your room before you leave – the last thing you want to do is forget anything in the haze of the return journey. Now catch that flight.

This step-by-step should give you some clarity on what you should focus on when you start preparing to go home. It can be overwhelming at first, but break it down and you’ll be packed in no time. If it’s still looking like a bit of a chore at this point, try applying these three helpful tips.

Top tips

1. Plan in advance

Don’t leave your packing until the week before. Don’t leave it until the month before either. Once you know the time frame for your return home, start to think about how you’re going to transport all your stuff. Having ample time to prepare means that you won’t be caught short. Imagine being a few days away from your flight home and realising you need to buy another suitcase or getting to the week before you leave and finding out that you misjudged the weight of all your possessions. You don’t need or want that kind of stress so make sure you prepare in plenty of time. 

2. Leave some wiggle room in your suitcase

Your suitcase is packed to the brim and over-spilling with all your clothes and items. Then you remember you need to squeeze in that gift that you planned to buy for your aunt. And there are also the last-minute snacks that you want to bring home for everyone to try. Plus all the extra makeup that you thought you’d stock up on while you can buy it easily in another country. One thing leads to another and you realise you didn’t leave yourself space for any of these last-minute purchases. Give yourself some leeway in your luggage so that you’re not crushing all your gifts and excess items when you journey back home. 

3. Packing test run

Practice makes perfect. Do a packing test run. Fill your suitcase and give the weight a measure to get a rough idea of whether you’re on track. Doing this trial run will help you to assess how best to fit all your items in your suitcase – should shoes go in first or should you stuff that big winter coat in beforehand? Do you need to buy compression bags for your clothes or will it all fit snugly without? Only doing a test run will tell you these details, and it’ll save time when you come to the actual packing. 

Perfect packing…

You should be an old hand at this packing malarkey after sorting out all your stuff to travel abroad in the first place. Yet somehow that doesn’t make packing to go home any easier. The decisions you make seem so absolute and it’s really difficult to part with items that have helped to shape your life while living abroad. Nonetheless, it’s time to go and some choices have to be made. To make the packing process a little easier follow these helpful tips: pack early, don’t be afraid to send things ahead and consider the location you’ll be returning to. If you’re methodical and prompt you can focus on enjoying your final moments as an expat rather than stressing about the return journey. Take it from someone who’s going through this packing process right now – break it down and get it done.