Here are other things I’ve learned

1. Depending on where you’re moving from and to, you may not want to ship appliances or electronics. A U.S. DVD player, for example, won’t work (without a transformer) in most Latin American or European countries. If you still have a DVD collection and don’t want to part with it, the safest thing is to buy a zone-free DVD player in your new country of residence once you arrive.

2. On the other hand, if you’re moving from the States to Central America, you may find it much cheaper to buy big U.S.-standard appliances and take them with you. A Maytag washing machine will cost considerably more in Nicaragua than in Florida.

3. Beds are complicated. In Ireland, for example, they don’t have twin or queen-sized beds. They have three-foot-, five-foot-, and six-foot-wide beds. In France, you find 90-, 140-, and 160-centimeter beds. American twin-sized sheets don’t quite fit an Irish three-foot bed. A five-foot Irish mattress will not fit in an American queen-sized bed (trust me on this). The safe and sensible thing is to buy beds and bedding when you arrive in your new country of residence.

4. If you ship a container, buy the insurance. The mirror-fronted door of our 200-year-old armoire slid from the unpacker’s hands smack onto the cobblestones of the courtyard upon delivery in Paris… then that same unpacker banged one table into another, chipping away the carved rosewood edge. Luckily, the repairs to both pieces were covered by the insurance we’d opted for.

5. Your exemption from import duty (a benefit of most permanent residency visas) is most easily processed if you ship everything in one go. In Panama, for example, it’s possible to take your exemption over a series of maybe two deliveries, but it’s more complicated.

6. Note that, thanks to ever more restrictive airline luggage restrictions, it’s more challenging today than ever to carry much more than clothing with you on the plane.

7. Research what you won’t be able to replace in your new locale. If you want to wear haute couture in Cuenca, Ecuador, you’ll have to bring it with you. Lief can’t shop for clothes of any description in most of Central America. He’s too tall.

8. Your thinking about what to take with you, what to leave behind, and what to sell off or give away is less straightforward if you’re moving with children. This was the reason I invested in having Mailboxes Etc. ship boxes full of toys, books, knickknacks, and keepsakes from Baltimore to Waterford—because I wanted my then 8-year-old daughter to feel as comfortable as possible in her new foreign home.

In addition to your personal and household belongings, you have two other big possessions to figure out what to do with—your home (if you own one) and your car. I’ll help you think through what to do with your home later in the program (when we consider the idea of retiring overseas part-time.. .as the decision to keep or to sell your current residence comes most importantly into play if you’re considering a part-time go-overseas plan.

Meantime, tomorrow, I’ll help you answer the question of whether or not you should bring your car with you wherever you relocate.