Moving Overseas: Why We Have a Year’s Worth of Food in A Closet

No, we are not doomsday preppers and we’re not hoarders. Yet, we find ourselves with a closet that looks more like a Costco aisle filled food than your everyday clothes closet. Why you ask? As part of D’s job and moving overseas to the Democratic Republic of the Congo , we get a shipment of up to 2500 pounds of consumables to send to ourselves. Think things like your favorite brand of almond butter or Trader Joe’s pumpkin pie spice or, in our case, diapers to last us a year. Initially, I thought sending diapers and wipes was silly and then I tried reusable diapers and quickly came to the conclusion that it is not for me. Apparently, one pack of imported diapers costs $100 in the DRC so, I now find myself calculating how many diapers my baby uses in a day and doing the math to determine when he’ll be in the next size of diaper. This is not what I envisioned when I earned my Master’s Degree in Public Health, but here we are.

Packing Chaos

Back to packing, imagine the challenge of trying to plan for 1 year of food, clothing, and toys for two tiny humans. Most days, I can’t remember what I ate for breakfast and am barely able to plan for the next day.

So how do you pack for a year and save some semblance of your sanity?Someone gave me the great advice to think about what I touch in a day and pack the items that we use most frequently. Turns out, we use a lot of things as a family. Here’s a peek into what’s filling our closet full of consumables.

1. Diapers and Wipes: Diapers, diapers, diapers.
2. Snacks:  Mostly lots of kids snacks although I worry that buying 72 packs of Trader Joes dehydrated berries (my kids’ current favorite snack) is a horrible ideas. 5 year olds are fickle and what I was thought his favorite food yesterday is on his “I hate that!” list today.
3. Favorite Pantry Staples: Almond butter, Trader Joe’s everything-but-the-bagel seasoning, and (let’s be honest) mac ‘n cheese—because some nights, Kraft just hits the spot.
4. Kid-Friendly Medicine:  Packing all the children’s medicines I can imagine needing so we can have a mini pharmacy at home: fever reducers, allergy meds, bandaids in all shapes and sizes, etc.
5. Non Toxic Cleaning Supplies: Over the past few years, I’ve transitioned our household cleaning supplies to ones with fewer chemicals and that are travel friendly. For instance, this is the only laundry detergent I use now. It’s in sheets and very lightweight and easy to pack.
6. Speciality Food Items: There are a few things we love and I think will make the hard days of living in a new country a bit more bearable- boba tea, my favorite Japanese curry, s’mores items, to name a few.

Despite the packing process, there were a few lessons that stuck with me and I’ll come back to this when we’re in the midst of our next pack out:

1. Start somewhere. When I would look at my long list of items to pack or wake up at 2am and have a moment of moving anxiety, I’d remind myself to take a breath and start small. I’m sure I’m overpacking some things (will we eat 8 jars of Trader Joes green goddess seasoning- probably?!) But at the end of the day, we’ll be fine.
2. Involve the kids. Letting my kid pick a few favorite snacks to bulk buy made them feel like they were part of the adventure of consumables shopping. But, the thrill of buying whatever his 5 year old heart desires does come with limits, otherwise we’d have a closet full of 10 lb bags of chocolate chips
3. Accept the chaos. Moving across the world with two young children is never going to be a perfectly smooth process. I’ve already realized I’ve forgotten to pack some consumables items we wanted for Japanese New Year, but I know it will be fine and it will hopefully force us to be creative and find some new cooking ingredients.

C’s closet that once held clothes and toys has become our consumables storage area.

Final Thoughts on Moving Overseas with Kids

Moving overseas to a hardship post with two young children is not for everyone, I know. It’s a constant balance of managing logistics, planning what you’ll need for the next year, and trying to maintain a sense of normalcy for the kids. I’m hopeful that one day, we’ll look back and realize how worth it the messiness is in order to experience this life overseas. Until then, you’ll find me triple-checking our packing list and wondering why in the world we’re moving to the DRC.