Living in Cebu

In early 2006 I will be moving to Cebu, Philippines with the entire family.

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Packing for the Philippines

Most people moving to the Philippines seem to pack up most of their worldly possessions and ship them in a container the Philippines. I have given this a great deal of thought and decided that there really is not much I want to bring over.

I have been evaluating our home contents and have come to the conclusion that most people overvalue the stuff they have accumulated. Think about your own contents. What would you get for them in a fire sale? What is the real replacement cost?

It is surprising how cheaply you can replace most of your stuff. Last year I setup an entire apartment in Manila from scratch. Things are even cheaper in the Philippines.

I have gone through the entire house. I have decided that most of our stuff can be replaced in time and will be given away or otherwise disposed of.

There are a few nice pieces that I will store. A large round Georgian table 300 hundreds plus years old and a very large and very ornate wall unit also very old are the two most significant items. There are also a few small antiques and other unusual things.

There is also a modern leather lounge we purchased two years ago. We may try to store that also but at the end of the day it is replaceable. The antiques are not.

I certainly would not consider taking anything of value to the Philippines. When we live in the Philippines we will be able to walk away from everything if need be. We will not have the concern of potentially loosing all our valuable possessions.

The only stuff we will take are clothing and other personal items. Even things like everyone’s computer (we have six in the house) will be disassembled and only the main components taken such as the motherboards, hard disks and any special card. Things like the screens, case, keyboards etc. can be purchased in the Philippines.

We will probably send what we need over in a few balicbayan boxes.

Posted: Monday 30th May 2005, 11:27 AM