PCS season is full of changes and to-do lists. One list you may not realize you need to have is the list of things to toss before you move and what to buy once you arrive at your new duty station. Reduce, reusing and recycling is nice to do with each move, especially to save the budget as moving is not cheap, but not everything can be moved. If you are moving yourselves – save yourself the time and space in your moving boxes by not packing these things. If you are having the government pay for and coordinate the move, save yourself the hassle of some these gross and weird things from being packed in a box with your dry pantry goods – trust me, it has happened.
Let’s go to the rooms with the biggest offenders. What things do you need to toss the last day in your previous duty station, and just replace when you move into your new home?
Bathroom
The bathroom is a key room to set up when you arrive at your new post. It is a room where an overflowing toilet can do some real damage – so having all the necessary items just makes sense. But you also don’t want a dirty and wet toilet brush that was just used to the clean the toilet, in with your towels or kitchen spices. Here is the down and dirty on what to replace in the bathroom:
- Toilet bowl brush – as said above – it just makes sense. And you will want to have it for one final cleaning in your old home before moving into your new one.
- Plunger – Murphy is no friend of PCSing – he calls when you are ready to move out of your home. Prevent an overflowing toilet by keeping your plunger to the last minute, and getting a new one at your new home. No need to bring those across state lines.
- Shower curtain liners – if you are moving into a home where a shower curtain is needed, those thin, clear plastic liners that you spent a few dollars on a Target (pronounced: Tar-jay )do not need to come with you in your moving boxes. Keep them on your shower until the last minute so you can take showers for as long as you are in the home. It’s worth the few dollars to replace them on your next Target run in your new home.
- Bath mats – This is an iffy one – if you are using your shower until the last day, and your boxes leave before then, you don’t want to be without a bathmat and you also don’t want to pack a wet one. If you have a bathmat you love, consider packing it while it is dry and using an old towel for your bath mat.
- Trashcan – Unless your trashcan was fully protected by a plastic bag, all that trash from the bathroom…yuck.
Kitchen
- Trashcan– Do you want to bring the coffee grounds and banana peel that didn’t quite make it into the trash bag fully? Nope. And just pulling the trashcan off limits should prevent packers from packing the bag of trash into a box, right?
- Mop– Again with packing the wet things! If you are using your mop to clean your old home then you don’t want it packed, but you also don’t want it packed wet. Just save yourself the trouble and get the commissary special mop – it’s under $10 and saves you the headache of finding a potentially moldy mop on the other end.
- Sponges– Oy! With the poodles already! Okay..you get the point though – wet things – bad to pack. Just toss the $1 sponge and get a new one – don’t try to dry it out to pack. And whatever you do, don’t pack a moist sponge and then pack into a plastic baggie unless you want to see a really colorful and crazy science experiment on the other end.
- Broom– One tool you will want to clean the house one last time before you move out, and if packed in a dark box for a few months may attract all sorts of critters. Best to just pass that broom onto an incoming neighbor and get yourself a new one at the next duty station.
PCSing for everyone is a little bit different. Overall, military families want to make moving as smooth as possible. That often means reusing something from a former home in a newer home into a new way. While that is commendable – some items just shouldn’t make the move. Some to toss, some to pass onto an incoming neighbor – and just purchase or get on the free groups at the next duty station.
What things do you purge and purchase again when you PCS?
I am a retired US Air Force Chief Master Sergeant (E-9) with over 30-years on active duty. I have pretty much seen it all; not everything, but enough to offer some advice…
One thing that always bothered me was a newcomer to the unit who thought that the old way they did something at their last base/post/ship was the only way it should be done. Apparently, they thought they were smarter than all the folks who came before them. My take on this is that they just did not want to learn the way things were being done at their new duty station nor the reasons why.
I would sit every newcomer down for an in brief, both to learn about them (their strengths and weaknesses…) as well as present a full briefing on the unit’s mission. I was always sure to explain the things are being done a certain way for specific reasons. I would explain that I welcomed all inputs they had to improve our methods, but only after they learned our methods and procedures, and the reasons why.
So the one piece of advice I would add is to leave that “holier-than-thou ” attitude at their last base/post/ship and be humble enough to accept the fact that a less senior person (lower rank) just might be a bit smarter than they are because they know what to do and why.
Just saying…