You Can't Take It With You

Time marches on, and we are getting serious about packing. Though we have been in this place for seven years, we traditionally tended to move every few. Because of this, we have packing down to a science. We start a month or so before and pack one box a night of stuff that we don't need at the ready. Books, CDs, DvDs all go first. After that, lessor used barware and kitchen stuff, spare closet bits, and the like go. This time around it's a little different, because we actually have three pools of stuff. What we are packing up now are the items that we want to keep long-term, but don't need with us in the UK. A lot of the same early-packing stuff of tradition fits into this category, and it will go into a storage unit. The second batch is the everyday stuff that we are having shipped. The oddness here is that for insurance purposes we need to let the movers pack that. Weird. Like, super weird. While we are all about having burly men come lift our stuff, having them do the packing is very foreign to us. This also means that we can't really start packing up any of the 'important' stuff until the day of the move. The third batch is what will go into our suitcases. This is mainly clothing and a handful of convenience items. Because our temp housing is fully furnished and comes with dishes, linens, and kitchenwares we don't need to worry about that stuff. We will likely pack some cat stuff, to deal with them on the day of arrival (extra food, disposable litter pan, etc.)

The most entertaining part of the packing -- other than finding all those treasures we've packed away in the backs of closets -- is the rules on what can come into the UK. Most of these fall squarely into "duh" territory: Controlled drugs, firearms, counterfeit currency. Then there are the interesting ones. "Obscene materials" sounds legit (if a bit overly broad) until you find out that it specifically covers Horror Comics. Horror comics? Really? A quick web search shows that this is due to a law enacted in the 50s, then largely ignored. I know that there are plenty of these in the US as well (I think of them as "You can't marry your horse in Texas" laws) but it's always odd to come across them. I have already packed my few graphic novels anyway, so it won't effect me. Also disallowed is pornographic material "that can not be freely purchased in the UK." There is one part of me that wants to ask the internet "What kind of pornography is not available in the UK?", but I realize that that's a rabbit hole I don't want to enter. There are just things you can't unsee. Live animals also can't be shipped, but that's a whole 'nother process (and a whole 'nother post.)