Its amazing what you can live without.
Our container is only now on its way to Durban harbour to be loaded onto the ship that will bring it to us in Israel. Once its on the ship it will be 45 days on the water and then who knows how long until it is unloaded and we can claim it and have it delivered to our apartment.
In the mean time we are living with the bare minimum. I insisted on getting beds before we arrived and my brother helped by going to IKEA and organising them. We flew with linen, duvets and pillows in our luggage. And other than our clothes, that was it.
The first thing I did when we arrived was buy a kettle and a toaster. We decided that since we had our entire kitchen coming we would buy plastic/paper plates and cutlery and plastic cups instead of ‘real’ cutlery and crockery. That lasted about a week. We started by buying 4 cereal bowls. That led to proper plates ({Fox Home}, similar to Mr P had a sale – bonus) and proper glasses. We also picked up a pot and a pan (1 each for meat and milk), although I have been using disposable foil roasting dishes a lot, so much easier than washing up. Oh, and coffee cups, we had to have proper coffee cups. I am holding out on the cutlery though, firstly I have a huge amount of ‘real’ cutlery coming and secondly we have a huge amount of plastic stuff since we bought in bulk.
The other kitchen thing we don’t have is a fridge. I have shipped our SMEG fridge and SMEG freezer and we were going to borrow someones bar fridge until ours arrived but that fell through. So far we have managed without a fridge. How you ask? Its winter here and our counters are some kind of stone so they are cold. Leaving the marge, humus, juice and milk on the counter has worked pretty well. So far nothing has really gone off.
That being said, having a fridge would make life easier so we went to a ‘strip mall’ type place yesterday and bought a small bar fridge. It get delivered this afternoon. It will definitely make things easier, like keeping leftovers fresh and we can buy bigger bottles of milk. It also has a small freezer compartment which will help keep things like fishfingers and chicken nuggets for the kids. It will also free up my counter space which is driving me a bit nuts since there is stuff everywhere!
Other things we are doing pretty well without is a TV and lounge furniture. We watch series on Paul’s laptop and the kids are either playing on the old iPad or actually playing outdoors at the park and haven’t asked for the TV once! I know Paul would like to buy a TV but I think its pretty much way down on the list of things we MUST buy.
Oh yes, laundry…
Thank heavens my bestie {Roro} lives a few blocks away and has graciously allowed us to hog her washing machine. Im not sure what I would have done without her. A few days ago I hand washed all the socks and undies and I have a newfound respect for all those people that don’t have access to a washing machine. My back ached, my hands cramped and nothing was really as clean as it gets in a washing machine. I have to admit that a washing machine is a luxury that I cannot do without!
All in all we are managing but I cannot wait for MY things to arrive and make life just that little bit easier.
I actually said to Jon last week after reading your previous post, “YOU CAN NEVER FORCE ME TO USE PAPER PLATES AND CUTLERY!” which gave him quite a fright as he’d been kind of asleep in bed next to me. I’m glad you gave up on that idea, was very concerned for you.
xoxox
Hahaha! Ja, Im not sure what I was thinking. Two months minimum before our stuff arrives, using throw away stuff until then, wasnt going to happen.
Oh I agree with the proper coffee cups. Just so unfair to such a decadent and classy drink 🙂
Shoowee… I honestly think having to wait that long to have my house kitted out may put me off moving!
Strongs!
Its difficult, especially all my kitchen stuff, but we will get there.
Ah, these posts of yours throw me right back into those early days in Dubai. It’s a very similar setup there to yours now. The buildings look similar, the parks are similar (and equally abundant!) And we also had pretty much nothing when we arrived. (We sold everything before leaving SA, so we had to build up again from scratch.)
We spent the first 2 months in an apartment hotel before we found an apartment to move into.
The first thing we bought was two cots for the babies (Megan and Michael were 2 and 1 at the time) and a tandem stroller (one seat in front of the other). David had made a friend who gave us a queen size mattress to sleep on and an old washing machine. And David’s boss bought us a fridge as a housewarming gift about 2 months later. I can’t actually remember how we managed without one until then!
It sounds as though you’re having an awesome adventure – congrats on the new job, too! I’m sure you guys are going to have a great life there. 🙂