Soft Orders, What To Do?

Clean. Organize. Purge

Your spouse has come home and told you a possible PCS is in the future. You are excited and apprehensive. You don't know where to start to prepare your family and your house for a first time move or your 3rd, 4th, 5th move. Regardless, here are some things I did when our soft orders came around.

CLEAN

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I think one of the first important steps of any move, whether it's for the military or not, is to clean your living space. Remember you do not have to do this step alone. All along this process you should be going through and sharing the responsibilities with your spouse and children. Go through each room and clean, then clean some more. The next step will be far easier to do if your house is spotless. Have fun while doing it, too. Put on some music and just spend the day finding ways to make such a chore far more lively and entertaining.

ORGANIZE & PURGE

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This is my second moving tip. You may be asking why do I have to organize now? Shouldn't I wait to organize until I have definite orders on where I/we are going? It's better to do what you can now, so when hard order are cut. You are not running around like a chicken with its head cut off. I wished I had organized more before our orders finally came in. It would have made my life much less stressful. I would have felt more prepared, but sadly I didn't do as much as I could. My husband and I procrastinated, and we ended up doing all this the week before out pack out date came for our HHG to be picked up. We were so tired and stressed. It was definitely not a good idea to do that. Learn from my mistake and don't wait to organize.

Purging your home is also an option you have when you're moving. I think one of the benefits of constantly uprooting your life is that it gives you the chance to go through your belongings and get rid of items you no longer use or need. It actually became quite therapeutic for me,

which I did not expect, because I tend to hold on to things due to my emotional nature. I am sentimental about items, but my rule was if I have not used it in a year or more I throw it away.

You do not have to literally throw items away. When we were organizing our house, we designated bags for donation, keep, or throw. We donated a lot of stuff that were still in good condition such as clothes, accessories, shoes, and other items. This step is really up to your preference. Use your judgment on how to organize your items so you can purge and downsize. If you have a big family, getting rid of unused items also allows you to meet your allotted weight allowance. This number depends on your soldier's rank and dependents. For an E-4 with dependents, our allowance was 8000 lbs. Because we purged many of our items, we barely met half of our weight allowance.

A resource I greatly utilized during our entire PCS was the Military OneSource, specifically their PCS & Military Moves page. They have many links and resources on how to plan your move, whether you're a beginner or an expert on the process. They also have a direct link to the DPS website. It stands for the Defense Personal Property System. You can schedule & modify your military shipments within this site. Though personally, I thought it was easier to schedule our shipments with our local transportation office rather than doing it myself. This was our first contracted military move, and I did not want to make a mistake with scheduling.

Another resource you can find that I greatly appreciated was their support system. I was struggling with horrible anxiety attacks during the process. It got to the point that I could not function. Military OneSource assigned me to a free life coach that helped me manage my symptoms and ease my worries. I don't think I would have been able to come out the other side sane if it were not for my wonderful coach and his advice. I encourage all who are feeling overwhelmed to utilize the often free resources available to you as a spouse or a family member. If you remember just one thing from this post, remember you are not alone. Many of us have been in your place and have felt the same feelings you are going through right now. Don't panic. Take a deep breath, and find time to still do stuff for yourself. Don't let the moving process overtake your life that you forget to have fun and look forward to the next great adventure you are about to embark.