I’m selectively organized, lol! In my job, I can organize down to the last minute. It’s what made me a good nurse, and now, a good travel agent. But when my mind gets overwhelmed like I’m finding with this decluttering and move process, my default is “Lalalalala, don’t confuse me with anything, don’t want to hear it!” (Cover your ears for the full effect). This is why my husband and I are such a good tag team. This dude has a list as long as my arm, lol! I’m headed to St. Maarten in 2 weeks and will be armed with “the list”. Stuff I take for granted like, can I get my favorite mascara on the island or do I need to hoard it here and bring it with me? Ladies, amirite? It matters, trust me. We all have that one favorite “thing”. Men do too, I know this! I have to price out various items and determine if I can even get others on the island. I’ve got to figure out where to buy cat food since we don’t feed the cats just “any food”. Simple things I take for granted simply by running down to Publix or the pet store. We’ve been adding to this list just about every day as things occur to us. If you’re not detail oriented, and even if you are, start early and often writing things down. I am also super glad I thought to make this reconnaissance trip before the final move in September, and highly recommend you do this too, most especially if you are literally selling everything and starting over on the island. During this trip, I will be in seek mode, covering all the questions on “the list”. I will be buying some initial pieces of furniture and electronics. I will be arranging power and internet. I’ll be setting up a mailbox. I’ll be stalking the “Buy, Sell, Trade” boards right up until I board the plane on September 5th so that I can arrange to purchase any items I see there that we need. Obviously, this won’t all happen at once and my dear husband has allowed that our place will probably resemble a campground for a few weeks until we can get all the furniture and comforts of home in place, but it’s a price I’m willing to pay. Temporary discombobulation for a life in paradise. Yep, worth it!
St. Maarten Move 
I thnk u are way over thinking this. And causing yourself too much stress
We bought condo new construction in Pelican Key 2005. We managed to furnish it most from island. U can ship duty free from us. Not a worry about makeup’s lipstick has it all. We always shipped dog food and the cost was cheap. Stop stressing and enjoy the journey. It is not as hard as u make it to be
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Thank you for the feedback, Patricia. Of course, each of us is different, so what is important to me may be useless to you or vice versa. We are intentionally not shipping anything to the island so it is important to me to understand where I can obtain the items I need. Perhaps you were better able to handle the stress of totally selling or donating virtually everything you own and starting over on St. Maarten, but it is stressful for me. It has to date been an enormous undertaking and I’m a planner. I’d rather over plan than under plan only to find out something was not possible. So I appreciate your feedback, I’m certain that your journey looked different from ours so I’ll simply thank you for making the effort and following along 🙂
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I sincerely hope all goes well for you and have enjoyed your journey. Take a breath and realize you will be in paradise very soon. Life is very different than being a visitor. But if u luv the island like I think u do. You will be fine. Go with the flow there. And enjoy
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No it was an amazing journey. Not good many times but amazing as well. Loved island. Had been a timeshare owner for 8 years And then we bought Home. Do I regret buying on island?? No it was an experience I needed. Much fun furnishings my condo on island But I will never own on island again. We are older and feel US is where we Need to be for medical reasons. I am happy camper in Florida now.
Good luck and I wish u the best. But been there done that! .
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I wish you only the best and hope u have a wonderful life on our beautiful island. Keep us posted. Love your blog. Enjoy
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Thank you 🙂 I have zero doubt that when we are having our first beverage on the beach and we know that “home” is only a 2-minute drive back (or a leisurely walk, whichever) every single minute of this stress and planning and fretting will fade away with the sunset and calm will return.
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Hope it’s going well. WordPress is not the most welcoming blog site (I used if for several years), but I saw your post and tried to reply. No need…..you are confident enough to do this on your own! We had some lessons we would be happy to share, but again, we each take the journey on our own and end up at the place on the trail where we are meant to be. Have fun on the journey. We sure have had fun and are still totally thrilled with how it worked and is working!
Yvonne
Yvonne Mendenhall
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Thank you Yvonne! It’s true, this journey will look different for each of us. I may get a year down the road and view it completely differently still. That’s why I wanted to record this journey so that folks who come after me can decide if doing what we did would work for them, or if they go the complete opposite direction, or somewhere in between. Lastly, I’m sorry you had trouble replying. I could read your comment ok so hopefully it wasn’t too awful 🙂
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I’m still having trouble…I had (have) a WordPress account, but have not used the blog for several years and I think that is what is blocking easy commenting! I’ll try using facebook instead of email…maybe that will work.
ACE will be your Place on SXM! ACE hardware stores customize their inventory based on the specific communities they serve and it is amazing — even sells make up (I think Revlon) and a full line of furniture (Ashley), major and small appliances. It is a great place for so many needs. The largest ACE is the one on Union Road in Cole Bay, but the one near Bush Road (down from Kooeyman) is smaller, but more tightly stocked, so has lots of inventory as well. There is also one on the French side (I believe, but have not been to that one.)
The closed Carrefour stores have been a big hardship for many of us. We live on Pelican Key (Dutch side near Simpson Bay) and driving to the French side for groceries is impractical. Hopefully the fire damaged Bush Road Carrefour will reopen shortly, but last I “heard” they were saying end of October.
There simply are somethings one cannot get on the island, so we use shipping and online ordering for those products. It works just fine. Sometimes we use shipping for convenience as well. We THOUGHT we were doing a good thing trying to get everything on the island, but learned that it can also be a big hassle for already challenged businesses. There are still many people rebuilding from Irma and basic equipment and supplies are really stretched.
If you haven’t arranged it yet, the MailBox is a decent snail mail service. It’s important to learn how to use them–or it can become very costly. We figured we would hardly ever have hardcopy mail, but there are some things that require it. SXM likes paper!
Banking is an experience! Cash is king, so access to a reasonable bank is important. Using more than one bank is helpful. Opening accounts is an island experience!! They do like paperwork.
We have still not purchased a car, but have been using a small long-term rental company. We will buy a car when we return in December. In our case, we have been busy with the condo renovation, so have not had time to shop for a used car and to decide how we will store it when we are not n the island. We’ve been told it is very easy to buy, register and insure a car.
Mostly, have fun with the adventure!! There are many island moments that keep it all in perspective and our go-to phrase is “Ay’mon’don’worry!”
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Oh my gosh! Thank you! As you can see by “the list”, we’ve thought of some of these, others, not. Excellent information here! I will add it to the list 😊
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I did giggle at the “driving to the French side for groceries is impractical.” I lived in Atlanta for 4 years where my daily commute was 2+ hours, and that was taking the back roads! We have never had an issue driving from one side of the island to the other and cannot wrap our minds around, “But it’s way over there….” as though “there” is 50 miles down the road. Sint Maarten is only 14 sq miles and Saint Martin is only 34 sq miles so driving over to the French side has never been something that bothered us. Even in the winter when it takes us 90 minutes to get from Simpson Bay to Grand Case, it has never been a “thing”. That said….LOL, we only live about 10 miles north of Uptown Charlotte where there are a lot of cool restaurants and venues and when deciding where to go we’re like, “Oh, that’s ‘way down’ in Charlotte, nevermind!” LOL. So maybe the traffic and “driving to the French side” is something I will learn to hate after we get settled? I cannot fathom that happening but one never knows!
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It’s not the miles–its the traffic and the roads! From where we are on Pelican Key, getting to the shopping areas requires going through Marigot—at least 30 minutes! So, the gelato would be frozen before we got it home!!
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Makes sense! I’m an Etna gal, myself 😉
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