If you have been out of the country for a long period of time, whether you were studying abroad, had a temporary work assignment in another country, or were working for an international relief organization, you may be ready to come back home to the United States and settle into a more familiar and stable life. However, the process of not only moving back across the world and getting settled can be challenging.

Get to know some of the steps to take to ensure that your international move back to the United States goes as easily as possible.

Be Selective of What You Plan to Bring Back with You

It is likely that you have accumulated your fair share of possessions while you have been living abroad. This can include an entire house or apartment's worth of furniture, clothing, and other belongings. If you were moving across town or even across the country rather than internationally, it would not be a problem to pack everything in your home, choose a moving company, and take everything in your house with you.

However, international shipping is much more expensive. It would not be cost effective to ship everything in your home back to the United States. As such, you need to be very selective with what you are bringing back with you. Think long and hard about which items are absolutely vital to you or hold significant sentimental value.

Make an inventory of your current home and label all of your possessions with stickers or pieces of paper in different colors. One color can represent items to keep, another items you are unsure about, and another items to leave behind. The first time you go through your home, you should theoretically have more items you are unsure about than items in the other two categories. This gives you the opportunity to pass back through your home and make a more thoughtful decision about the remaining items.

Choose Moving Companies to Help You

When you have a full accounting of all of the items you want to bring back to the United States with you, you want to make sure all of those items get to you in good condition. Because of this, it is important to have a moving company help you pack and wrap all of these items for shipping. They will have the materials and the know-how to get your items from your current home to your new home safely.

Once you are back in the country and ready to move into your new home, a moving company can help you unwrap all of these items that made the international journey with you. And, because you likely have your possessions from before your trip abroad in storage in a paid storage unit or with a loved one, you can hire the moving company to gather up all of those items and get them into your new place. You can focus on getting yourself settled into your new life.

These basic international moving tips will help you get back to the U.S. and settled as easily as possible. For moving help, talk to companies like United Moving and Storage.

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