“The List”

Another question we frequently hear about our upcoming travels  is something like:

What are all the things you have to do to prepare for a trip like this?

Regardless of my answer I eventually end up referring to what I lovingly refer to as “The List”.

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[Aside:  I’m the hyper-organized type.  I suck at improvising, being creative, and flying by the seat of my pants.  My wife Juliann is excellent at all of those things and she drives me like a farmer drives a stubborn mule to be more freewheeling.

I’m making progress.  Slowly.

But I’m an excellent planner.  And organizing something on the scale of an open-ended, round-the-world, who-knows-where-the-hell-we’re-going-to-end-up trip is the type of challenge that gets my motor running.]

We started creating The List in the spring of 2015 and it quickly swelled to nearly a hundred tasks, some of them large, like “sell house”, and many of them minor, e.g. “renew passport” and “buy underwear”.

We’ve been chipping away at it for over a year and now we’re down to the last 15-ish items.  In the interests of satisfying curiosity and just plain weird pride, we’ve published The List below at its full unholy ohboy-did-we-do-a-lot-of-shit length.

Items are roughly in reverse order:  things at the bottom were completed a year or more ago, those items near the top still have yet to be completed.

So without further ado, here she is…

The List

  • Move all things into storage
  • Port cell #’s to Google Voice number
  • Rm credit card for Xbox live autorenew
  • Export phone photos/video to laptop
  • Pack up phone and send back to Verizon
  • Post all stuff we want to get rid of to Facebook (round 2)
  • Cancel all services we won’t need (Hulu, Xbox, etc)
  • Reserve storage unit (2 weeks out)
  • Cxl cable, return modem, pay bill
  • Call electric company, trash pickup company to confirm we can pay bill by phone after departure
  • Close local bank accounts
  • Cancel car insurance
  • Sell cars
  • Get dental records
  • Confirm continuation of life insurance
  • Order sneakers
  • Get meds for Traveler’s Diarrhea
  • Create “onward travel” tickets
  • Pads and padding for furniture while in storage
  • Get antimalarials
  • Research antimalarials:  take throughout or only preventatively?
  • Figure out payment of all utilities
  • Research: what skills are children expected to have upon entering kindergarten?
  • Purchase travel insurance policy via World Nomads on Bootsnall
  • Heartworm and Frontline for dog
  • Visits to all family and friends
  • Drop dog off in Georgia with family
  • Go through all boxes in basement, set aside everything to be discarded
  • List all clothes needed from Ex Officio, buy them
  • Buy toothbrush covers
  • Buy new clippers or replace battery
  • Plans for selling cars
  • Scan all passports, driver’s licenses, cc and debit cards, social security cards, travel insurance docs, health records, vaccination records, etc and email copies
  • Vet records for dog
  • Get son fingerprinted
  • Lay out all gear and clothes to be packed, estimate size of pack needed
  • Schedule Big Brother Big Sister for pick up
  • Schedule 800 Got Junk pick up
  • Book first 4 weeks of accommodations
  • Schedule out last two months of tasks
  • Renew credit and debit cards if necessary
  • Set up Outlook 2016 on phone
  • Calculate additional tax burden if living in NY
  • Schedule movers
  • Schedule last physician visits
  • Book flights
  • Set up Surface Pro
  • Upgrade development (coding) software
  • Vanguard e-delivery
  • Test sound notification for texts for middle-of-the-night work emergencies
  • Route GVoice -> Skype -> international cell #
  • Renew drivers’ licenses if necessary
  • Port all pics to Google Photos
  • Order Surface Pro 4
  • Call Vet to schedule checkup for dog
  • Research life insurance (keeping current plan vs. some other plan)
  • Contact travel medicine center
  • Install GVoice, and test incoming calls and texts to GVoice
  • Verify with dentists that teeth are good to go
  • Contact provider about moving to my company insurance, getting all cards before departure
  • Close safe deposit box
  • Get fireproof box, move all safe deposit box documents to it
  • Renew passports
  • Call Verizon Wireless: can I upgrade to a new iPhone 6 unlocked?  Will it work overseas with different sim cards?
  • Arrange home for dog
  • Research schooling on the road for pre-K, kindergarten
  • Post more items for sale/for free online, start clearing out room by room
  • Talk to family member about snail mail
  • Configure LastPass to require new login for each session
  • Verify that Oct-March is good time in SE Asia
  • Review this checklist
  • Set up Schwab checking account
  • Cancel old business Visa
  • Research banking solutions to minimize foreign exchange fees
  • Move all passwords online
  • Sell house
  • Confirm plans with business partners
  • Budget out annual expenditures
  • Research travel insurance
  • Confirm health insurance
  • Exit business #2
  • Confirm timeline for switching health insurance
  • Buy guides, rough out first year travel itinerary
  • Talk with realtor about selling house
  • Fix leak in basement
  • Deploy online backup solution
  • Confirm can use my phone with SIM cards on the road
  • Research phones
  • Talk to pediatrician about immunizations, etc for son
  • Change student loans to electronic billing
  • Talk with CPA about traveling

 

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