What to Bring/What not to Bring

My wife has asked me to ask the following questions.

What did you bring down that later you said Why did I bring this?

What did you not bring that you wish you had?

Thanks.

Should have brought the ladders, chain saw, and small rototiller.

Sold the chainsaw already, never owned a rototiller. I thought everyone had a gardener. Was thinking about bringing the little giant ladder, but can't think what I'd use it for. I am bringing a well equipped tool box.

Sometimes even a gardener needs the right tool for the job. You will need a ladder or ladders and they're much more expensive to buy down here.

Probably would be helpful to know just how you plan to move down as that would be an indicator of how much space you will have.

Should I bring The Wife

forget it

We are trying to minimize the haul as much as possible. I would like to take down the must have's in the Jeep Grand Cherokee with a roof box. Anything extra will have to come down later. How available are things like preserving items like jars and lids? I'd hate to haul essentially air. We love to make our own dills and jams and to have fresh produce to make it from will be be amazing. Also my wife is into stained glass and wants to bring her gear. Its hard to trim it down to essentials.

Canning supplies are available. Stained glass supplies too.

We sold all our ladders and my husband still regrets it, they are very expensive here, we brought some dumb electrical appliances down and we have now sold when our electric bill was super high, like and electric BBQ Grill, A small fridge with glass doors that kept my beer at 36 degrees, electricity went nuts on just these 2 items.
Do bring all your pots and pans and baking pans.
Lots of clothes too mostly shorts and capris. T-shirts and tank tops, women cannot get tank tops here, unless they are those ones that have the cut out in the back and I don't like those that show your bra.
Oh bras really suck here and all underwear.

You can fill the canning jars with little items??? Definitely bring the ladder. Definitely bring clothes (Hensley is absolutely right about underwear). I have found difficulty finding great bedding, but I am very particular about my bed. A trip to Guad can get most items...it just depends on what you have to spend on them. Kitchen appliances are here, but more expensive. Electronics are here, but more expensive.

If you have good quality clothes in good condition, bring them. The clothes here are crap and cost about 2 times that of the US. Bring or buy some new 500 thread count sheets. They're harder to get and more expensive.

Bring your good quality pots and pans, some kitchen electrical appliances, ONLY if it's not too old, like a stand mixer, ice cream maker, bread maker, ect. Small kitchen appliances are about 40% more here.

Bring your quality electronics, again, if not too old, Home Theater receiver, speakers, dvd player (although these are reasonable here), vhs player (if you still use it). Bring quality hand tools. If you intend to use one, bring a cordless drill, extension cords (25 ft & 100 ft). Bring your cameras and camera equipment.

A good cooler for when you go to Costco. Anything you bring that you won't use, you can easily sell. There's a good market for used items at reasonable prices, that gringos and Mexicans will buy.

You can buy a big cooler at Costco. You can buy good bras (Vanity Fair) and other underwear at Liverpool.
Small appliances are available everywhere. Even good cookware, at a price, from Costco.

Stores where "stuff" can be found within fifty miles: Home Depot, Sam's, Liverpool dept. store, Office Depot, Costco and locally, for serious appliances: Tio Sams and several others.

When we moved down seven years ago, the advice was to bring everything with a cord on it.
Things have changed dramatically since then.

There is a stained glass artist/ teacher with a store and supplies in West Ajijic on the main road.
Sergio Aimar Glass.

For everything you gotta have from the states: Wait for a big catalog sale with free shipping and use services like Merkalink to get it to your door and deal with Customs.

Don't load yourself down too heavily. Bring the stuff with personal memories in it.

bring good scotch... & pickles... hard ta find a good pickle in Mexico..

Hence the preserving question. Knock three times on our back door for homemade dills and four times for peameal bacon.

hockables wrote:bring good scotch... & pickles... hard ta find a good pickle in Mexico..

Doesn't Bubbas BBQ have some righteous pickles?

Good quality sheets and towels - they are difficult to find here and very expensive. Also brought my good pots and pans. Didn't bring much so regret nothing.

A fully loaded tool box is also a good idea and a very long heavy duty extension cord - they are very expensive here and when your power goes out (which it will) you may be able to find a place to get some power.

Also a NOB answering machine and decent telephones are expensive here. Bring your laptop or computer also expensive and we use surge protectors on the good stuff like computers. Don't know if they are cheaper here or NOB.

bring good scotch ... & pickles... hard ta find a good pickle in Mexico..

Absolutely..... Preferably Mortlach... If you are a Scotch drinker....

See Jose at the local farmers market. Great pickles.

Agree with what others have written...pots and pans, bedding, towels, underwear, personal momentos and souvenirs.

Other things that i brought with me that i'm so happy i did were books and puzzle books. If you are readers and don't have a Kindle or its ilk, bring some paperbacks to read and then to start exchanging here. I love puzzles, crossword and other kinds, and the shipping charges are pretty much prohibitive, so i'm really glad that i brought a bunch of them with me three and a half years ago, as well as some good refillable pencils and lead.

Oh, and windup or, preferably, rechargeable flashlights and maybe some solar lights. We have lots of sun but occasionally questionable electricity!

But probably most important are a sense of humor, a sense of adventure, a bit of nerve, and patience! Those four things will serve you better than most tangible things!

In general, EVERYTHING in Mexico is MORE expensive than in the US., especially clothes, ALL appliances including small kitchen appliances, Computers, printers, ALL electronics, ALL cellphones. Add 40% + to all of the above US vs. Mexico. You get great sales in the US, but not here. We've been here 10 years and Costco has gotten a lot more expensive.

I believe food, rent, entertainment and housing can be considerable less however, IMHO, John, in general, is right about the rest and items of good quality are at a premium cost.

Another thing to consider as you eye your belongings: Is it worth x$x (current costs) cents a pound to you? Our personal library and tool collection got smaller after thinking about that. In fact, the replacement cost, even at higher prices, might be less than the moving cost.

Books? There are lots of book exchange places; a decent English language library and of course, there's Kindle and its clones. Books are heavy.

Then there's the service for twelve of fancy china ......for entertaining. Oh yeah. Soon, you discover how much easier is it to just go out with your friends to a restaurant. Or get the casual sets here. China is heavy, too.

Clothes: I'm still working through the collection of cold weather clothes I brought and donating them to the thrift shops. What winter?

Yeah, I forgot about the two down comforters we brought down but we did gain a few friends that were thrilled at this gift. Totally shocked the hell out of me!

Don't bring snowshovels, snow tires or chains for the tires, the icescraper or the thermal underwear.

Everything else mentioned above is spot on IMHO.

Yes, some good answers here. I had to get rid of 40 boxes of books. The big guy kept all his tools, and they did come in very handy when we started renovating. Saved a bundle.

I made the china mistake. Worse, they can't go in the dishwasher.

Make my own pickles.

Had to get friends to bring down candles for years, problem now appears to be solved.

I actually bought down comforters here and brought back an electric blanket from the States. House faces west, so doesn't warm up during the day, plus I am a wuss.