Tami Grgas, an Air Force spouse since 2002, shares five PCS move tips: use a binder or Trello to organize everything, aggressively declutter, color-code boxes by room, pack an essentials bag separately, and give yourself grace. Medical records now transfer electronically instead of on paper.
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In today's Tip Tuesday, I'm going to give you my top 5 tips that I wish I had known much sooner when we would PCS. So this is for military wives, military families, even if you're just coming up to a big move, either cross-country or to a different continent or overseas, all that stuff. So my number 1 tip is to create a PCS GO binder. Now, over the years, this has changed for me. I've been married to the military since 2002, and I've been a mom since 2005, and I homeschooled our son all the way through to 12th grade and he's going to college this year, so yay! Anyways, my number 1 tip is about this PCS Go binder. This changed for me and I have developed a Trello board that I would use for this because instead of having a binder that— Like a binder and it wasn't much thicker than this, but I always had a binder with me. Same with when I used to do couponing. You can use a regular binder and print out things and keep things in there, or you can use a Trello board and organize it all in there, and then you have access to that from whatever device you're on. So I really like that option now because I'm trying to get rid of a lot of extra stuff, sometimes a binder is what you need. But in your binder, you could put schedule, all your research about the new base, when you're being packed out, when you're moving. You can also— another thing that I keep or kept because we've retired from the military now was I had a— shoot— a checklist. Sorry. I had a checklist for making sure that I did everything I needed to do, and I also had a form that I'd fill out for what was packed in what box, and I try to keep an eye on when they were packing stuff out. So that's number 1, your PCS binder. Number 2 is to declutter like crazy. Just get rid of stuff. I can't believe how much junk I've lugged cross-country and overseas. And then it's like, why do I have this? So really be honest with yourself. Don't pay for storage, just declutter. Take it to the BASE thrift shop and sell it. Most of the BASE thrift shops that I have been involved with, do a consignment type thing, and then they're— the money that the Spouses Club or whatever, whoever runs that thrift shop, whatever money they make here in Nebraska, their money goes towards college— not subscription— scholarships. That's what it is. Sorry. So number 3: labels. Label things, people. Even if— so one thing I did on— let me think— 1, 2— it was our third PCS move. We were moving from England back to America, and one thing that I did is I just got little— not sticky notes, but stickers that are different colors— and I said all the green ones are going to be for the kitchen. So as those packers did those packing boxes, I'd put green stickers on them, and they weren't little itty-bitty ones, they were pretty big because I wanted to be able to see them. And so I decided what each area of the house, what color it was going to be. And I had lots of different colors because I had different colors for my son's room and my son's items, different colors for the kitchen— well, different color for the kitchen, different color for my husband, different color for myself, different color for miscellaneous because sometimes there's just a miscellaneous. I don't know where that fits. Bathroom items. Just make your whole list of what you have and figure out where those all fit together. And as they pack you up, you put those stickers on those boxes. So you can, instead of going to your list of this box number is that, you can segment them. And actually unpacking becomes much easier through doing that. Number 4, and this one's so important, you guys. So important. Plan for the chaos. It's gonna happen. It's going to be stressful. Everything's going to feel like it's going wrong. It just is what it is when you're having that big of a move. Did you know that moving is one of the top stressors for people? It's crazy. And here we— I was— here you are, a military wife moving every 2 to 4 years. That's the— one of the most stressful things you can go through, and especially with a couple, with your marriage and all that kind of stuff. So when I say plan for the chaos, make sure you put aside a bag of snacks and paper plates and your Wi-Fi info and chargers and all those things. Make sure you pack those things earlier before the packers come, so you can put those aside and say, "Don't touch those." Same with— I got in the habit of packing a suitcase for myself and a suitcase for my son and a suitcase for my husband and putting them aside and just have those in the room that packers are not allowed to go into, is what I did. Number 5. Give grace to your, to your kids, to your husband. Give grace. Grace is so important. Make sure that you document it all. Take pictures, have fun, make it an adventure. That's what I learned how to do because my second PCS move was from California and we were moving to England and I had a 6-month-old baby. So I was a little bit like, holy doodle, we're moving to England with my baby, right? So at that point I thought, I have to make this into a fun adventure because I don't want him to dread the next move. I don't want him to dread any move. And that didn't work 100%, it really didn't, but it took his mind off of it a little bit. When we were moving from somewhere— now I know he was only 6 months old, but we would go— we were living in Monterey, well, by Monterey in California. So we'd like go for a trip to San Francisco for the weekend and do some more touristy stuff before we left. We also did it when we got there. So you bookend your timeframe in one area. Mm-hmm. With touristy stuff. That's what I did, and that's— it helped me with my mindset, and it helped my son and my husband. So tell me, what is your number one survival tip for, for PCSing? I'm curious. I'd like to know. And the other thing I'd like to know is, what's your number one struggle with PCSing? I, I would like to talk about that with you and just try and figure it out together. What's the one thing you always forget or have forgotten? I have a whole list of things, unfortunately. And hindsight is 20/20. It really is. But today, with the way things work today— back then you had to have all your medical records and all your dental records and all that stuff— that can be delivered electronically now. So that makes that part of it easier, but I highly recommend getting it transferred before you leave so that you're not trying to deal with people long distance as well. So I'd love for you to join me in my Facebook group. It's called Mom's Making Space: Declutter, Create, and Grow in Faith. And I, I just love you to come say hi and tell me your struggles with this whole being married to the military. It's not the easiest journey. I have now been married to my husband for 23 years, so that's how long I've been in the Air Force. And he retired, and now I don't have to deal with deployments anymore, which honestly is another stumbling block, and I will talk about that. Just is. Like, it's Every phase is different. When you look at your kids, and from newborn to about 7, 8 months old is one phase. Then you have your, oh my gosh, they're rolling over, they're crawling, they're moving, the toddler phase that goes into. And there's all these different phases. It's still the same child, but different phases. And that's kind of— what life is. It's all different phases. So I'd love to help you get through this phase and feed you with knowledge that I've accumulated through living this life. I hope you have a great day. Thanks. Tami Grgas.
