If you’ve seen some of my most recent posts, you may have seen that we’ve just PCS’d.
We’ve been living the extended stay life while waiting for a house on base to become available. We were at a hotel on base for eleven days before we moved off base to a furnished apartment. The hotel on base had the convenience of complimentary hot breakfast, a large laundry room, and a kitchenette. The furnished apartment offered an extra bedroom, a larger kitchen and dining space, and a courtyard that connected to a large driveway where the kids would scooter in and out of.
In short: they were great, but both spaces lacked some of the essentials we routinely use at home.
To make up for what didn’t drive with us, I took advantage of an Amazon Prime hub at a local Rite-Aid in addition to items from the MCX. Sure, we’ll have more to pack away when we move to the house, but my miscellaneous purchases made my days more convenient.
If an extended stay is on your horizon, here’s a roundup of items that might make your stay more comfortable.
The other afternoon, I was prepping oven orange chicken when my husband told me the housing office had sent over a document with our address. My excitement nearly thawed the frozen sauce, but I felt something else, too – a fondness towards our places of temporary stay.
We went to the playground more times than we have in the last two years. We have stories of skinned knees, getting lost after dark, and many hour long power outages that somehow convinced my oldest there was a zombie apocalypse.
We were nomads of a sort and looking back, I know I’m bound to laugh at the meals that didn’t taste like they do at home or the stories of our adventures in the dark.
Above all of this, being willing to bend was the most valuable “item” we brought with us.
No matter how long you will be living in-between spaces during a PCS, staying flexible and keeping a willingness to go with the flow will be the best thing you can bring with you!
