# What comes, What stays?



## Greenlady (Feb 8, 2013)

It's happening! Will soon break ground on our new home in Tulum, Mexico. Will be ready in 4-5 months (yes, seriously!). 

Can't help thinking about moving, even though full-time is a couple years away and we will probably rent it out in the interim, so need to make the place inviting.

Question is: what in everyone's experience should you bring from home and what should you leave behind?

Do we leave the big stuff (we will want living furniture from Mexico, but what about beds?) tv's, stereos, appliances? and bring smaller stuff like cookware, dishes, clothing? 

Looking to your experience...

:fingerscrossed:


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## conorkilleen (Apr 28, 2010)

everything that we brought with us fit inside or on top of my Ford Escape. We had a 4 bedroom 2500 sq ft house int he US full of furniture and "stuff" we sold or gave most of it away. Tv came, small electronics came,as well as cookware, and of course kids toys and other "can't live without" personal items. I can't tell you what to bring, but I know that we wanted to have some familiar things around us, but the rest was bought here in Mexico as the years edged on. New location, new life. after all, some of our typical american "things" would look out of place in a Mexican home.

......Beds are cheap here even for good quality. Cookware is about the same. Its really up to you if you want to transplant your US house into Mexico or start fresh. We decided to start 90% fresh.


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## Greenlady (Feb 8, 2013)

conorkilleen said:


> everything that we brought with us fit inside or on top of my Ford Escape. We had a 4 bedroom 2500 sq ft house int he US full of furniture and "stuff" we sold or gave most of it away. Tv came, small electronics came,as well as cookware, and of course kids toys and other "can't live without" personal items. I can't tell you what to bring, but I know that we wanted to have some familiar things around us, but the rest was bought here in Mexico as the years edged on. New location, new life. after all, some of our typical american "things" would look out of place in a Mexican home.
> 
> ......Beds are cheap here even for good quality. Cookware is about the same. Its really up to you if you want to transplant your US house into Mexico or start fresh. We decided to start 90% fresh.


Thanks! That's exactly the approach I was leaning toward. Loving to cook, we do have some nice Lagostina and I think my dishes would look well there (save me looking for more and I can add as we go along). Good to know about tv and small electtronics.


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## conorkilleen (Apr 28, 2010)

Greenlady said:


> Thanks! That's exactly the approach I was leaning toward. Loving to cook, we do have some nice Lagostina and I think my dishes would look well there (save me looking for more and I can add as we go along). Good to know about tv and small electtronics.


I didnt even want to mention not bringing the cookware to my wife. She would have made me leave a few things behind before she left her "tools". Good quality cookware here in Mexico is easy to find, but most, I assume you as well, have an attachment to their cookware as my wife has with hers.

We had a garage sale a month before we moved and we made a few bucks that we were able to make some purchases here in Mexico. It was liberating.


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## chicois8 (Aug 8, 2009)

Where I live the local termites love imported wood items.......


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## RVGRINGO (May 16, 2007)

Bring no more than you can carry in your vehicle when you drive down. Beyond that, it gets complicated. No need to bring a TV, etc.


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## Longford (May 25, 2012)

RVGRINGO said:


> Bring no more than you can carry in your vehicle when you drive down. Beyond that, it gets complicated. No need to bring a TV, etc.


What he said, above.


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## maesonna (Jun 10, 2008)

In the category of kitchen appliances, I would bring the food processor if you have one. Here there are only low-end ones that are cheap in both price and quality, and high-end ones costing about twice as much in the U.S. No mid-range, decent and decently priced ones that I could find.

If I am wrong, I don’t even want to know about it because I just put down the money on one of those double-priced, high-end ones at Liverpool. Even with a sizeable discount thanks to the _venta nocturna_ it was still rather pricey.


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## RVGRINGO (May 16, 2007)

What? We have a food processor that lives on our kitchen island permanently. I has three legs, which I gave rubber feet, to protect the countertop, and can process almost anything into a salsa. It only cost $200 pesos and is made of very durable rock, as is the matching pestle. 
Slicing and dicing still requires a knife.


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## maesonna (Jun 10, 2008)

RVGRINGO said:


> What? We have a food processor that lives on our kitchen island permanently. I has three legs, which I gave rubber feet, to protect the countertop, and can process almost anything into a salsa. It only cost $200 pesos and is made of very durable rock, as is the matching pestle.
> Slicing and dicing still requires a knife.


A molcajete is unbeatable for salsas, but I wanted a device that could do recipes like this. A blender will do as a distant second, but doesn’t work as well with drier ingredients like these because the first bit tends to stay the bottom, while the rest bounces around above the blades and doesn’t get pulled down.


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