DAY 14: The U-Pack is FINALLY Loaded!

What a run..!

I grossly underestimated how long it would take us to pack up the U-Pack trailer, get everything out of our home, and have it ready for the buyer.

We took all day Monday to complete the loading and Tetrising of our goods, and again, ran into some hiccups:

-Ethan never came on Sunday to pick up more items we had for him, plus everything in our fridge and freezer. Nathan and Clayton had to take a run over with a full truck bed in order to get some things out of our way. Ethan came after work (1:15ish) to grab the food items, which were minutes away from being dumpstered;

- Our house cleaners were due at 11:30; they were held up until 1:30, so they started late; 

- Zerorez was booked from 3-5 to clean the carpets; they started asking at 10 AM to come early. Cleaners can't clean areas beyond wet carpets, so that's a no. Three different reps from Zerorez called and/or texted between 10 AM and 2 PM, wanting to start early, with the last one telling me I would have to reschedule for a different day because I had turned them away twice. That's when I lost it! We booked the 3-5 time slot for a reason, and being threatened to reschedule because they wanted to go home early that day is NOT okay!

By early afternoon, every item was on the trailer, and the guys were strategizing their final moves to compact our goods into the smallest possible space. 

It was another blistering day, so we were grateful that Ethan came and grabbed some things, and Zach made a third appearance and did a Goodwill donation drop-off for us. There is no way we can write off the actual value of what we have donated this year and not get audited; my best guess is that we are close to $10,000 in clothing, shoes, housewares, small appliances...but it didn't make sense to take those things with us, so better to donate than to add to a landfill!

Once the final pieces were set, it was time to install the locking bulkhead divider - this separates our shipment from the rest of the trailer, which will be filled with commercial contents headed in the same direction. I was spot-on in my space estimate - we used 12 feet exactly! Meaning our entire lives are packed into a 12' x 8' x 9' space.

We locked 'er up and put a sign on the front so our neighbors didn't park there and block the truck from picking up the next day.

It was 6PM before we had everything out (including our cleaners) and as we were packing the last things into our car, Clayton asked me if I was sad to be leaving our home. That's when I broke into sobs...I am! It is such a beautiful home, nicer than we ever thought we would have. We bought it as a financial strategy; we knew it would appreciate, and that our prior home was capping out on its maximum potential value. We sold it in March of 2022 and it has dropped by about $15,000. Not a ton, but this home went up by a little over 25% in 2.5 years. Our gardens were finally reaching their "flourishing" stages, we had completed some projects to personalize it, and it was so comfortable...

I didn't eat that night, just no appetite between the heat, stress, and sadness. Probably a good thing, as Selene had commandeered the sink in our AirBnB.

No, our cats are not allowed on countertops! But we are giving them some grace in the chaos of the move so we don't stress them out too much more. She loves water so long as it's shallow, so she was checking things out.

We again turned in early, exhausted. 

If you prefer to watch a video of the final packing and locking, you can see it here: Day 3 - Locking Up Our U-Pack Trailer