Don't get me wrong, the anticipation of every move is exciting and the purging is cathartic. I should know ... after nine Foreign Service moves, I've become a self-appointed expert. But holy shmoly ... the organizing, separating, donating, selling, labeling, packing, and months of preparation before the big days really takes its toll on ones sanity.
This pack out, spanning 3 full days from June 9th - 11th, was no different.
Over the winter holidays we went through every box in the basement, in every closet and every drawer in every room in the house. We labeled. We sold. We donated. We trashed.
We used our biggest luxury, time and knowledge, to our advantage. We knew how things would fare (or not) after being in storage for long periods of time. Since we aren't sure where we'll be heading after San Salvador, and after communicating with our sponsors, we decided to bring more of our personal items to San Salvador than we have brought to previous posts.
Preparing for this overseas move was my full-time job, on top of my almost-full-time subbing job at the elementary school. It was time consuming, overwhelming, and caused many sleepless nights. Thus my stress began. AND continued. Until the moving company called me with the total weight of our shipments.
For those of you who have followed along from previous pack outs, you'll remember that the State Department allows us 18,000 pounds of storage or shipments broken down in three ways. It includes 7200 pounds of Household Effects (HHE - calculated as net weight ) to travel via sea to post, 800 pounds of Unaccompanied Air Baggage (UAB - calculated as gross weight) to be sent via air, and the remaining balance of 10,000 pounds to go to storage. Anything we ship that is above and beyond this allotted weight limit costs us $5 per pound!
As a refresher, we left India with 695 lbs of UAB and 6231 HHE. We left Israel with 7 crates going to India, 1 crate going to Storage, and a total of 7028 pounds shipped.
But this pack out? THE PINNACLE of our nine moves ... Our UAB came in at EXACTLY 800 pounds. Our HHE came in at 7194 pounds. For a total weight of 7994 (out of the allotted 8000) pounds shipped to San Salvador.
I. Am. Good.
I'm just pissed about wasting those extra 6 pounds ... though I now have a goal for my next pack out in 2017.
This pack out, spanning 3 full days from June 9th - 11th, was no different.
Over the winter holidays we went through every box in the basement, in every closet and every drawer in every room in the house. We labeled. We sold. We donated. We trashed.
We used our biggest luxury, time and knowledge, to our advantage. We knew how things would fare (or not) after being in storage for long periods of time. Since we aren't sure where we'll be heading after San Salvador, and after communicating with our sponsors, we decided to bring more of our personal items to San Salvador than we have brought to previous posts.
Preparing for this overseas move was my full-time job, on top of my almost-full-time subbing job at the elementary school. It was time consuming, overwhelming, and caused many sleepless nights. Thus my stress began. AND continued. Until the moving company called me with the total weight of our shipments.
For those of you who have followed along from previous pack outs, you'll remember that the State Department allows us 18,000 pounds of storage or shipments broken down in three ways. It includes 7200 pounds of Household Effects (HHE - calculated as net weight ) to travel via sea to post, 800 pounds of Unaccompanied Air Baggage (UAB - calculated as gross weight) to be sent via air, and the remaining balance of 10,000 pounds to go to storage. Anything we ship that is above and beyond this allotted weight limit costs us $5 per pound!
As a refresher, we left India with 695 lbs of UAB and 6231 HHE. We left Israel with 7 crates going to India, 1 crate going to Storage, and a total of 7028 pounds shipped.
But this pack out? THE PINNACLE of our nine moves ... Our UAB came in at EXACTLY 800 pounds. Our HHE came in at 7194 pounds. For a total weight of 7994 (out of the allotted 8000) pounds shipped to San Salvador.
I. Am. Good.
I'm just pissed about wasting those extra 6 pounds ... though I now have a goal for my next pack out in 2017.
2 comments:
More shoes next time! Or you know, a pair. Heh. I am seriously impressed with your ability to pack and move. Can I hire you for my next move? ;)
Nicely played! I am impressed!!
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