our experience loading the POD...

...or - "how much stuff do you think I've really got!?!" Here's the deal - moving sucks. Huge. Especially when you do it the Rarely-Home Family way. We move out of our condo about 3 weeks before our new house is done being built. Smart, no? Instead of packing a truck, driving to Utah, renting a storage unit, unpacking the truck, getting a hotel for 2 or 3 weeks, renting another truck, loading the storage unit again (by ourselves, of course) and then unloading the truck again (hopefully with help from the new church family)...just a minute...sigh. That list exhausted me. Okay. Instead of doing all that, we decided to go the POD route. The POD was delivered early Sunday morning, and we could "pack at leisure". [BTW: Whomever came up with that term deserves a strong slam on the head. No one packs at leisure. I read, nap, watch movies, and lay on the beach at leisure. Not pack.] Then, our POD would be retrieved and then delivered to us at our new home whenever I made the phone call. Sounds easy, right? Well... PODS come in 2 sizes: 12X8X8 and 16X8X8. The company only uses the 16 foot units for moving, and saves the 12 foot units for local storage. Supposedly, the contents of a 1500 sq foot house can fit into a 16 foot POD. Did you hear that? Supposedly. Depending on whom is asked, our condo is/was 1080 or 1150 sq feet. Certainly not 1500 sq feet. When the POD was delievered I took one look and muttered a swear word* under my breath, ignoring the unapproving look of my husband. After all, it was Sunday. Fact: Nathan is a master at packing things and making stuff fit into places I would never expect them to fit into. We had another friend helping pack the POD Monday night that is another genius packer. And still? So much stuff got left behind. Given, it's all stuff. But also? It would have been so nice to have used the old hand-me-downs just a few more months, until we had taken care of moving expenses before replacing them. What got left behind? The dining room table and chairs. But the leaves to the table? Somewhere in the POD. Admittedly, not sad about this. Add to the list: the boys' dresser, and 2 bookshelves, our recliner, a bunch of kids toys and odds-and-ends, the charcoal bbq (yes, I know we're planning on buying gas when we get there, but I will always think food cooked on charcoal bbqs taste better than on gas bbqs), and Jacob's slide. I'm sure there's more. Here's the best part. I called my dad Monday morning and told him I had a feeling the dining room table and chairs might get left and I was worried about my grandma (his mom) showing up in Utah in September and wanting to know where everything was. His answer? "Tell her it didn't fit! Don't worry about other people, especially Grandma!" When my dad found out Jacob's slide didn't fit, I was suddenly supposed to worry about other people. DUDE - the slide? It was bought for my brother when he was 2 or so. He is now 18. It's in fantastic condition, but it's 16 years old!! And I got to deal with the "I would've wanted it back if you weren't taking it/giving it away" "we could've figured out how to get it back down here" on the phone. I didn't want to give it away! Jacob loves the slide!! If I could've figured out how to get the slide to from SF to LA I would've been able to figure out how to get it to Utah! And also, the recliner? Belonged to Nathan's grandfather. Was about 15 years old. Had this terrible "massage/vibrate" feature that made me feel like I was having seizures. Great nursing chair. But again? 15 years old. And when Nathan's mom saw it waiting for a new home by the dumpster, she about had a seizure of her own. Dear People, It's just stuff. (but I really wish a lot of it was in that POD right now) *what qualifies as a "swear word" in our family is still under negotiation. My "d@mns" and "he!!s" - while not frequent - most certainly qualify to Nathan. It's not that I look for opportunity to slip the words in, but hey - sometimes a POD gets delivered to your house and you just know there's no way everything will fit, and then...you know.