We lived in our house in Rural, Illinois for 9 years. Dude was 10 months old when we moved, and I got pregnant shortly after buying the house. We lived in a 5 bedroom split level house at the very edge of town.

Embarrassingly enough, we never finished unpacking from the move there. Our garage still had unpacked boxes.
So if you know anything about Hong Kong, you’ll know living space is significantly smaller than what you find in rural and ever suburban areas of the US. Though I can’t really speak to that as of yet since we haven’t found our place of residence.

We had a fully lived in house plus full garage. Love and I had decided he would work straight up to departure. My mother told me I was on my own (which I understand. I am not entitled to anyone’s help). So following the return from an international vacation, I started to sort through our lives.

I limited us to 20-30 medium sized boxes. We had to fit our lives into what amounted to like 4 cubic meters. It was a matter of determining what we needed, what was irreplaceable, and what needed to go. All of that was done in about a month and a half.

We ended up using two dumpsters. Mostly because there were so many boxes and lots of old clothes that got ruined. Irreplaceable was put into plastic bins to be stored in Fruibat’s garage. Even that was limited to 10-15 medium containers.
So day after day was spent sorting, packing, trashing, giving away a ton of stuff, and just on and on.

Packing became the priority to cleaning when we neared our shipping date. My childhood friend, Daisy came up to help a couple of times. She was a slave driver and exactly what we needed. She helped keep everything on task and going forward. I don’t know how I would have finished without her. Because of her, we made our shipping date. We brought our boxes down to Suburban, Illinois in an effort to provide easier access for the shipping companies.
That ended up biting me in the ass. While I waited for the shipping company, I was away from my home and unable to work on more packing and cleaning. So I waited for the shipping company in the hopes of getting back at a decent time since it was a 3-hour drive home.
Yea, no. The first trucking company refused because they had a full sized semi and couldn’t get in the driveway. They wanted me to carry 30 boxes (some of which takes two people to lift) down a long driveway and load them on the truck. I was the only person home at the time, and the driver said he wouldn’t help. I was at a loss.
So the logistics company called. They were upset at the refusal claiming the driveway was fine and acceptable. They had a new company, but they couldn’t come until the next day. I panicked. I had so much to do and this was going to eat majorly into the time left to complete it in. Begrudgingly, I agreed to wait until the next day. I didn’t have much choice really. We were set to depart in about 4 days. I waited the next day for the call from the company.
This time, they refused because there was no loading dock. No discussion of the driveway at all.
So another call to the logistics company (same guy). This time, I got a song and dance about the driveway not being appropriate. Again, that was never in the discussion with the driver. The issue was my mother’s residential home didn’t have a loading dock. How was he going to get the boxes onto the truck?
So I was left to wait again after I refused a moving company that would double the contracted cost. I was told these were the consequences of my refusal.
I stay and waited until I received a call from an angel. She was the rep of one company. She had found someone to get the shipment. It was UPS of all people. I asked if that was going to cost more. She said no because she was not happy with the way things were going. She said her company would waive the cost. I had to wait until 5 PM, but they would pick it up. I cried, I’m not going to lie.
So I waited some more. Again of course, they sent a full sized semi. The driver though was way more helpful. We ended up filling my SUV and taking it to the end of the driveway to be loaded on the truck.
My youngest sister and brother were home at the time and helped me. We got everything on the truck. I headed home with one and a half less days to finish my tasks.
Daisy, being the amazing person she is, offered her help the following day if I didn’t get enough done. After working pretty much the whole day with the help of Fruitbat periodically throughout the day, I felt completely hopeless. I texted Daisy, and she got on the road after she completed her work day.
We worked on packing the suitcases and cleaning the house. We worked until 3 AM when we called it quits.
Based on what was left, had I not lost that day and a half, we would have left the house completely clean.