the life cycle of a pack-out in photos.

Pre-pack-out:

piles everywhere... driving me crazy

Mac's and my suitcases containing what we'll use between pack-out and mid-August

We're allowed 600 pounds of air freight.  This was our initial pass at lumping together 600 pounds, but we were way short, so we randomly threw in stuff at the last minute.

Carpets have all been vacuumed and rolled up for packing

a hiding spot for stuff that can't be shipped.  NO! works in any language.

so much clutter and chaos can make a girl crazy.

piles, glorious piles.

 At the end of the morning of day one:

Air freight has been packed out.  We were ultimately 2 kg over the 600-pound limit after the random throwing in of stuff, so we just as randomly removed enough to bring us back down to 600 pounds.

At the end of day one:

We seem to have made very little progress.  

More evidence of very little progress. (Note that fabulous old scale this company uses.  I just hope it's accurate.)

 On the morning of day three:

The movers fired up all cylinders on day two and really got busy.  They worked from 8am to 7pm and the volume of boxes reflected this long, hard work.

There are boxes EVERYWHERE.  Mac said our apartment would make the best fort ever.

After packing the remaining 10 boxes or so, we were ready for show time. 

Mid-morning on day three:

The loading starts.  Jimmy's down there supervising, along with his driver and bodyguard.  (As a side note, doesn't our front garden look amazing from this vantage point????).  This truck held four large wooden crates, but we ended up needing a small fifth crate, which came in the afternoon.

Breaking all sorts of OSHA laws.  The yellow thing is a hand truck that they've weighted down with their feet while the guy stands on the highest part for more height.  Maybe it's better to just buy a ladder?

the sign on the inside door of the moving van - "Too much hard work is prohibited!"

An even worse OSHA violation

the afternoon truck which brought another wooden crate for filling -all loaded and ready to go with 154 boxes of our household effects totaling about 5900 pounds plus 5 air freight boxes totaling 600 pounds.

I figured out during this move that we've made 10 moves in 15 years - the shortest time we've lived in one place that required a move was 6 months and the longest was here in Bogota for 3 years.  Normally the physical act of the pack-out energizes me.  I usually thrive on cleaning out and sorting and organizing.  But this one just wore me out.  I am glad it's now behind us all and we can enjoy our last 10 days in Bogota.