7 x 7 x 4

Our shipment leaves Thursday for China.

Movers will enter our home and place things, as directed, into boxes which will stack neatly into a liftvan. A liftvan is a large container, comparable to a wooden crate the size of a treehouse. It measures 7 feet deep, 7 feet tall and 4 feet wide.

One challenge this week is keeping the house organized, so when the movers enter the home on Thursday, they aren't tempted to ship to China things destined for Goodwill.

The larger challenge this week is determining which of our belongings will fit into the cool crowd - the 196 cubic feet riding the boat.

Parsing my life into 196 cubic feet is a unique challenge.

We're throwing and giving away boxes full... no, rooms full of stuff. We're storing more piles of stuff in the basement. And we're loaning two U-Hauls and a cargo van full of stuff to family.

Yet we just spent a ridiculous amount of money on books, groceries, blankets and more to compete once more for container space.

Although shopping opportunities will abound in Shanghai, plenty of things will be simply unavailable. In one week and 196 cubic feet, we are trying to approximate how much we will need for the next two years. Or at least for the next 6 months, until we can restock on furlough.