We have been spending the last few days getting ready to move out of our house. There has been a lot of preparation - both physical and mental. Probably mainly physical for Tim, and mainly mental for me. We have been packing a ton of stuff into boxes, some of which go to Mom and Dad's and most of which go to the storage unit. Tomorrow we are renting a truck to bring all of the other big things to the storage unit: couch, tables, chairs, bed frames, dressers, rugs, etc. I am sure there is more that I can't even think of. Then we have many more boxes to pack. Right now, our closets are empty - everything at Mom and Dad's - and our dressers are pretty much empty too. The main places where we still have stuff left is the kitchen, the basement and the garage. Today Mom and Dad came over to help and we moved a TON out to both the storage place and to their house.
And then the hard part (for me, at least) is the mental preparation. I get very attached to things... yes, even inanimate objects like houses. It is tough, we have lived here for over five years! We bought this house together before we were even married. It was (obviously), the first big thing we did or bought together. This is the place we came home to on our wedding night, and the place that we brought Cameron home to when he was born. A lot has happened here! From my place on the couch, I can see the spot in the dining room where the wine rack was that the newlyweds collected all their Finger Lakes wine in, but then was moved to make room for the changing table when Cameron came along. Along the same line, I can see what the upstairs small bedroom used to be: my office, before it was changed over to make a bedroom for Cam. And I can remember the progression of the guest bedroom, getting more and more full of furniture that was moved out of other places. Every place in this house has memories like that and that is what is going to make it hard to leave. I am excited to be moving into the new house eventually, but moving out of this hard is going to be tough!
Tomorrow will be the first night we are sleeping at Mom and Dad's, so we will see how I do with leaving this house behind.
2 comments:
I clearly remember moving out of our first house at Dorando way. What a bitter sweet moment. Mom had an even tougher time. Just keep looking toward the future. Your new house will be a home filled with memories in the very near future.
What beautiful and thoughtful writing about this, Kristin. I think that letting yourself feel these feelings is a way of honoring how important that house has been in your life, a way of saying thank you to it.
Now it will move on, in a way, to become important in someone else's life, while your new house will bring you into a new phase of your own life. But the old house will always have a sweet place in your memory.
I find it helps to have lots and lots of pictures. I don't even look at them very often, but it helps to know they're there. I also go around places that are meaningful to me, including places in nature as well as cities and buildings, and silently - sometimes even NOT silently - tell them "thank you" - for being beautiful, for being special places to me, for all the wonderful memories, whatever fits them.
I'm not treating them as "human" so much as I think I'm acknowledging that their place in my life is greater than their material or visible structure. Somehow they have helped to create the atmosphere of particular special memories in my life, and I appreciate that they are part of that.
Thanks for writing this. It makes me feel, too, the tenderness of letting go, and how hard that can be even when it's part of a good experience.
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