Why? Well, it was a one week marathon whirlwind of a week, going thru my ol' homestead because my my mom passed away 2 months ago. All this happening on the cusp of her 86th bday.
It's the home she and Dad moved into a year after they were married.
It's the home I came home from the hospital from on day "just a couple."
It's the house that's walking distance from my elementary school, down the road from my middle school (which is now a Target), and a bus ride home from my high school....and all the memories in between.
It's the place where friends came, we ran around the neighborhood, we had sibling laughter & snits galore, where my kids came to visit their grandparents, where gardens were planted, parties were had, were suitcases were packed for vacations, and holidays were celebrated with all the traditions.
It's the only childhood home I've known.
It's been the home my folks lived my whole entire life. It's where my mom lived 6 decades of her own, with 45 years of that being with my dad before he passed away in 2011.
It's now the home that's down the road from the cemetery where they both are, the home that is 6 states away from the home in which I now live.
During my week of discovery, it was not at all surprising that this house holds a lot of stuff. Those 60 years of stuff... and it's not a small house. Mom was really good at collecting and organizing. What I've learned over my own lifetime: if you are good at organizing, you can pack a whole lot in. It's true here.
It's hard saying goodbye to a house. Goodbye to a lifetime of memories. Goodbye to lots of "stuff." Sentimental stuff and the other stuff. Stuff that crops up one of a gazillion memories. Emotional landmines abound. Boxes of photos and scrapbooks (so many scrapbooks) need to be "just packed for now" because there's so many memories, and not enough time in only a week to go thru it all. So those boxes you carefully pack become the emotional landmines you take with you for another day--to your own overstuffed house to put in your own overstuffed corners of way too much stuff.
Ironically, I landed on this article just a few days after "my week of overhaul/week of discovery." It popped up in my Facebook Feed (don't tell me that FB isn't listening): Millennials Complain That Their Boomer Parents Won't Throw Anything Away. A Psychologist Explains Why." I'm not a Millennial, I'm a GenXer, but a lot in this article here holds true. I saw that in the many attic boxes with my name on it, packed with my old room stuff. Boxes my folks must have packed for me because I literally would not have saved some of this stuff. A small box of homemade confetti?! Seriously, why?! But, that level of scavenger hunt, opening box after dust-covered box, did indeed make me smile (and maybe roll my eyes a bit, with love for my crazy folks).
It all can't go with you....but it also can't all go in a dumpster. And yes, this environmentalist had a dumpster. Because it's a week, and even with future estate sales ahead, there's stuff that needs to just go in a dumpster. Especially the now empty dust-covered boxes.
It does beg the question: Why on earth are we the collectors of so much stuff?
But it also begs this question in life: How can you not be? Some of the stuff is certainly some of the stuff of life. And the longer the life, the taller the stack o'stuff, right?
Luckily memories work that way too.
As for now, the estate sale is planned, and the house will go on the market soon after. Our hearts are full and saddened with the loss--not only of our Mom but the house we called home even when we were no longer living there. But the memories are full. The momentos are tucked away. The photos are nearby. My heart will carry it all forward, no matter how hard it is to say the goodbye.
Author unknown quote created in Canva.com. Winnie the Pooh image from https://www.skiptomylou.org/winnie-the-pooh-quotes/.