When your House Is Not Your Home

This weekend we did another U-Haul van trip to our house in North Carolina.  Had we been more efficient in getting things packed up for the moving van weekend we could have probably skipped this extra U-Haul rental.  But we still needed to go to North Carolina so that the estate sale team could set up for next weekend’s big downsizing sale.

We knew we should expect a transformed environment when we returned to Nashville on Sunday night, but I wasn’t prepared for the extent of that transformation.  I had heard that some things that were left over from other sales would get mixed in to our sale items.  Just as our unsold items will continue to be offered at subsequent sales until they find buyers.  But it was completely disorienting to come home to find most of our furniture moved and intermixed with other pieces of furniture.  I found myself walking around and becoming confused.  I’d see something and think “I don’t remember that” and then have to sort through a memory game – is that ours and I don’t remember it?  Or is that something that isn’t ours?  And sometimes a thing that wasn’t ours would actually look familiar and make me question all over again.

I should say that the estate sale team, Estate Sales by Sheila, did a fantastic job.  Some of the set-up was so attractive it made me want to buy my own stuff.  And it was amazing to see that as they found instruction manuals scattered about they managed to get them reunited with the small appliances they went with.  But just the breadth of what they prepared for sale was stunning.  A windchime from the backyard – moved and priced.  A huge partly broken clay art vase that was a decoration in the backyard moved to the front and available for sale.  Every cooking utensil, plate, glass, and cup out on a table with a price tag.  We had to reclaim some just to eat a simple dinner.  Of course being careful to take ones that were parts of sets and didn’t actually have a price tag on them.

Suddenly the three days until we decamp to our rental seems like a very long time..