I’ve moved around a lot in the last few years and when it is you moving it is just a wearying and worrisome process that feels never ending. Changing addresses and getting doors re-keyed, giving away things that won’t fit the new space or that no longer fit your life, and figuring out where things belong and what new combinations of furniture you’ll create.

My parents have recently moved and watching them go through the process of culling, including selling and donating and throwing things away, has been mind-blowing. I’ve watched them decide to get rid of things that I have cherished for the majority of my life (several of which I took in like I was saving a child from drowning). I’ve watched them sell things that I thought had significance to them and donate things that I thought were valuable and in the end I realized I don’t really know much of anything about what or how my parents think about the things they have accumulated over the years.

I think it is probably like that for most people when the people they are close to move. You see which things matter enough to bring into your new life and what things don’t make the cut. There are always the practical choices, but then there are also the nonsensical ones or the emotional ones. My mother had, hiding and forgotten under a bed, a tub with her christening outfit in it. I have no children, my brothers children are well past christening, and still young enough that it will be a minimum of eight to ten years before they have children who they may, or may not, want to christen and they may, or may not, want to use my mothers christening outfit. And yet, as they were getting rid of significant art and a chair my father sat in every night and a trunk they got over twenty years ago…they packed up a christening outfit and moved it to their new home.

I think a lot of the random things we find as we unpack, whether it is after a move or just cleaning out the attic/basement/garage, are more than you can easily define. I don’t know why some things make the cut and some things don’t but I do know that for every person it is different. Every person thinks about their thing differently. If you were to stop and think about what things you have mean the most to you I think you might be surprised, either at some of your answers or at the difference between your answers and those of your significant other/child/parent.

All I know is that I live in a small apartment so I’ve got two closets and a bunch of new old things to make room for and what *I* need to do right now is stop and think about where they are going to go.