We love estate sales and second-hand shops. Some of our favorite home furnishings fell under the "someone else's trash" category before we unearthed 'em like canary diamonds at Murfreesboro. So we were pumped when a friend invited us to pick through finds at a residential sale recently. We were promised posh furniture at reasonable prices. And there were plenty of cute pieces -- leather chairs, a gorgeous antique pie chest, locally-designed art and a sizablearmoire among the pickins.
But there was one difference between the estate sales we're used to hitting up and this one: The owner was alive and kicking. And offering commentary on every piece as we perused. She was selling everything in her home before she and her husband purchased their next not-so-humble abode because she wanted to "start over." I. Can. Not. Imagine. She certainly had done a lovely job decorating this property, but to sell everything you owned, just to buy new stuff? We were shocked.
We attach a lot of memories and emotion to even the smallest material possessions. Even pieces we don't really like, we often hang on to. Maybe it was something we bought the day we got our first job offers or it was a gift we know our mothers-in-law will want to see in our homes when they visit.
We admired this homemaker because we know it must have been liberating to watch someone else carry some memories out her front door. Getting out from under the past in such a tangible way seems like a relief. But it also seems like letting go of a part of yourself.
We couldn't justify taking a part of her away from that house with us. So we walked out empty-handed.
And, really, who wants to pay $500 for used furniture from Dillard's, anyway?
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