A Moving Story
Posted on September 17, 2007 - Filed Under Tangents
I don’t mean “moving” as in “it will make you cry.” I mean “moving” as in, my parents have sold their house and are moving into a temporary place until they find their new home. TGH and I have been helping to pack up all their stuff.
And when I say ALL their stuff, I mean they have a LOT of stuff. 
I know there is probably a generational thing going on there and that people of their generation were taught by their parents to “hoard” things. And they learned very well. My mom is really good at it. Just in sorting through things to see if we could eliminate anything, we found five sets of hair curlers, 8 open boxes of tissues, and about 27 different containers filled with various pastas. Dad is pretty good at it too. I found six flashlights and about 19 lighters (he smokes and they have a fireplace).
You start getting lazy when going through years of stuff. The buyers of my parents home had relayed a message through the realtor that they wouldn’t mind if my parents left some of their stuff - I’m sure they meant furniture or appliances. But my mom was going to leave some food. After emptying most of the cabinets and boxing stuff up, I found the top shelf in the pantry was still half filled with food. We had the following conversation:
Me: “Mom, you can’t leave this stuff here.”
Mom: “Sure I can. It’s good. It hasn’t been opened.”
Me: “But nobody is going to trust food that you left behind.”
Mom: “She has kids. They eat a lot. They might want it. Besides, the realtor said that they wouldn’t mind if I left stuff behind.”
Me: “Mom, I think they wouldn’t mind if you left your washer and dryer, or furniture, or big screen TV, but I don’t think they meant food.”
Mom: “But I just have so much.”
Me: “Well, that’s not THEIR fault.”
Then we had a good laugh and figured it was time to call it quits for the day.
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Oh, I had a little giggle at the conversation with your Mom!
When we bought our house, we found very odd things left behind in various places, including some paintings which turned out to be done by quite a famous artist!
But I agree with you about not leaving the food in the pantry! LOL
LOL I am a pack rat at heart. Ny Hubby is always trying to get me to “let go” of things LOL But I have to agree about food. The new owners would just toss it anyway LOL
That’s funny! Mom was trying to unload some of her unused food.
Thankfully I’m getting out of my packrat tendencies. I was a well organized pack rat but still I was a pack rat!
Tee hee! I agree, any food would left behind would be thown in the garbage.
The people who owned our house left us lovely shades of paint in case we wanted to stick with the same colours… the realtor commented on how nice that was.
Nice! I didn’t want the baby blue and pink paint thankyouverymuch! We took it to the next paint recycling day
oh wow, 27 containers of pasta!! now that’s interesting stuff!! I like the glimpse into your life with the conversation with your mom. funny & sweet.
LOL. I wish I had been exaggerating about the pasta but I’m sure there were that many!
Other than those little quirks, my mom is not so bad. I love her!
That was funny - scary that I’d probably think the same thing as your mum did.
Today my mum brought over a bunch of old relish and jam jars - I had told her I wanted some quart sealer jars … and she decided that extended to dill pickle jars. Oh well … she eventually confessed that she just wanted to get rid of them. So now I’ve gotta figure out what to do with all these jars.
Hi Kate! Welcome to The Vaguetarian Tea Room! I think your mom and mine might be related! LOL. Please do drop in any time! Glad to have you!
your mother sounds wonderful and that’s what I meant by interesting. Interesting is a good word in my vocabulary.
Thinking about it brings me a smile!
You always say such nice things. Interesting is a good word in my vocabulary too! For some reason I’m picturing in my head you and your mom getting together with my mom and me for a little tea party. I bet we’d have a blast!
i think our mothers might be related…. which would make us related…Cousin.
LOL. Well, that would be fine in MY book. Although I’d probably be the cousin you sent off to live elsewhere and nobody spoke about because it would make someone cry. LOL. Just kidding. I’d be good.
you’d be the kind of cousin that lives far away and doesn’t make it out to family funtions all that often… but when you DO!! Boy howdy, it’s a good time. And we’d play Speed Scrabble and you could kick my ass in Whack a Mole… and then at the family supper when you announce that you can’t eat the roast beef everyone would think you were a weirdo.. but you’d give me the strength to stand up and say: “Hey, i don’t eat red meat either!” and then we’d both be singled out and we’d skip out on family dinner and go get gelato.
that’s the kind of cuz you’d be… i think.
XD
LOL. See? This is why I love you, Laura! You have a creative and crazy imagination! But also very intuitive. LOL! We’d have fun and make good memories and that’s what would make us great cousins!
Thanks teeni this converstaion with your Mum made me LOL. A good way to finish the day as i’m now off to bed - it’s just gone 11.00 this side of the water.. good night xx.
Sweet dreams, buddy!
OH your Mom sounds a riot! LOL.
Love the conversation!
That is too cute about wanting to leave the new people some food…
Humour is such a good way to keep stress at bay during what can be a VERY stressful event!
LOL. Yes, we need a LOT of humor at the moment! Life certainly has not been dull in the least in my family lately. LOL. Fortunately, I was able to find a couple of food banks that we can donate much of her food to. That will probably be what we end up doing tomorrow.
Thanks for for the kind words, Merri!
You are now my virtual cousin.
WELCOME TO THE FAMILY!
YAY! I’ve been adopted! LOL. **Goes to search for the long-forgotten only bottle of wine in the house** This calls for a little celebration!