I do get it. Also what clickmichelle said – that sometimes you THINK you are not attached to stuff when in fact you are.

“The best love hurts so much” – I wish it weren’t true but it is, isn’t it? And families are always so complicated.

This moving thing – not easy. You’ll feel better in a few weeks. I hope you get to take as much of the things that you love with you.

Vered-No, I didn’t figure she would actually read my post because we are busy. I wrote it because I had to write it.

I think the furniture thing is sort of a quasi cultural family thing. Most of the furniture has been in my mother’s family since it was made in the 1800s. I have no grandparents. I have no extended family that I am close to. My father passed away over a decade ago. My mother is in incredibly frail health, is losing her memory, and lives far away. My sisters don’t live close either, one is disabled and in precarious health, spends more of her time in the hospital than not. My other sister…we email but don’t have a deep relationship or see each other for years on end…just a few times since I left home 20 years ago. We don’t live where I grew up. I have no “life-long friends”. (though plenty of friends…just none that I grew up with and still am in regular contact with)

The furniture is all about roots and history and family for me. It holds on to those memories in the absence of photos, of video, of people to tell me the stories. It isn’t actually the object, just the totem that keeps me rooted. If you can buy it in a store, I am happy to toss it away in moments. But, it comes down to the song I sing with/to my kids

Anything, anywhere
I would give everything I own away

But in the same song…

Too bad
The best love hurts so much

I don’t see things the way you do… physical stuff means nothing to me.

I would get rid of it all.

But this was beautifully written, and I totally get why you are attached to these items.

Good luck with the move.