Joe has always said that we spend the first half of our lives collecting things and the second half trying to get rid of them.

Retirement has afforded us the opportunity to dedicate time to the latter activity and we’ve since discovered the freedom that comes with letting go of “things”. Our most recent excursion was to North Carolina, combining a purging with a camping trip. Earlier this month, we headed out in our RV loaded with 12 boxes of carefully packed bone china and crystal, to Replacements, LTD. Rest assured, we have plenty of china and crystal left at home, but this was a solid good beginning for the downsizing we will need to accomplish in order to move someday.

It’s quite amazing how attached we become to the inanimate objects in our lives, imbuing significance and meaning known only internally to us. We have found that parsing items into those which bring us joy versus those to which we feel a duty, is essential to letting go. That and truly moving on, and not looking back!

Sue has long been aware of Replacements, LTD, which is based in McLeansville, NC, and is the world’s largest supplier of china, crystal and silverware. Replacements sells both patterns available today as well as discontinued patterns. With an inventory of over 450,000 china patterns, in the past Sue was able to replace missing pieces of her paternal Grandmother’s china. Lots of fond memories sitting around Grandma Randolph’s dining room table talking and enjoying holiday meals on that china. The memory is made even more special by the very china that was used at the time.

Anyway, the point of this trip was to sell, not buy.

Our process started weeks ago, with Sue reaching out to Replacements to see which of many items they might be interested in. Once she had an offer to purchase, Sue began packing china, crystal and various novelties into boxes for transport to NC.

We dropped off the boxes and downsized our china collection. Now it was time to look around!

While there, we were blown away with the enormity of the Replacements operation and services provided. Walking into the 12,000 square foot showroom was like walking into a grand and glorious past, with beautiful crystal, china and silver as far as the eye can see. Estate jewelry, too!

The cabinets above hold only 500 of the most popular china patterns. Replacements carries a total of 11 million pieces in a warehouse that is the size of 8 football fields.

Display cases were purchased from private homes and retail jewelers. Some display cases were shipped from Europe. Most of the cases were works of art all on their own.

This display case is over 30 feet long.

We completed the trip with a week at the beach with family in Duck, NC. Sweet summertime!