What's Behind that Door?

    People like their homes to present an image of themselves they want you to see, but how well does that image cover everything they don’t want you to see?

    Not very.

    When you work for a moving company you see just about everything someone owns when you pack up their belongings. And I mean EVERYTHING. 

    I worked for a moving company for three summers, and about 25% of that time I was packing homes. That means putting anything and everything in a box in any way you can. Meaning I would shove as many pillows as I could into a box (of course nothing that would damage someone’s items) to not make more boxes that I would end up carrying the next day.

    When we get to a house, the first thing is the walk-through, and that’s exactly what you think it is. We go to each room and look to see what’s hidden in closets, cabinets, wardrobes and under furniture. 

    What we don’t do anymore is look inside nightstands. That stopped after my boss and I both looked in what we later assumed to be the homeowner’s wife’s nightstand. 

    And saw something she uses in place of her husband.

    Sometimes though, a person’s oddest item can almost be in plain sight. One of my least favorite sights in packing is a collection of books. The weight adds up extremely quickly and they take forever to pack. So, your eyes start to glaze over as you grab book after book after book. 

    When we were moving an older, widowed woman I was assigned to her book collection in the master bedroom. About halfway through something snapped me out of my packing haze. A book on different positions to use when having sex. 

    The craziest part is that there was something even worse in that book collection. 

    About 30 minutes later, I was almost done with the books and pushed to the back of the bookcase was a red and black book with its face against the wall. Turning it over it was a copy of Mein Kampf, which for those that don’t know is the political manifesto of Adolf Hitler. 

    After telling the rest of the crew, I don’t think we ever packed faster than we did that day. The only thing on our mind was “GET OUT.”

    Other things people hide aren’t as sinister, but still raise eyebrows, especially because of how easily they’re found.

    The last thing we do when packing is look for any breakable and fragile things. One time I was checking the upstairs for any last breakables, and I noticed something under the master bed near the back. I got one of the other guys to help me lift the mattress and box spring and we didn’t know what we found or why it would be there.

    A statue, about eight inches high, stood on the floor at the top of the master bed. This statue was of a monkey in a seated position, clutching a half-peeled banana in its hands. On its face was a wide, closed grin with its eyes looking upward. Neither of us said anything or moved for 30 seconds until we both let out a collective sigh as if to say “what the hell is that.” 

    So, the next time you go visit a friend and see nice decorations, beautiful artwork, just know there’s bound to be something you’d never expect just behind a closed cabinet door.