Leslie Means has one piece of advice: When moving, take the door.
Or the drywall or the doorframe or the dresser. Wherever your precious family memories are stored.
“We started measuring our girls’ heights [against a closet door] when they were just babies. The markings were placed on an old hollow door, one of those fake wood ones, but I loved it,” Means told TODAY Parents. “I’m not sure why I chose a door instead of, say, a closet wall. Maybe I knew even then that someday the door would come with us.”
The door is about to move to its third home, but it almost didn’t make it out of the first.
“We had already sold and packed the house and were about ready to sign the final closing documents when I broke down,” said Means, who lives in Kearney, Nebraska. “I told my husband ‘we have to take the door, I can’t leave it behind.’”
Means' girls were 4 and 2 at the time. They’re now 14 and 12, and have a little 5-year-old brother too. When the Means family arrived in their second home, they proudly hung the door on the wall. It didn’t match the decor, but Means said that wasn’t the point.
The kids have been measured on the door since they were babies. Various stuffed animals and two family cats have also been measured there.
The family moved again last week, breaking ground soon on what Means called their “forever home.” The door already has a spot picked out for it — a hallway that’s visible from the kitchen.
“The last item we removed from our home was the door,” Means said. “I love the story it tells. Of where we got our start, the messy (but) beautiful, middle and finally, where our babies will finish growing.”