moving house – Pete's Blog

By the end of last week our new house was well organised and tidy. Everything had been deboxed and put away. Pictures were up on walls. The fridge and cupboards had been stocked. We had even put up a few blinds ad curtain rails. We had a dinner party on Sunday and I was proud of the house.

So why this morning was everything in a mess again?

The answer is the elephant in the garage. Readers of this blog may remember the photo I posted when we moved in, with the garage stacked floor to ceiling, front to back with boxes and furniture. This week I opened every box and moved the contents into piles for charity, for the tip, to keep in the garage and for the house.

What I discovered was that we have literally hundreds of things we do not use but which we carry round from house to house, loft to loft, shed to shed. It all takes up space. It all needs looking after. We just keep it for sentimental reasons. Pictures that the boys painted when they were toddlers. A table and chairs that Mandy’s Dad made. My own Dad’s collection of antique newspapers. Robert’s expensive coffee machine that is never used. Martin’s weights set that gathers dust under a bed. Mandy’s exercise bike from when she had her knees replaced during Covid. My golf clubs that I kid myself I will get back to one day.

I give myself the excuse that one day these things will come in useful. And hey, maybe I am right. But this week I have certainly got more pleasure from giving things away. Our oak bench seats have gone to my brother in law to be made into a seat and shoe rack for his hall. The golf clubs to my sporty great nephew. The old cutlery drawers have gone to “Save the children” to go in their window. A fridge, freezer, table and packing boxes are going to a friend’s daughter who is about to move house. Hundreds of puzzles, games and CDs are going to charity. An old leather chesterfield sofa and chair will hopefully be fetched by the British Heart Foundation.

I have felt ruthless and proud of what we have done. And still, the garage still hosts those old newspapers. And my old model railway in boxes. And Martin’s old snooker cue. And a table tennis table that went in the charity pile and somehow returned to the garage.

Maybe they will come in useful.

Living on a narrowboat for most of the year, we have become very good at minimising the things we need to live. We have a rule that if we buy something new for the boat, something else has to go. The result is that although it is a small space, we have everything we need to live, and is does not look cluttered.

So why is it that moving house this week, we have so so so much stuff? I cannot believe how many boxes I have unpacked. And I still have rooms full of more boxes, and a garage packed to the roof.

The trouble is that we have lived in large houses for years and years. I believe that people fill the space they live in. Whether it is a small narrowboat, or a mansion. Over time cupboards get filled and spaces get occupied. Our new house is still big but not as big as the one we had in Scotland. We probably should have got rid of half the stuff when we moved out, but we didn’t. So now we have boxes and boxes of things we do not need. I estimate four or five times too many glasses, four times too many mugs, five times too much linen. And don’t even mention the shoes! We have hundreds of DVDs that we never watch, four sets of crockery, a chesterfield sofa and chair we don’t need, boxes of stationery from the loft. The list goes on.

So the next couple of days are about getting lounge, kitchen and two bedrooms ready for use at Christmas. Then I will methodically do the rest of the house, room by room, box by box. That will leave me January to work my way through the garage. Charity shops will be deluged by me, as will the local tip.

The real question is whether Mandy and I can be more disciplined in the future. I’d like to use that narrowboat rule on the house. One thing in and one thing out. I certainly don’t ever want to see this many boxes again!

In July I wrote a blog entitled “Houseless not homeless”. We had just sold our house in Scotland and were going to be living on our narrowboat full time. We had no house but we had a home on the boat. Last Friday we completed the purchase of a new house in Lancashire. It is lovely but we couldn’t schedule the removal company to bring our stuff out of storage till next week, and so this week we have had a house but not a home.

My brother in law installing my new wardrobes – thanks Steve

It has been a strange week. There has been plenty to do, from building wardrobes, to connecting the internet, to sorting out address changes. It has been fun. But I have been to and fro between the house, the boat and my in laws, who live close by. So I have felt unsettled. For ten days I do not know where my home is.

Since I retired we have had a routine of spending the summer in the boat and the winter in a house. In my unconscious mind I have seamlessly switched “home” from one to the other. We have also travelled quite a lot but that was never a problem because I knew where home was. The cliché is that “home is where the heart is”. I think home provides the foundations that allow me to be carefree and adventurous. It is family, it is relationships, and it is also a location.

So this week has felt really quite odd. But next week should be amazing. The removal people will arrive on Tuesday morning and Mandy has kindly offered to stay at the boat with the dogs for a couple of days more while I break the back of the unpacking. I am looking forward to working out where things go. I am looking forward to setting things up. And most of all I am looking forward to building a home.

What do you think about “home”? Is it just where you happen to live or is it so much more?

Tag: moving house

Am I just keeping that for sentimental reasons?

Why do we have so much stuff?

Homeless but not houseless