Top Tips When Moving Home

When I walk my dog at the weekend my steps always seem to take us past my childhood home.  I lived there from birth to the age of 16 and I have many wonderful memories of living there.  

The garden where I spent many an hour on the swing.  The sitting room where we all used to vie for our favourite seat on the couch (I never seemed to win).   The built in wardrobe and shelves in my bedroom that my dad built for me.  The cherry blossom tree from next door that used to tap on my window on stormy days and that I used to spend hours sitting on the large window ledge staring at (think gloomy teenage years!).

I was utterly distraught when we moved from that house and despite moving since, it is and will always be, my favourite house in the world.

Each time you move house you learn something different about how to do it better.  Can arranging a house move be anything less than stressful?  Well yes, it can, but it takes planning and forethought.

Declutter

When you decide that it is time to move house, the first thing that you should do, before you start looking for a new home, is declutter.  Be ruthless and go through everything.  From clothes that you haven't worn for the past ten years to the five whisks in your kitchen that you have accumulated (yes even that one you've had since 1994 that is somehow sentimental but belongs in a museum).

The longer you live in a house, the more that you will accumulate.  

This will not only help with the packing process but when it comes to the time when you sell your house, a decluttered, tidy home will sell faster and hopefully, for a better price when the buyer can see what they are actually buying.

Save the Memories

This isn't a tip for moving home, it is preserving memories.  Be ruthless in your declutter, but save your photographs.  All of them.  The silly ones, the old ones, the ones with your family where you hate the way that you look.

5, 10, 25 years down the line, you will miss them.  Put them in a box for attic storage in the new house.  Your future you, will thank you.

Removals

Order your removal company ahead of time.  Get as many removal quotes as you can and get recommendations.  Everyone you know will have moved home at some point and everyone has a different experience.  You want a good price with a recommended firm that won't break your valuables and won't take all day with the removal.

Notify Everyone

Sounds obvious doesn't it?  Which it is, albeit very, very time consuming.  But we live in 2018 now, not 1960.  Embrace the power of the internet and use a website like I Am Moving where you can put your details in and notify all the companies you use.  Utilities, credit cards, internet shopping providers like Amazon, subscriptions and insurance.

Create a Fact File & Ask For The Same

Pay it forward by creating a fact file for the buyers of your home.  Things like reliable trades people, who your utilities are with and when you last changed them, what make your boiler is, the best local takeaway, when the rubbish is collected; where the best place is to walk your dog nearby and most importantly, which is the best local pub.

Have a conversation with the people you are buying your new home from.  Ask for the same and mention you are doing this for your new buyers.  Maybe even offer a cash incentive.  In all the costs of moving, what is another £50 to gain this sort of information at your fingertips when you first move in? (Particularly the best local takeaway when you are surrounded by boxes and losing the will to live and cook).

Create a Survival Box

That first night that you are in your new home you are going to be exhausted, bewildered, tired and hungry.  Get a big plastic box that you can transport on your lap to the new house.  Put in tea, coffee, sugar, a kettle, milk, toilet rolls, a DVD (if you manage to set up your TV system), scissors, warm socks.  Yes I said socks.  Working out the heating system on the first night, if the owners didn't leave you a fact file, may be confusing and you will be cold.  Socks.  Trust me.

Lastly

The obvious things.  Don't over pack your boxes and LABEL.  Label everything.  Try and get a good night's sleep the night before.  If you are working full time, hire a company to pack for you.  Again, someone reputable and recommended.  Have a glass of wine to calm the nerves of moving (the night before, not on the day!).  Breath.  Just breath.  You are organised.  You will be fine.

*Collaborative piece

How Do You Say I Love You?

I love you.  Three small, tiny words that mean so much.  But how do you say I love you?

Sometimes it is a small thing that making someone that first cup of coffee in the morning. Sometimes it is giving someone a hug when they don't know that they need one.  Sometimes it is creating a gift for someone that costs nothing, but means the world.

One my most treasured possessions is a photo album that my mum made for me a couple of years ago with pictures of when I was young with my dad.  Having photographic memories of him, especially having lost him at such a young age is more precious that you can imagine.

Sometimes I think that the best ways of telling someone you love them is when they least expect it.  I love to bring my mum flowers, just because.  It does not have to be expensive, a couple of bunches of daffodils makes her so happy.  They also my favourite flower.

Flying Flowers recently commissioned a survey on how people show their love.  Unsurprisingly, 76% of people said that they would buy flowers to show their love on Mother's Day.

You can check out the survey below.

 

Where the Heart Is

Memories.  They are the most precious thing that we have.

One way that we remember our memories is through photographs.  Now that we are in the digital age, photographs can be taken by their hundreds, edited to enhance the clarity and be uploaded to the world. 

When I was growing up, photographs were taken with film.  Something about having something physical to hold and put in a photo frame means so much more than looking at a photograph on a screen.

One of the best Christmas presents I ever received was a photograph album of me, my dad and my mum from the first seven years of my life, before we lost my dad.  It is precious to me beyond words.  

I thought that I would share some of those photographs here today.

Whilst I have shared some of best kept photographs I have here, unfortunately, these photographs taken decades ago can degrade and fade; as have many in my photo album of memories.  With this in mind, one of my ideas for a Christmas present for my mum (who isn't too internet savvy as and such, only sees the posts I show her) is to restore and blow up some of my photographs.  I want both a restored original and also a digital copy so that these photographs will last a lifetime.    

I decided to contact and hire local professionals in order to make my idea a reality and I decided to use the internet to find the best professional in my area and received several quotes back within a few days.  

I cannot wait to get my photos back and give my mum a surprise that I know that she will love.  On a side note, just how beautiful is my mum!!

Childhood Reminders

I saw this somewhere, I can’t remember though whether it was a writing prompt or a challenge but I liked the sound of it, so here it is!

 

Whether it be a smell, a sound, an object or something else,

describe what takes you straight back to your childhood

 

Music - Any music by The Carpenters.  My mum always used to play The Carpenters when I was a little girl and their music became the anthem of my childhood.

 

Books – books will always be tied to my childhood as I loved to lose myself in their pages.  I had a penchant for the children’s books that had been written decades earlier and became lost in stories like The Faraway Tree, The Famous Five, Mallory Towers, What Katy Did and all of the Narnia books; which were my favourites.  They all contributed in some way to the person I grew up to be, turning me into a blend of old fashioned and 21^st century values.   

 

Cherry blossom – my neighbour had a huge cherry blossom tree which was the size of the house.  Its branches used to tap on my window and the sight of the cherry blossom arriving each year was a beautiful sight.

 

Peanuts – my dad always used to buy a packet of peanuts every Friday night.   There always used to be a tiny eggcup with some in for me left over.  It’s funny the things you remember….

 

Perfume – I always smile to myself when I am choosing on a new perfume.  The street we used to live on didn’t have any other children on it.  The majority of the houses had elderly people living there. 

 

 

Our next door neighbours were an elderly lady and her daughter and I remember going over there a lot, playing around with water and different sorts of flower petals to see what sort of fragrances I could make.  I used to call it “making potions”.  Sadly now the “potions” I wear now are a little more expensive.

 

What takes you back to your childhood?

Your Music Mood

Music, the thing that you can sit back and listen to, dance to, cry to, use to uplift your mood and make your day a little better.

The thing I love about music is how it makes you feel.  How you can be in a bad mood, then the right song comes on and it completely lifts you out of the doldrums.  Songs hold your memories, you listen to them and it takes you right back to the memory of the time that you heard it.  Good memories, bad memories, memories you never want to forget.

Here are a (very) few of my favourites, some with an explanation of the memory I hold.  The first I will post the Youtube video here because it is so special, the rest are links to listen to if you wish…

Teitur – The One and Only

This song is one of my favourite memories.  This was the song my best friend walked down the aisle to on her wedding day.  We had all jetted off to Cyprus for the wedding, just 14 of us, all the best of friends.  Listening to that song brings me right back to that day, without doubt the happiest I have ever been for someone else.

Livin' Joy - Dreamer
An oldie (in relative terms) but again one packed full of memories.  A dance tune from the 90’s which takes me back to when I first started hitting the town when I was young(er).  The excitement of going to a club for the first time, hearing the music, it makes me smile every time I hear it.

Bad Reputation - Joan Jett

No explanation needed, if you love punk rock music from the seventies, you will and probably already do love this.

The Way we Were – Barbra Streisand

The most painful song I own.  Nothing to do with the movie, this was the song my mum played at my dad’s funeral.  I rarely listen to it, but I could never be without it.

Everybody’s Free (To Wear Sunscreen) – Baz Lurhmann

This song changed the way I thought when I heard it as a teenager, and now when I listen to, I realise how true it is.

Great Balls of Fire – Jerry Lee Lewis

A “get me of out of a bad mood” song.  I defy you not to smile when it plays.

Inside – Stiltskin

It’s beautiful.  The video is not great,but I implore you, get the song.

Song 2 – Blur

Pure driving song, if you love to drive and this comes on the radio on the motorway, watch the speedo!

Well that is just a very few of the songs I love.   Enjoy!  I do not own the rights to any of the materials, right or songs above.