Our furniture has finally arrived. Almost exactly 3 months after we waved goodbye to it in Brussels. All our belongings are now surrounding me packed in cardboard boxes and bubble wrap. Its going to take us weeks to unpack it all but I don't care as I am just so glad to see all the little treasured possessions (read cheap souvenirs we collected at odd times) that make me feel at home.
Toys - obviously the first thing we unpacked!
The TV - the first thing we got working!
I unpacked our headless "Wallace and Gromit" alarm clock and sat looking at it. I thought that people would probably think we were mad bringing this 12000 miles across the Atlantic Ocean. But I don't think I am. Its items like this that make a house feel like home. Its the tatty teddy you've owned for thirty years and the table that you brought for a £1 on Ebay that no one else wants but mean something important to you. This makes it worth while paying to bring things all the way to the other side of the world. At least this is what I will keep telling DH every time he unwraps another bit of odd "objet d'art" and asks "why the hell did we bring this?".
Living for three months without any of your possessions, makes you realise just how little you actually need in life. We have survived on the clothes we brought with us in our suitcases, some inflatable mattresses, duvets, a set of saucepans, cutlery, a kettle and my laptop. It makes you wonder why it was so important to you to go and spend a couple of hundred on the latest games console or the new picture for the lounge or that coffee maker (with the horrendously expensive sachets). Why do we need all this stuff?
Well I guess I'm back to where I started - we need all this stuff to make it feel like home. Just not necessarily all of it!
Toys - obviously the first thing we unpacked!
Found your blog via This New Zealand Life. Reading your story took me back to when we made the move here in 2006. Hope that the unpacking goes well. We kept so much in boxes for another 18 months as we were building a house and didn't have enough room in our rental for everything. It makes such a difference to having your stuff around you - it's the smallest things that make the difference. Like your headless Wallace and Grommit Fridge Magnets I brought with me.
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