MOVING HOUSE & THE THINGS I’VE LEARNT.

What a bloody chaotic few weeks I’ve had. 
What with day-to-day work, having a pretty nasty cough and cold and well, moving house! It’s been bloody mental but a good laugh all the while. 
George and I have really come together as a solid little unit, a well oiled machine and loved every single second (well, almost) of the move so far.

I’m currently writing this from a very bare Casa Del Chip, the city centre Casa Del Chip. Not the new terrace house, suburban Casa Del Chip. The walls are bare, the cupboards are empty and all that is left is my wardrobe and my beauty stash to move over to the new place. George is currently on his second run of the day, moving box after box from flat, to car, to house and back, that boy is an absolute angel!

And whilst it’s been fun and games for the most part, moving can be one of the most stressful times in anyones life. Not to mention the whole buying a house lark, now thats a different ball game altogether. But we’re almost there, we’ve almost packed up two years of memories into around 23 boxes with countless car journeys and one van journey to and from the new place. 
We’ve been lucky in a sense, that we can move across slowly over the space of two weeks, but that aside I have some learnings, which is what I love so much about each and every key life moment; they bring with them countless ways in which to learn, to develop and to grow, so I’m OF COURSE gonna share them with you lot today!

Something I didn’t realise until just this morning when I was putting off getting out of my warm bed and into a cold and empty living space was how much harder it is to pack up an entire flat. 

Now that sounds dumb and quite frankly obvious, but in the past I’ve only ever had a room to pack up, with the odd few kitchen appliances and pots and pans. Since I was 18 I’ve moved every year continuously for 7 years solid. From uni dorms in Huddersfield, to a shared house, to London, back to uni, back to London, a house move across London and then finally back to Manchester. It’s been chaotic to say the least so I was thrilled to find our perfect little haven in Manchester that we could stay in for longer than just a year. 

But over the space of two years you don’t half collect a lot of crap! We have 5 rooms and two loft cavities full of crap that has taken us a solid week to pack up and move across; I mean, I don’t know what I was expecting if I’m honest, but my goodness, as my first home after house sharing for so long, it’s been a shock to the system just how much stuff two people can accumulate.

Deffo something to consider if you’re moving out of your first proper home… Take some time off from work to pack, you’ll be surprised at how much stuff can find it’s way into your little space.

Men, really can be great!?

Thats one thing that has come from this move. Well, the man in my life anyhoo!

For the past two years I’ve moaned, I’ve winged and I’ve muttered under my breath about the dirty pants on the floor, the Pringles tube wedged down the side of the sofa and the fact he NEVER cleans the bathroom, but my goodness I will pick up sock after sock for the rest of my life if it means George steps up the way he has during this move. 

I honestly couldn’t have done it without him, he’s been a little motivated angel and quite frankly a packing aficionado. He’s driven back and forth between flat and house more times than I have fingers and whilst I struggle to see past the boxes, the dust and the sheer chaos of our flat, he’s kept me calm, kept me laughing until I cry and he’s just bloody got on with it. 

It’s taught me to give him some slack, that we all work a little differently and that I can be a little OCD when it comes to our home being tidy. He’s totally blown me away and proven that when the going gets tough, the tough get going or something like that. George has been a complete dream and I now promise not to eye roll when you leave the butter on the side without the lid on ever again!

Next up, I’ve learnt that I must pull furniture out from where it lives and hoover behind it every once in a while…Dust bunnies aren’t cool!

I’ve also learnt that pillar/church candles are a freaking NIGHTMARE when it comes to rented accommodation that is fully furnished. They WILL melt and wax WILL run down the wall and dry hard on the wooden furniture and you WILL struggle to get it off and in-turn you WILL loose your deposit (this hasn’t happened just yet, pray for us that we get at least a portion of our deposit back)

Another thing that doesn’t go down well with rented accommodation is hanging things from the wall.

There is definitely a reason landlords ask you not to do so as they’re a bit of a nightmare to refill/cover up. We shouted “HELL NO” when we read the contract that stated we weren’t to put anything on the walls and as a big FU went bat shit cray on the ole artwork, which was great. I’d probably do it again as living in a bare flat for two years isn’t fun nor homely for anyone, you have to put your own touches on it and for us that meant artwork.

But just a note, they’re a reet mare to rectify.

In the past I’ve frantically ran around my room with a dust pan and a hoover cleaning and scrubbing every last inch of the place, determined to get back as much of my deposit as possible, only to be penalised for a rogue cobweb in the corner of the skirting board (yeah seriously)

So this time, and with 4 additional rooms, we’ve booked a professional cleaner to deep clean the shit out of the place. She’s coming next week so I will report back with how it goes, but I’m BUZZING to see this place sparkle and stick the middle finger up to our landlord once more.

Another key learning for renting is to make it easy for yourself and clean your oven every few weeks, that’s a bit gross, but yeah, we didn’t…

Something I wish I’d done was to book some time off from work. I’d always said that I wanted to take a good two weeks off to pack up my old flat and get a good start on making the new house a home, however sometimes it’s not always doable and the big move always seems to come round so quickly.

I’d definitely recommend trying to take some time off, even just a day or two to try and get ahead. In my case I’ve been juggling the packing, the move and all the work that’s just come in all at once.

It’s happy days and we made it work by luckily being able to bring the move forward by a week to ensure everything could be done to the highest degree but my goodness, a week off would have been a treat.

This is Sod’s law and totally typical of my life but I got ill during the packing up of our flat, bloody classic ey!? And whilst a cough and a cold, ain’t too bad, it’s a crappy combination when you’re heavy lifting and mixing around with dust, well, let’s just say sneezing fits by the shed load are inevitable.

So look after yourself, keep hydrated and avoid people with the lurgy (lol I love that word) where possible.

Speaking of looking after yourself, this one is key! Do NOT do an upper body work out the morning of the big move… you will regret it and you WILL be in absolute agony… Good one Megan and George.

And finally don’t listen to what everybody says about moving. People tell you that you will be stressed and you will bicker but honestly George and I have had the most wonderful time packing up our memories, reminiscing and starting a new and very exciting chapter together as home owners. If anything we’re closer and happier than ever before! Its true, it can be a tough time for a couple but stay happy, positive and excited, this is just a week or so of disarray (and dust) before a lifetime of happy memories in your new home so please try and enjoy it.

So there we go, some things I’ve learnt through this whole moving process. It’s been a busy but amazing time and I’m so excited to share more from our beautiful new home. Next week I have a farewell note to our city centre flat, a place we truly loved living in, so I hope you enjoy that, with the much awaited flat tour coming up on YouTube too.

See you then

x M

PHOTOGRAPHY BY JACK GRACIE