We moved into our new home last Wednesday and we already absolutely love it! We are within walking distance of so many exciting places; places to eat, places to dance and oh so close to the track! Those who are local will understand the huge excitement that this evokes. But through all this excitement I’ve realized I need to be kinder to myself and have more realistic expectations; maybe be a little less optimistic!

On my first morning as I sipped my first cup of tea in our new home, I thought ‘I’ll be able to share all about this later’... then I started cleaning and 48 hours later I was still going! Our new home hasn’t been lived in properly for 11 years, it’s been a short term let over that time and it shows, it doesn’t feel as if it has been loved in that time. It feels good to be here and I think it’s going to be a very happy, safe and honest home for us. But I’ll admit, the cleaning seemed never ending! The fridge alone, helped by a friend, took over an hour to get clean! Thank heavens the furniture didn’t arrive until Saturday. Literally all of Thursday and Friday were spent cleaning. I’m not the sort of person who let’s emails pile up; I’m a read it, deal with it and file or delete kind of person. Those amongst you with red ‘badges’ declaring 23,849 unread emails make me feel physically ill, so it gives you some indication of the all consuming-ness of unpacking if I tell you that I have 78 undealt with emails in my inbox! It is pretty much unheard of that I have been so preoccupied I have barely been on my personal social media pages, let alone My Elephant in the Room pages. So I apologize if you have been dying to know how the move went and how the unpacking is going. Or have been craving a picture or two, hopefully these few will satisfy your craving just a little…

Saturday morning dawned bright and early and with it the movers arrived, I was so pleased to see them! How difficult can it be bringing all our furniture from a 5 bed, full basement, 3 car garage home into my new 3 bed with a shed home?! Seemingly VERY!! Despite having downsized considerably it became apparent that there is still so much downsizing to be done. The furniture arrived relatively painlessly, there was room for it and rooms began to take shape but then came the boxes. There are so many boxes, I cried at one point after the movers had been bringing in box after box after box for a solid 45 minutes. They were reassuring, ‘everyone’s the same’ they said, but I’m sure under their breath they couldn’t believe it either.

By mid afternoon the boxes were all inside our home; in our way, in everyone’s way and I was feeling overwhelmed… But still not being kind to myself because I was quite sure I would be able to cook a meal the following night. I even bought food to cook, but by dinner time Sunday I still hadn’t even unearthed the pots and pans box! In fact, tonight (Tuesday) things were clear enough for me to feel capable of actually cooking something, a real meal, and it felt good…

I think with a few reminders I could get used to being kind to myself, taking things slowly and making my personal expectations a little more realistic. I’d love some insight from all of those movers out there… how long will it be before the house is ‘my kind of straight’? Will the garbage men always think of us as the box house? And how long was it before your new home felt like home; for us it was minutes.

I never imagined feeling so lucky with my new forever home.

Be kind, be gentle,

Denise xoxo