A house is not a home

Haven’t blogged in a few days so this is a bit of a long one!! (sorry guys!)

The last few days where hectic is a slight understatement! Only me could have picked a moving date that was right in the middle of the “Beast from the east” hitting Basingstoke! If moving wasn’t stressful enough doing it in what seemed like 10 feet of snow was a bit of a nightmare!! But I did it!

I knew it wasn’t going to be easy from day 1 when one friend who was meant to be helping had to cancel and if it wasn’t for Nicky taking a day off work I would probably still be moving in/ in the corner of the room rocking back and forth! I own a stupid amount of stuff and how I managed to get it in one room at barber road I have no idea as I have managed to fill a whole studio flat with the same stuff!

So, on day 1 of moving, I managed to move everything in apart from my clothes on hangers (which fills up a double wardrobe) and frozen food! I wish I took a picture because honestly there was boxes and bags for life everywhere!! Once we got everything in we had a quick food stop and glass of wine after 5 hours of back and forth!

I didn’t actually know where to start, but by midnight that night I had put almost everything away and realised I needed a pop up wardrobe and some other form of storage as I need somewhere to put items like socks and knickers somewhere! First night I slept quite badly but I think that was my mind just wanting everything sorted!!

Day 2, Still battling the beast! I went to B&M home stores, and brought a lot of stuff for the house including a beautiful vintage clothes rail and a storage cube draw thingy! I walked out feeling pretty impressed with myself! I then headed straight to barber road to pack up the clothes hanging up and my frozen food as well as doing one last clean and handing in my keys! I got in the car and I’m not going to lie, I had a little cry as that was it, I was really on my own !! I guess I realised that if I was down or had a bad day, I always knew Jake, then Alice when she moved in with him were always there and it kinda gave me a comfort to know although I felt alone, I wasn’t! But that wasn’t the case anymore… I was fully by myself!

Later that day I decided to make the clothes rail as there was bags of clothes everywhere and I had a friend coming over in the evening and wanted her to see it as finished as possible! So as I started building it as the new independent women I am! To find out there was no screws in the box……. Epic fail! I then found the receipt to go an exchange it to see a charge for £89.99….. Confused I had a think and realised the most expensive thing I brought should have been £39.99! I had been charged for a lawn mower rather than my storage cube thingy!! Livid!! Check the opening time online and it said 8pm! Great it was 6:45 and my friend Kerry was coming over at 7! I phoned her to say we needed to pop out which was good as dominos wasn’t delivering so we thought oh we can collect!

So I put the heavy draws back into the car, along with the stupid clothes rail with no screws to drive to B&M only to get there to see that had closed early!!! Grrrrrrrr!! Worst was there were members of staff just walking around the shop floor! Then to top it off all the dominos in Basingstoke had closed early too!! Lucky good old papa johns saved the day!

Day 3, got up early to head to B&M to exchange the clothes rail and get my money back for the storage cube/ lawn mower before bootcamp! They then told me I had to wait till Monday to prove I hadn’t brought a lawn mower and check the security cameras even though the drawers weren’t on the receipt! I then burst into tears and said but I live in a studio flat! I don’t even have a lawn and you really think I walked out with both a lawn mower, a heavy set of drawers and £200 worth of other stuff!! The poor women obviously did not need to deal with a crying girl and managed to get it all sorted as it was one number different that had been typed in! But then I had to tell them how to do the refund!! I don’t even work in retail!!

Stressful! I then spent 5 minutes staring at screwdriver sets in asda before heading straight to the alcohol isle! I got home put up the new clothes rail and had a nap… it had been a long day already and I have two women from bootcamp coming over in the evening so needed to be fresh! I woke up to a knock on the door and my amazing personal trainer was there with flowers and gifts for my new house! And I even shed a tear after everything! In the evening, I drank, sang and ate unicorn cake which was very much needed after the last few days!

Day 4, I wasn’t planning on the leaving the flat as I wanted everything sorted! I manage to build the storage unit thingy,

Put the last bits away and finally my flat was being a home!! I had some guest who surprised me throughout the day which was lovely and then I sat down in the evening and finally got to breathe for the first time in 4 days!

I started to think about the last time I had a home, as I actually still spoke about my mum’s house as my home and I hadn’t lived there for over 4 years! Its strange although ive lived away from my parents, It was always someone elses place and never really my home, now it is! I can put what I want on the side, I can leave a cup in the sink and most importantly I can walk around naked if I want too!

I finally have a place I can call home, and yes it might be small but its just me there and I can have a random unicorn gnome on top of my draws if I want!

Time to be fully independent and become the best version of me!