Spring Cleaning and Moving House

Collaborative Post.

February is a mad time to move house, let me tell you! It’s cold, it’s wet and it’s windy. All the storms we’ve had lately have been mad, and they’ve really added to the stress of moving. Now that we have a garden for the first time ever, we’ve experienced our fences falling down (on our first night here) and the tracking of mud throughout the house! It’s been a crazy few weeks, but now we’re slowly starting to settle into things and figure out where to put everything and how to structure our days.

One great thing about moving in February though is that it basically forces you into doing the big spring clean!

Sorting through the clutter.

I suppose one advantage of moving house is that you automatically end up clearing out a lot of clutter. I remember packing up my clothes and thinking ‘I literally don’t even fit into these jeans anymore, why do I have them?’ It’s quite cathartic being able to get rid of material things, I just wish I could be a bit more cut throat with it. Another plus is that if you start the packing early enough, you can probably sell off unwanted bits before you move and therefore make a profit. I managed to sell a few bits, but in the end I just got sick of them lying around so we took them to the charity shop. Since moving it, I have found even more bits of clothing that I don’t need anymore and I’ve put them into a Breast Cancer Awareness charity bag.

But I have to admit that there were a couple of snags along the way, especially with sentimental items. Yes, it took up a lot of space, but I didn’t want to compromise my memories for something as short-lived as having extra space. Especially when it was only an issue because we lived in a small flat in Canterbury, if we lived in the countryside, I wouldn’t have to worry about the space it was taking up! That’s when I decided to go for Henfield’s self storage facility in Canterbury. I moved all the clutter I needed out of my flat (but not out of my life) into my storage unit, and it has done wonders for my spring cleaning routine.

Organising your life.

It’s really frustrating having boxes of your possessions filling up your new home and it can be really hard to settle in and make it homely when you don’t know where anything is. The thing Mikey’s struggling with the most is settling and knowing where all our things are. Already I’ve tried to find a tape measure, some batteries and a Park Run bar code and I’ve had no idea where to even start looking! It’s really frustrating but I think one of the great things about moving house and decluttering is that you can really think about your organisation system and ensure that you have everything you need in the right places. Mikey has built me a little office space in the corner of our bedroom with my desk, bookshelf, plants and special mementos which is really lovely. I can’t wait to have all my stationary, envelopes, books and trinkets organised.

Cleaning, cleaning and more cleaning.

The worst thing about moving house, in my opinion, is the sheer amount of cleaning you have to do! Thankfully our old flat had wooden flooring, so when we moved all the big bits of furniture out, we just ran the vacuum over the floors and they looked as good as new. It wasn’t so bad cleaning up the old flat and we got it all done pretty quickly. Looking back at it, I wish that I’d bought myself a good selection on Jangro products to help fight through the grime on the cooker and all the lime scale build ups, as those were the most problematic areas for us.

All the laundry!

Moving house has presented different cleaning challenges that I’m not used to, so it’s been a bit of a learning curb. With the garden (and all the storms), I’ve had to learn how to minimise the amount of mud getting into the house; that hasn’t been easy! I’ve also had so much laundry to do. We’ve all been sweaty from moving around and muddy from falling over when playing football in the garden, so the washing basket has been filling up really quickly! I’m going to buy us some huge boxes of laundry powder from Jangro Enviro to help me get through the sheer volume of muddy clothing. I much prefer washing powder to liquids, I’m not sure why but I think they smell a bit nicer!

That being said, it is also true that moving a house can even stain a few clothes and fill them with dirt. In such cases, it is suggested to use professional cleaning services to get the clothes such as shirts, pants, and even other washable rugs in your home washed and cleaned They use the latest techniques to clean the clothes; some even provide pick-up and drop services, so you can get them ready in time. 

Fresh decorations.

Moving house has come the excuse to freshen up our soft furnishings. We’ve ditched our old curtains and old wall art and we’ve invested in some really nice additional touches for our living room and bedroom. Mikey and I have decided that it’s time to be adults, so we’ve put photos on the walls and decided not to put any of our geeky film memorabilia up. I have loads of Star Wars and Assassins Creed posters and figurers, so I’m not sure where we’re going to put them but the living room definitely looks more inviting without them.

We’re all moved in now – it’s official. Mikey is currently on his way to hand over our old flat keys, so there’s definitely no going back now! When things are a bit more organised, I will write a little more about the house, but until then, I have loads to do and still so much unpacking to get through!