House moving is fun. After you’ve got the key, you think the heaven is nearly there. But hang on, is it really true? What about, THESE STEPS?
Here are our true experience of moving and furnishing house in the UK.
Step 1: Shopping. First in Store, then Go Online
Among these 4 steps, Shopping is the most exhausting one. Since we moved from Germany with boxes only, all furnitures need to be purchase again. We mainly browse John Lewis, M&S, Wayfair, Ikea, Amazon and Dunelm.
Thanks to the big department store Cribbs Causeway is just 20mins walk away, we are able to go to John Lewis and M&S to see the actual product first. Then we browse at Ikea and other online stores to compare price, delivery charge, lead time and other details.
If you’re the just-pick-one type of person, shopping is easy, because you don’t care so much. But I always try to pick a better option (not perfect) : good quality, durable, with a reasonable price, and the shopping experience should be hassle free, which is, really difficult to find!
For your reference, end up we bought most of the stuffs from John Lewis and Ikea. John Lewis offers good quality product (we’ve checked!), and delivery free with excellent service. And Ikea, some products are really in good price, that we simply couldn’t look away. 🙂
Step 2: Delivery and the Endless Waiting
I admit, Waiting for the Delivery is really tickling because you don’t know when will the courier come! In our case, the new apartment is just 2 mins walk away, and we don’t want to keep waiting in an empty apartment, so we really want to know the precise delivery time (which sadly doesn’t exist).
Most of the delivery companies will send you an approximate delivery time window a day before. If they are good enough, they will again send you a narrowed down 1-2 hours time slot on the delivery day morning.
Sometimes, they arrive early. Sometimes, they run late. The Hey-we-are-here-you-better-come-now calling is really make me nervous. But Curry Boy is always so chill, even though he knows somebody is waiting for him, he is still walking at a normal pace, not even a slow running. (How can he do that?)
Step 3: Assembly, isn’t it the Funniest Part?
Maybe. 🙂
It’s like playing LEGO. A giant one.
For example, a 2 meter wardrobe. Picking up a mirrored door is much heavier than I expected. Every time we finished one furniture, I always think, ‘We really need to do some work out.’ (although it never happens……)
In our experience, assembling furniture is not that hard, most of the time you’re able to get it done. It’s just the room for assembling is too small! We always worry, ‘Watch out! You’ll going to damage the wall!’ ‘Be careful of the light bulb!’
Just slow down, be steady and take it easy.
Step 4: Discard. Let’s Create a Carton Box Mountain, Shall We?
After your master piece is done, now let’s deal with the leftover.
Here in our living area, the recycle materials will be collected every week. And all those carton boxes, you have to break it down and place properly in the green bin. Don’t do it in one shot, because the communal bin will be overflow and your neighbours are gonna hate you for that.
Cutting or tearing apart the carton also requires lots of energy, but I found this process is quite mindfulness. Cut, tear and pile up. You’re dong something good to the planet. Just be careful, don’t get yourself hurt.
So, these 4 steps are done? Congratulations! You’re almost settle in! But the truth is, you’ll find something is missing or required, and you will be going through these steps again, and again. Yes, one day, I bet, you’ll be a minimalist.
