Tips for moving house

Well, considering I move into my fourth house in a year today, I thought I would put together a little post on tips for moving house. I mean, I do consider myself somewhat of an expert in this area by now! Most of this stuff is small stuff, but believe you me, it's the little stuff that makes a difference when you're lugging your fourth car load of boxes to your new place and someone's blocked the driveway. Moving house can be a very stressful experience, so to avoid tempers colliding, you want to make things as easy as possible for yourself, right? Thought so :)

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Tip #1

Pack your clothes in an organised way - shirts with shirts, shorts with shorts, clean undies somewhere you can find them easily and try to keep everything folded so that when you get to the other end, you can pack your clothes into your wardrobe quickly and without fuss. Also, pack an overnight bag with essentials and a few pairs of clothes included in case you don't get around to putting your clothes away on the first day. I swear there is nothing worse than not being able to find your pyjamas after a hard day moving house! 

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Tip #2

Label boxes very clearly! Instead of just writing what room things are for, be specific. That way you know which boxes you need to unpack first to survive the first few days in your new home! For example, cups and plates would take unpacking priority over your fondue set and baking supplies in the kitchen, as you're going to want to use them pretty much straight away!

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Tip #3

This is a rather important one - make sure to get your electricity hooked up before you move in and put your fridge on the first load of furniture to go to your new home. It takes a fair while for your fridge to cool down when you first hook it up and you're probably going to want a cold drink after moving all that furniture around all day! Trust me, you'll thank me for this one!

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Tip #4

If you've already seen your new home before moving day, draw up a rough map of where you want your furniture before it all gets moved to your new place and give it to the men with the muscle so that they can put everything in it's place first go. There is nothing worse than a random jumble of furniture in your living room when you're trying to get yourself settled in your new home. Plus, who wants to be madly moving furniture around trying to find the best place for it when there are boxes to unpack?

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Tip #5

Have an esky of cold drinks and sandwiches on hand for everyone who is helping you on moving day, whether it's friends and family or you have hired professionals to help you move*. Moving is hot and sweaty work, and I can guarantee that everyone involved will be much happier if there is a cold drink and a bite of lunch on hand for them through the day. It also goes a long way to have a little thank you gift on hand for those who help you move, be it a box of chocolate or a six pack of cold ones, I'm sure they will appreciate the gesture. Moving isn't exactly fun, so you should definitely let your helpers know you appreciate them giving up their day!

Well, that's all the insight I have for today, but I'm sure I'll think of some more little gems this weekend along the way.  Would a part two to this post be worth putting together for you all? Or do you have your own pieces of advice for me to implement this weekend?

*This is a sponsored link

Exciting News!

So, some much-needed exciting news came mine and Jake's way on Monday that I just couldn't wait to share on the blog! After four months of looking for our own place in Lennox Head, we have finally been approved for a place! YAAAAYYYYYYYY!

Now, it's only a small, 2 bedroom unit and not at all the home of my dreams, but it is incredibly cute and from the moment we walked in the door, I could just see all our stuff in the rooms and picture the way I would have it decorated. I was so anxious waiting for over a week to hear back from the real estate, but finally we got the word that it is ours if we want it and I'm so relieved!

Now, Jake thinks we should look at another place that the same real estate is advertising, but I'm not so sure. We have been waiting for this for so long that I just want to jump right in! I can't wait to finally be living with my other half, to have my own space again and to start on this next phase of our lives together. If I can talk Jake around to making the leap and signing the lease, we could move in this weekend! I can't wait to show you all photos!

Life Update and some news!

Well, I'm back and I'm back with a video! Find out what I've been up to below. Sorry if it's a little, incy-wincy bit rambly - practise makes perfect and I certainly need practise! Be kind and thanks for watching. Hopefully I'll return to regular blogging soon!



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The Last Week On Earth

Okay, so it's not really my last week on Earth, but last week was the last week of my uni holidays, and I don't quite know how to feel about that. On the one hand, I am so excited for everything this semester at uni has to offer me, but on the other I just know that by week 2 I will be swamped with assignments and feeling hellish. Anyway, I just thought I'd recap my last week of holidays for you, because some pretty big and emotional things have happened, and that is why last week felt like my very last week on Earth!

How can I put this? Ummm..... My housemate can no longer move in with me, and told me this two days before my lease ran out and then I panicked, and my boyfriend panicked and now if I don't find somewhere on the Gold Coast to live in the next three weeks, I have to move back in with my parents and drive two hours each way to uni, three days a week!

There, said it. Now I can breathe.

You can only imagine the emotions I felt upon hearing this news. I was distraught because I didn't know what to do, and I was panicked. I think I have had three panic attacks since Wednesday, and I have had to basically continuously do breathing exercises to calm myself down. The thought of packing all my stuff is so overwhelming, and the thought of leaving this unit just as it has started feeling like home is just destroying me. When I thought I was going to have to move back to mum and dad's I was lamenting the loss of freedom that would come with living with my family again, and I was dreading telling my boss that I had to leave work, because I really, really love my job!

Thankfully, when I turned up at work yesterday and told my boss my news, at first she was upset, but quickly she resolved that she would find me a place to live come hell or high water, and if I didn't find anywhere by the time my three weeks were up, I'd be moving in with her! Strangely, the fact that I had three whole weeks before I really had to panic didn't sink in until that moment, ad the fact that yes, it is possible I will find somewhere really came to light! Her reaction to my news made me feel good. I would be missed if I left work, and I had actual hope of finding a place to live, so what was I panicking about?

Yesterday afternoon, I watched a good friend of mine compete in a modelling competition (which he WON!) and went out to All You Can Eat Pizza Hut with him and a bunch of his friends from uni who I'd never met before to celebrate. They were lovely, lovely people and I am so glad I finally got a chance to meet them. We had a great time, and so some of us decided it would be a great idea to go out in Surfers Paradise last night to mourn the end of the holidays, even though most of them had uni this morning, bright and early. Even though I didn't have uni, I offered to be deso driver so that I could make sure everyone got home alright and would make it to uni this morning (quack quack, mother duck!). Also, because I live furthest south of everyone, and so would have to drive past all their houses to get home anyway, and I was determined to get home so I could sleep in my own bed! At first i wasn't going to go at all, but Grady insisted that he wanted to do whatever I wanted to do, but I knew he would like to go out, so I gave in. Well, turns out that going out was the best idea that anyone had all night, because I had a ball, and when we met up with other people at the clubs, and I got talking to one girl in particular, I actually found a potential place to live! I'm going to check out her place tomorrow afternoon after uni, and I'm so excited about it! Plus, because it's the smallest room in the house, if I rent it I get the garage to myself as well, and I'm going to deck it out as a combined lounge room/sewing room. Yep, I'm already planning, and I'm planning a bit of redecorating in my bedroom as well when the move takes place. I'm really hoping all goes well when I meet the girl's house mate tomorrow and that I like the room, because it's less than 10 minutes away from uni, and I really don't want to move back in to mum and dad's place!

Wish me luck for tomorrow. Things have just started looking up after a hellish week of uncertainty, and I'd really like to continue along this path. What have you been up to this past week? Have you had holidays where you live?

I'm Back! + What Has been Keeping Me Away

Hi guys, I'm back and I'm so sorry to have stayed away for so long! Truth is, moving did not go at all how I planned, and a few major obstacles have been standing between myself and this blog ever since. Thankfully, the majority of those obstacles have moved aside now, and I get get on with doing what I love.

So first thing is first, I love Coolangatta! Living here is awesome, our apartment is amazing, our view is amazing and the neighbours are really friendly. I am settling in here so well, and it already feels like home! The beaches are beautiful, there are some cool shops to explore (though the op-shops are lacking) and I'm starting to get our little unit looking just the way I want. All in all, this place is pretty tops!

Moving here, however, wasn't so awesome. For one particular reason.

The very first day were were up here, Jake and I had a car crash. The guy in front of us braked hard, I braked hard and came up touching bumpers with him, and then someone behind me slammed so hard into the back of my car that I nearly hit my head on everything within reach. The car in front of the car in front of me  was also involved somehow, but I didn't notice at the time. It was absolutely terrible! We had just signed our lease, I had a boot load of breakables in the car and we headed up to Southport to my Uni for me to get a few pre-orientation things sorted. We had just left the uni when it happened, my car got towed and we were stranded on the Gold Coast and forced to sit in an empty apartment (after catching a bus back to Coolangatta) for hours before my mum finished work and could come to our rescue. I spent the following four days in a state of complete shock, bursting into tears at the drop of a hat and with severe and persistent back and neck pain and headaches, all while trying to move furniture and boxes and get settled in my new home. I've spent every day since with continuing (but less severe) pain, stranded in a new place where I know no one, by myself, without a car. Thankfully there is public transport up here, Jake came on the weekend, and I like spending time by myself, or I truly would be effed. 

That has got to be the main reason it has taken me so long to get back to blogging - my life was basically turned upside down after the accident, and since I have been in pain, I haven't felt like doing much. I also have had to walk to doctor's appointments and x-rays (which, it turns out, were for nothing - all he said was to take panadol and come back again in 10 days) as well as to the shops to get groceries and other things which I am lacking (there are quite a few of those, since I just moved out of home!), and that has taken it's toll on my poor, shaken up body. 

The other reasons I've been absent include a very late delivery of my internet modem, an even later connection of my internet (and a subsequent 3 phonecalls to Optus telling them to sort their shit out, in which they repeatedly assured me my connection would be established within 4 hours), and the trouble ex-tropical cyclone Oswald has caused for poor, old Australia, and in particular, south-east Queensland and northern New South Wales, of which I live on the border between. So many families have lost their homes and their loved ones in the last few days due to the severe flooding and 100km/hour winds caused by Oswald, and my heart goes out to them all. I thank my lucky stars that all that my family struggled with was loss of power, internet and phone connections, and subsequent anxiety over not being able to contact each other. So many families suffered much, much worse and I hope that all my fellow Aussie bloggers and their families are safe. 

On a lighter note, here is a little look at what I have been up to since my last post:

My gorgeous bestie, Alisha, just got a hairdressing apprenticeship, and before I left Woodburn, I let her experiment with hair chalk on my hair. I kind of like it purple?

Tea has been my best friend this week, calming me down and keeping me company while I watch movies and crochet. I love my Blue Willow teapot! A Christmas gift from mum, and a new obsession!

Jake took me shopping when he got here to cheer me up. I love my new outfit - perfect for uni, I think :)

This guy, the love of my life, left me here alone again this morning to go to work. It was the most amazing thing ever, just chilling out in our home this weekend. I am going to miss him this week and can't wait til he is living here properly.

What have you all been up to in the past few weeks? I've missed you all!

Life Update: I'm Moving!

Hey guys, I'm so, so sorry if things get a little quiet around here for the next week or so, but something exciting is happening to me in the real world at the moment - I'm moving in with my boyfriend!

Jake and I have been looking for an apartment at Coolangatta for ages, and finally we have found an affordable one with water views which we love! We sign the lease on Friday and move in on Saturday and we both can't wait! This will be both of our first times living out of our parents homes and also our first time living together (like, properly living together rather than just staying at each others houses every night).

I'm so excited (and nervous) to finally be living with the man I love, and I hope you can cut me some slack in blog world so that I can get settled in at my new home. I'll try to post a little bit throughout the moving process, but no promises! Who would have thought there is so much to organise when you're moving? Plus I have a BIG project which I am trying to finish in time to move it into our new unit!

Wish me luck! Xx