The Golden Girls of Barrhaven – Settling In

Our first week after moving was a flurry of unpacking, sorting and trying to decide where to put everything.  It is always difficult when you move and realize certain furniture won’t fit, you don’t have as much cupboard space as you had, or what looked beautiful in your last place, doesn’t suit the new place at all. Compound that with trying to move three households in at once, and you will have an idea of the challenges that faced us.

It was better that only two of us moved at the end of May. By the end of June, Cate and I had sorted through our things and decided where to put most of it. It was easy to forget that Barb still had to join us – with all her stuff – and when she did finally move in, a month later, we felt like we were back at square one!

We had agreed, beforehand, that we would try to get rid of as much as we could, as it would be difficult enough meshing three households into one, and we had made the commitment to live together, so saving stuff “just in case”, was not an option. However Barb had been very busy before moving, as she still worked almost full time, and she did not have time to sort through, and eliminate unnecessary things, so on her moving day we were back to boxes and boxes, stacked floor to ceiling, and I felt quite overwhelmed.

It did take a few weeks for her to sort through all her things. But she did so, bit by bit, until one Saturday, when she laid out the remainder on the basement floor, and put half of it aside to, either go to one of her kids, or to take down to the thrift store. We finally had our place back again!

We thought we had discussed everything beforehand, but you don’t really know what you’re up against until you actually experience it, and it’s not the big things, but the small things that can make it difficult. We each had our own set of cutlery and none of us wanted to give it up.  In the end we kept two sets. Barb and Cate had identical sets, so one was kept and the other one went into the storage room, and I was allowed to keep mine because it was of great sentimental value. So we have two cutlery drawers now, but sometimes it comes in handy if we have a large crowd over.

Because Cate got the master bedroom, she also got the walk in closet and ensuite bathroom. We had agreed that anyone could use any bathroom, but you have to put your stuff somewhere, and Barb and I ended up sharing the other bathroom, which is quite large, and dividing the counter space into two.  We did have to put up extra towel rails, but otherwise it seems to be working quite well.  The closets were a different matter. I managed quite well as I don’t have a ton of clothes or shoes, and everything fitted into my closet. Barb and Cate had to put up extra hanging closets in the basement, in order to hang all their clothes up. That was the first lesson learned. Don’t bring too many clothes with you! However, hanging all our pictures up was surprisingly easy as we found we all agreed on which pictures should go where. 

Now the inside of the house was looking like a home, it was time to tackle the outside.