Adjusting to life in London.....

I would say, that 10 weeks into living here, and all our of our household goods received, we are pretty much settled.  Brad is busily hanging pictures today, and the rest of the things we had for the wall will be shoved into the storage space that is now almost full from all of the stuff we brought that we don't have space for.  (Thank goodness for that storage under the eaves in our bedroom!!!!)

The last remaining bit is to get the temporary wardrobe moved out of our bedroom, find a place for the rest of the clothes that are in not in the wardrobe once my slim hangers arrive tomorrow (thank you Amazon!) and donate all the plastic hangers.  We must have at least 150 of them.  They must have multiplied in the boxes on the scent.

Anyhoo, here are some photos of our house with our furnishings!

Our entryway:

A few things I have learned whilst finding a spot for all of our stuff:

1. I have way too many clothes.  I have clothes two piles deep and all tall as my hanging clothes in the bottom of my wardrobe; I still have a box of clothes with no place to put them, a 31 tote full of summer pants and shorts under our bed and my underwear in a plastic drawer next to the bedside table.  And I gave away bags and bags of clothes before moving!!!

2. Where do British people store their shoes with no closets???  I guess they just have a few pairs of shoes that go in the shoe cabinet and are removed as soon as they entire their home.  (I have shoes out, but all my summer shoes are in a second 31 tote under our bed.)

3. Girls have way too many small "treasures".  Alison has about 3 boxes and 5 purses full of random things....beads, coins, small figurines.  I hung a shoe organizer on their closet to hang all their treasures.  Brilliant!

The shoe hanger is on the right side of the closet.

The bunk beds are great!!!!

4. Drew has  A LOT of cars and trains.  And he knows the names of almost every single one of them. Good thing he doesn't care so much about clothes and has two closets.  One for clothes and one for toys!

dresser (aka linen closet)

Notice the bed rail...no more broken collar bones!

5. I am so glad the brought a dresser for Drew's room because that's our new linen closet.

6. I have used almost every basket and bin I brought.  And I have not had to buy one single storage bin.

7. I should have left 70% of my vases at home.

8. Our plates are just slightly too big for the cabinets.  I guess that means that Americans' portion sizes are too big.  They are smaller than the temporary plates we had, which is a good thing because the cabinet gapping open about drove Brad crazy.

9. I may have brought just a few too many craft items, but I am thankful they were nice and organized before we moved.  And I found the perfect spot for them in the playroom.  And they will probably come in handy for Lauren's art studio in the 2/3 of the shed that is not occupied by the christmas tree, Brad's bike, Brad's golf clubs and a few other random things.

10.  The two sheds in the back are perfect.  The one with the lock on it is good for storing the above mentioned items, and the other one is great for all the stuff the kids can play with (or get out and leave littered all over the back garden at anytime.)

11.  Our grill is HUGE in our back garden here, and we need to retrofit it somehow so that it will actually work.

12. The reception room as the guest room is interesting.  There is no space in there for any more furniture.  And the door can only be closed if the carpet is pulled back.  And we only have one TV for now.  (Although Brad has plans to get another one in our room but I think we have been this long without it, we don't really need another one.)

After the past two weeks of organizing, putting away and tossing, I think I could (almost) be a professional organizer.

playroom

playroom

I know I have said this before, but I think the fact that we really use pretty much every square inch of our house everyday is great.

I would say right now the only thing I really miss in the house is a walk-in closet.  There is a good amount of storage here, and we have almost maximized, but not quite.  We are going to have to institute the one in, one out rule for just about everything from clothes to toys to shoes.

Thank goodness for the charities that come pick up donations from the curb!  I already donated 6 bags the week our goods arrived, and I have 6 more bags for collection this week.

One last bit I want to remember is phrases I love that the British say:

"straightaway" rather than "right now"
"collect" rather than "pick-up"
"toilet" rather than "bathroom"
"shopping trolley" rather than "shopping cart"
And I love how their call their kids "darling"  It's just so amazingly precious.

I do think calling the trash men "dustbin collectors" rather strange.

And after yesterday's beautiful weather, I simply cannot wait for summer!!!!!

We spent lots of time outside, and had our trip-fold doors open, which I think it going to be quite common this summer, as it gets super hot in here when the sun is shining.  And there are not nearly as many bugs as in the US. Oh and we don't have air conditioning.