Homeward bound:

Runninglikeagirl - 12 Apr 16

I was lucky enough to have just enjoyed a two-week family holiday, the holiday was great, but it was the day we returned that was the most interesting.

Literally the minute we walked in the door I started to notice clutter and stuff. I am a tidy person but not in an extreme sense. But on our return home from two lovely holiday cottages, I was struck by how much stuff seemed to be in every room of our house.

Thanks to Easy Jet we had just lived for two weeks with minimal stuff, the children and I had managed to rotate our clothes around: outdoor-going-for-a-walk uniform, going-to-the-pub/out-for-lunch-uniform and bedtime-or-comfy-in-the-house uniform.

We each bought one book with us and the children had booster seat rucksack bags that they filled with their chosen toys: Lego, i-pad, sticker book, a v-tech dinosaur and their chosen bedtime teddies.

Although the baby seemed to break all the rules, Easy Jet’s baby equipment allowance was surprisingly generous. Despite being my third I still had to bring the sensor mat and monitor and various other essential items but overall she and I coped with half the stuff we have at home.

So as we walked back into the house, my husband carried the bags through to the bedroom and started to go through the post, the children ran outside nostalgically reuniting with their toys and trampoline, the baby was asleep in the car seat and I in a rather manic way started de-cluttering and rearranging the sitting room and play room.

Within a few minutes, while I had the sofa half-way across the room my husband came in and said something along the lines of:
“Do we need to do this now?”
I don’t think I replied, but just kept pushing the sofa, but it must have been in such a determined manner that he did then come and help me lift it, or he was worried about scratching the wooden floors. Either way after 30 minutes the sitting room was de-cluttered, rearranged and looked much better.

We often move the furniture around (by often I mean a couple of times a year), but this latest move was inspired by the feeling and look of the holiday homes we had spent time in.

The holiday had been so relaxing and calm and I wanted to bring just a small part of that home, the houses had clean lines and invited you to seat down and relax. During my transformation I even have lined up my magazine selection in an inviting way, rather then the normal: on arrival piling them up in a stack and recycling them six months later.

After the sitting room, I made the mistake of glancing into the playroom; we are lucky to have an extra room dedicated to the children, something that has become a trend of this generation of parenting. When I was a child anyone with a spare downstairs room, knew it was for adults known in various forms depending on the family as the formal room, the drawing room or what seems quite extinct now a whole room to eat that is not in or attached to the kitchen, the dining room. Although I appreciate some people still have these rooms, alongside a playroom, giving our children a whole room downstairs does seem to honestly reflect the shift of parenting trends.

On trend when we moved in to our house, we converted the dining room to a playroom. However it regularly needs an audit. I love the room when it is clean, de-cluttered and has the retro wooden toys that the children barely glance at out on display, with the plastic junk and happy meal toys hidden in matching baskets and Ikea plastic trays.

Knowing the children had enjoyed two weeks with a handful of toys each, I swept through the playroom like a three-armed tornedo: charity, tidy, chuck. The children, to be fair got on board, moving the sofa helped as they seem to find real joy when they rediscover a plastic friend or hot wheels car that had disappeared to sofa purgatory four months ago.

After what I can only describe as a manic two hours, the downstairs of my house made me happy and smile, and was completed by the ordering of some White Company candles aptly named ‘Summer’ to help me recreate my holiday feeling (even though we holidayed in the UK and barely saw the sun).

The juxtaposition of downstairs is upstairs. It is a shame that our luggage still dictates my bedroom, alongside mountains of washing from the holiday, they still stare at me on waking.

I am waiting for the motivation to come back, but for now, the boys are playing on the computer, the baby is asleep and I am enjoying looking at my magazines lined up ready to read. Although I daren’t start reading one as that seems to trigger a crying baby and the 6 & 4 year old to declare war.

Runninglikeagirl

...trying to navigate the roadmap of life as a female, as a mother, as a wife, as a sister, as a daughter, and as a friend. A guidebook would have helped, yet some wisdom appearing with age. Three children & a husband are travelling along with me.

View profile for posts, events and more info