So here we are in Oz. Our goods came and it has been like christmas! I love opening the boxes and seeing all my things. BUT we have way TOO MUCH! We got rid of sooooo much before coming here knowing that we were going to be living in an apartment and we still have too much. I wish I could throw stuff over the balcony into a waste bin and be done with it. Trucks are not usual here except for city maintenance vehicles and thus borrowing a truck is not an option. YOu can rent trailers from some petrol stations and then you tow them behind your car. Also as far as we have heard there are not city dumps where you can go dump your trash, so making wise purchases is key (our heads seem to be dense these days).
The biggest lesson we have learned this weekend would be stuff is just stuff. We have actually come to that conclusion over the last couple of months living with less than a weeks worth of outfits each, a pot, a pan and a few plates. Now seeing things as we open makes me just want to hurl it. Quite frankly the simple life is a happy life. Of course I am glad to have more clothes, more cookware so that I can use the oven, etc. But next move we are just taking bare essentials. And slowly here we are going to be getting rid of things.
Turns out our couch that we bought the week before moving here would not fit into our apartment, like they couldn't get it through the door. It is too long and the angle of coming around the corner into the apartment made it impossible. So the couch we never enjoyed is now sitting in the car park (parking garage) awaiting us to sell it and now we must buy a new smaller one. Lesson learned, smaller is better. Even our car that we got which is a sedan is large it seems. Parking here is tight, lanes are not as wide and its harder to manuever around. We bought a toyota camry and it is a big car for here. Think suzuki swift and ford focus, and VW Golf as the most commonly size cars seen here. Everything is just smaller and more compact. I am glad for these lessons, but sometimes I wonder why we always seem to have to learn the hard way. But we will definitely keep our wisdom for the future andventures we encounter and hopefully we can pass the word on to others who move overseas or even downsize in their dwelling. Just get rid of it, you dont need much. And there are few things of sentimental value that can be kept but when you dont have much space just be picky.
So you live and learn, hindsight is 20/20, and it would have been nice if we could have had someone here to kind of let us in on what city living would be like here. Ikea dimensions are truly what it's like here, so I am sure they may be our saving grace. The bed we originally bought used here for Erik as well will be replaced, it wasn't too big but we think we got worked over and it seems so unsteady and unsafe even with everything being all tight that even when he is ready to have his mattress off the ground we won't feel safe. Luckily there is no hurry for that we just slowly throw it out piece by piece and wait to get something different.
Oh the things you learn in life. I had to laugh today, the irony of some of our experiences here. I don't want to think too hard about it all otherwise that smile might turn to grimace.
If anyone knows anyone in Oz that wants to buy a brand new leather sofa off us, let us know!
2 comments:
there are dumps here. Every council has one. Each house gets a voucher to use it a certain amount of times, if no voucher you have to pay at the dump. you can hire a skip if you have lots of things to get rid of (many companies to choose from)
sorry your couch doesnt fit. Many families who move here have their couch in the garage too :(
Amen about the stuff. I haven't unpacked many boxes still so obviously I could live with less too! They say that 3 moves is like a fire because you throw so much stuff away.
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