It’s a strange feeling moving out of the room and house you grew up in for the first time. Leaving the four walls that made you feel safe for twelve years. I have unlocked a massive life adjustment achievement and I could not be happier or luckier than I am that I am able to move out of my mom’s house.
I began packing everything up in my old room while I was sick, my dear mother encouraging me and helping me with my books and boxes and clothes. It would have taken a lot quicker to pack and move everything if I hadn’t been sick, but instead, it had taken two weeks. Being sick ultimately ruined my excitement of moving in, too weak to do or think about anything.
So by last week, all my stuff had been moved, except my clothes and bed and nightstand. On Saturday, the 31st October, my bed was officially moved and that is the day I finally moved in.
I moved into the cottage next door to my aunt, basically ten steps away from the main house, but to me, it still counts as moving out and living on my own. And it’s not a bad start to getting on my own two feet and living by myself for the first time.
I didn’t sleep in here though, as by the time I wanted to go to bed, there was a beeping noise that wouldn’t stop. Turns out the cottage is on prepaid electricity, which I only found out that night, after a few drinks in. I ended up sleeping on the couch in my mom’s house. It was uncomfortable, but the alcohol I had made me able to fall straight asleep.
The next day, Sunday, I began organizing my clothes and Shay helped me clean my shoes. My mother helped me pay for my electricity so that the beeping would stop and I was produced with 55 units (whatever that means).
That was the very first time I slept in my new home. And it was not as magical as I imagined my first night to be in my cottage.
Naturally, there was a thunderstorm, so it was already creepy enough seeing the darkness expand outside my window but then it became worse, as the barn (main) door wouldn’t stop rattling. The other door, the one that leads to my aunt’s cottage, also would not stop rattling. I was too tired to care until the rattling wouldn’t let me sleep and I had to make a plan to try and get it to stop.
I managed to fall asleep again and a plopping noise woke me up. It was coming from my bathroom, from the toilet specifically and I thought Peaches was drinking out of the toilet. I got up to go tell her to stop, but when I went to the bathroom, Peaches wasn’t there. Full of tiredness and confusion, I went to look in my toilet and there was a BABY RAT. It was trying to jump out of the toilet but it kept slipping back down into the water.
Horrified, I realised I now practically live alone and I have to sort stuff like this out on my own. I was really tired and didn’t want to deal with the situation but I knew I couldn’t leave him to struggle and what if I needed to pee at some point. I thought of what I could use to help him, because I definitely wasn’t using my hands, and I ended up using a foot file to boost him up. It was really unappealing to me that he was completely soaked in toilet water and I was wondering how on Earth he was able to even get in the toilet.
After a few attempts, we finally managed to get him up under the seat. I gave him a little push onto the floor so he didn’t end up back in the toilet, until I realised I had a new problem; how was I going to get him out the house?!
That problem was quickly solved when I saw him nimbly hop back behind the toilet and he completely disappeared. I thought I was imagining things when I decided to bend down a little and I discovered that there’s a small hole in the wall which is where he must have come from. I was relieved I didn’t have to deal with escorting the baby rat outside and threw away the foot file and washed my hands.
I thought at last, I can get some proper rest. The lightning was flashing through the blinds which I had to ignore and when I was falling asleep again, something else was bothering me; the mosquito coil. I had lit it because there was a festoon of mosquitoes and they quite like to bite me, but I lit it in the bathroom and it was even too strong for me that I was inhaling it, so I had to get up again and move the coil further away.
I eventually fell asleep, but it was quite the first night that I will never forget. I woke up to the light of the sun covering the window which again, is not as magical as one might think because I am in fact, used to my blackout curtains. I didn’t wake up feeling refreshed, that’s for sure. But then I spent the day organising all my little things, my ornaments and hanging things from my travels, sorting out my dressing table and my work desk as well as the kitchen and bathroom.
I spent a bit of time organising all of that and I think it’s come together quite nicely. One day, when money is no obstacle for me, I will definitely be renovating it. Not huge or massive renovations, but small improvements that will make me happy. I am already thinking about how I am going to do it, but I already have a basic, rough idea of the things I would like done. My mother agrees that priority is installing a window in the bathroom. Unfortunately there is no window in the bathroom but I do agree that should be the first thing that happens. The next thing I would like is a bigger window in the bedroom, one wide and tall enough that the windowsill reaches my bed, so that when I wake up, I can just move my blackout curtain and see outside in my beautiful small garden. So basically windows are what’s happening first. The cottage definitely needs to be repainted, and I think I have an idea of my colour palette. It’s all so exciting!
Even though the place I am staying in is on the same property as my mom and aunt and even though I am right next door to her, I am still super thrilled and excited for this new chapter of my life. To have my own, full space, to live alone, to experience life alone in my own home, is something that I have been craving for a very long time and the day has finally come. I know with time that I will get used to this new environment, to not staying in my old room and I know I will have fun with it.
I feel really lucky and privileged to take this new step in life, at the ripe age of 24, and to start living out my dreams of living alone. This is the closest I have ever come to living alone and I really am excited. My garden is also small but so cute, and I am lucky enough to have my grandmother’s outside table as well as her coffee table and a few other hand down items that my mom so kindly let me have.
I cannot wait to start filming Made With Reverence videos in my new kitchen which is small but big enough to cook and to see how they come out. I cannot wait to cook in my new kitchen in general! The only problem is, the oven is not connected to an electric point….so there’s a brand new oven which hasn’t been used, but that’s because it doesn’t work. But that shall be sorted out in time. Everything in time.
So, to moving out, to starting a new chapter and to new adventures in my new home!
