Moving and Moved

We did it! We moved. And for a couple with not much stuff, we have a ton of stuff. Where did all of it come from?
It's been a crazy, hectic three days with very little down-time except for dinner and the moments right before bed. We sleep so well here.
Today we cleaned our old place. It took seven hours. It's not like we're dirty people but it's all these little things that need to be cleaned and cleaned super well. But it's fresh and ready for some other person to move into.
I promise I'll post pictures but for right now I'm just going to enjoy resting before another crazy day tomorrow. There's still so much to do at the new place.

Moving Week and Name Days

Today is my name day. Which is almost one month away from my birthday. I'm not sure what you do on name days here, but maybe we'll eat a semla later and call it a celebration.
And, It's moving week!!! YAY.

Maybe we're getting the keys on Wednesday and if so we'll start moving on Thursday. Maybe we won't get the keys until Friday and we're prepared for that too. We've rented a trailer for both days super cheap so we're ready either way. The living room is pure chaos with boxes and bags and (new!) suitcases everywhere but there's a light at the end of the tunnel.

We're back in Malmö now after the best weekend ever. It felt so wrong to leave such a peaceful place but I'm so excited about this coming week and the possibility that soon we'll have our own peaceful place.

Winter Walk

I can't explain just how much we needed this weekend. Even though I'm home almost everyday, there is something so peaceful and relaxing about escaping to a change of scenery. It feels good.
Today we went for a short walk around the village. It was a perfect day for a walk- the sun was out!!!

In less than one week we'll be moving! I'm so excited!

Escape to the Country

We're up at my in-laws for the weekend. They're off sunning themselves in Thailand so we've decided to escape to the country. It's super foggy outside. And frozen. Everything has a thick layer of frost.

When we arrived last night the house was so cold. We've had a fire going almost 24/7 and have bundled up with blankets and thick socks (such a winter luxury!) Thankfully it's starting to warm up inside, even so, my favorite spot in the house is still right in front of the fireplace.

Pre-Move

This is our living room. It's been more or less like this for the past two weeks and it's getting worse.  But thankfully there's a light at the end of the tunnel and everything is slowly coming together. I think the hardest part about moving is the balance between needing to live in your current place vs packing up your whole life. 

The first packing week was spent packing up the items we know we won't need to live: the record player, the LPS, decorative glassware, etc. We packed up all but two of our coffee mugs, same for wine glasses, drinking glasses, etc. And it took time to wrap everything individually in newspaper so I'm glad its all out of the way. There's a few more breakable items that still need to be packed but those can wait. 

We also went through all our stuff and put everything we wanted to either donate or sell in a HUGE pile. 

The second packing week has been spent properly labeling every box, boxing up items that we can do without for a week (baking supplies, clothes, extra towels, etc). 

And next week will be everything else. Thankfully everything else is just a few pots and pans, food, our bathroom items, and the rest of our clothes. That's easy. 

For the labels I wrote where each items was supposed to go, what was in each box, and if it was heavy or fragile. Hopefully this will help us on moving day.

There's a small corner with all of our "to donate" items. There's one box of stuff we'd like to sell. We'll be borrowing a car next week so hopefully we can get rid of this pile ASAP.

There's a small chance we might be getting the keys to the new place next Wednesday instead of next Friday which would be awesome. The only problem is that G has to work and I don't know how to drive here. But it'll still be nice to have the keys. I can move over a few items via bus and start setting us up.

With our last place we had a month to move, meaning we paid double rent for our old place and our current place. But it gave us the time to fix up the new place (it really needed it) and slowly move everything over. For next week's move we have like five days between when we can move to our new place and when the new tenant is moving into our old place. The move needs to be as organized as possible. So that means it's time to pack a few more boxes.

Yesterday

Yesterday I:
- Got my hair trimmed and spoke a well-balanced mix of Swedish and English with my hairdresser (who speaks only Swedish but understands English).
- Discovered that thieves broke into our storage AGAIN (fourth time) and stole our luggage. Thankfully we have insurance. Can't. Wait. To. Move. From. Here.
- Discovered a syringe in our cellar. G told me it wasn't bad syringe but still, not the best thing to find in your storage unit. Right? I was creeped out.
- Went out for dinner with my husband but then decided to go to a  pub instead. We had tall, cold glasses of beer and freshly fried french fries with bearnaise sauce.
- Bought one really expensive bar of pink pepper dark chocolate. We ate it all. It was awesome.

Sunday Walk: New Neighborhood

We took a long walk around what will be our new neighborhood today. Unfortunately, the batteries on our camera were dead so I can't really share my excitement with you via photos. But you guys, it's going to be great. The new place is seriously right by the beach and once the snow/ice clears it'll take like five minutes to get there. It seemed like such a peaceful, calm area which is just going to be lovely. There are jogging trails and bike trails by the beach and what looked like a restaurant too. If we walk west along the beach for about 20 minutes we'll hit the popular Västra Hamnen* which is really upscale and a bit too pricey, but still... it's exciting. Also, we have a recycling center near us. Maybe it's weird to be excited about that but I think it's neat.
Like the food nerds we are we explored the two groceries near our new place. The first is my favorite grocery store: ICA. It's as close to a Central Market as Malmö is going to to get. Our new ICA is HUGE. I think it used to be three different stores and now is just one big, maze-like grocery store. We also have a COOP near us and it's surprisingly nice for a COOP.
Moving day is just 12 days away. We might be able to move in a bit sooner which would be ideal but either way, it's good. We've already packed up a lot of stuff so it should be a smooth move.
I'm realizing that this is probably boring to read but I'm excited.

*That's the Google translated wikipedia article. It's not very well translated. But the photos are nice.