Our Stuff Arrived! And the pirates spared my spices.

In an era of HGTV makeover shows and snazzy Facebook recipe videos that show 30 ways to use cheese in 30 seconds, I kept putting off writing this post. Why? Because I wanted it to culminate in a house tour or beautiful before and after photos. Mostly because it would make me feel like I’ve accomplished something.

But as we continue to dig through boxes and stuff, I figure it’s better to be real about the entire house setting-up process, mess and all.

As I mentioned in a previous post, our shipment had been delayed from leaving the States due to a tracking number snafu. A recap of the timeline:

• August 2/3 – we packed our stuff in Milwaukee for it to be shipped out
• August 26 – we flew to England
• First week of September – we found out our stuff hadn’t left Wisconsin
• Second week of September – our air shipment arrived, giving us a few extra boxes of toys and clothes

Then, Tim forwarded an email to me. Our shipment arrived to London on September 29. We prepared for a couple of more weeks wait for it to clear customs and be delivered. Then, he received another email. Our container had cleared quickly and could they bring it the next week. THEN – wait, they could actually bring it at the end of that week – October 5. My friend Sarah was here visiting, so we thought, perhaps that will be too busy to try to unload everything, and we should push back to the next week.

We decided against that about a split second later (sorry, Sarah, but I know you understood). They brought our container out in a large moving truck that Friday. Fortunately for me, Tim was able to be home from work while Sarah and I went exploring and he sent me updates via text.

One update was a photo. I could see the beds still downstairs, next to the stairs. “Why didn’t they take the beds up?” I texted back. “box springs don’t fit upstairs” was the reply. Hmm. We had been sleeping on mattresses on the ground for a long time by this point, so I was bummed. (Also, box springs – yay or nay? Tim and I are YAY. We like the bed to sit up higher and feel like they provide support. We, and by that I mean our backs, felt a difference when we removed ours in Tosa. Man, this makes me feel old.)

But we were able to put the big things in place that weekend, and Nate got to celebrate his birthday at an actual table with a homemade cake. How is this sweet boy five?!

I was eager to start unpacking, assuming I would methodically go through box by box, putting each thing into its new place – every unpacked box a neat puzzle piece that would eventually put our lives here perfectly in place. It became clear with the first few boxes that it was not going to be like that, because the puzzle pieces I had brought from Wisconsin did not fit the puzzle frame here at our new house.

Our new house is more of an open layout, with some ambiguous spaces that could be used in different ways. The airy, open layout that works well to cook a delicious dinner while watching the kids, or the Real Housewives, also comes with no closets. None. In the whole house. And some things simply didn’t work – all of our pots and pans we had been waiting for had to go right back into the box because they don’t work on our induction stovetop, or they are too large for our wall-mounted ovens.

I also love to decorate and fill walls with photos and art, and style shelves with ever-changing sentimental and not-so-sentimental pieces. Our house here has beautiful light and windows everywhere, but not a lot of places to hang or place things.

So I began to unpack, only to place things on a counter, or into a “maybe/later” box, or open a whole box, look around perplexed, and slowly close it again. I was frustrated, because I’ve been longing to get us settled, for the boys and for me. I love the peace and calm that comes from a cozy, organized house. Not that I always maintain that, but as soon as the mess or clutter starts collecting, I can feel my anxiety creep up.

Plus, there were boxes that hadn’t been opened and I could still think of things that I hadn’t verified made it over the ocean. (Bennett brought home a story about pirates plundering ships filled with goods. He read it to us, and Nate asked if pirates were going to steal our stuff because it was traveling across the ocean. I said of course not, but can you really ever be sure about pirates??)

Tim and I set aside last weekend to make some progress, bringing every single box into the kitchen and starting to sort. Soon our piles spread out onto the dining room table, the floor and every counter space available. While I did my best not to freak out at the scene before me, the boys were loving it.

Nate started by making a house in the middle of our box pile, dragging in pillows and blankets and a pot and a picture frame, ha. He convinced me to climb in and prepare for an attack from the Big Bad Wolf. When it was lunchtime, Bennett and Nate worked together to start a restaurant. They worked together so well, with Bennett drawing up menu options, Nate starting to make the food and Tim and I ordering our meals as we kept working. A free meal prepared by my kids? Yes, indeed! The years of making meals for them was paying off! It was adorable.

Then I caught what Nate was doing. I had ordered a peanut butter sandwich and fruit, and chips. I naively assumed this would come as separate items. He had a different idea. He took the peanut butter, bread, mashed up banana, and added water to a bowl, and started to mash and it together and add various ingredients as he, head chef, saw fit. I was not impressed, but Tim and I each choked down a soggy PB&B sandwich/roll/sponge. Tim took one for the team and ate a dessert of yogurt with crunched up Pringles. I mean, these faces…how could you not?

We’ll need to get storage pieces – a hutch and probably two wardrobes for coats and clothes, but we’ve returned to some normalcy in the house. I’m still figuring out the layout, but trying to make pretty spots, like our new mantle, an old, waxed board and iron brackets from my new secondhand store find. Just need to get our first fall fire going. Shoot, autumn. Bennett told me today that they just say autumn here.

We have also recognized that living without most of our things for a few months, both here and in Wisconsin, has made us less reliant on them. Before, I had no idea what would be ahead of me in England. What if I couldn’t find what I needed? I had to recreate “home” by having as many familiar things here as possible.

Now I am starting to get acquainted with the stores, where I can buy certain things, and if I can’t find something, what might be similar. (But there are limits. Shout out to the suitcase-dreams-are-made-of that Sarah brought, filled with the comforts of home: Tide pods, pumpkin-scented candles, chocolate chips, microwave popcorn, Tums and Oreos…and the one my mom is prepping now.)

When you live in a house for 11+ years, you accumulate stuff. Stuff that was used a lot, or just once, but for some reason is hard to part with. Tim and I keep saying, “And this is what we pared down to!” Not to say we aren’t grateful to have our things here, we just realize that if we didn’t use that zucchini spiralizer in Wisconsin, we might not use it here. And yet, I might, which is why it’s back in the box in the garage.

Also, in the lead-up to the packing spree, let’s be honest, if we weren’t sure, we told the movers to just pack it. Which is why we ended up with a whole bunch of Ziploc and Sendiks plastic bags and a weird running bandana and one dirty glove and old computer cords and more things that we opened and wondered why on earth we had sent it across the ocean. We also were amazed and how much packing waste there was. So grateful for their careful packing, but to me, a Tupperware lid does not need four sheets of packing paper wrapped around it. You can just go ahead and throw that right in and hope for the best.

And when all of it was unpacked… I looked around and said, “Where the &!*# are my Penzeys spices?!”  Before we moved, I stocked up on all of the amazing spice blends our Wisconsin-based Penzeys had to offer, thinking that if I had spices, I could conquer cooking whatever cuisine our hearts desired here. With every opened box, I kept getting more panicked. Why weren’t they with the kitchen stuff? Or the storage stuff? Or any of the stuff? It was Christmas morning when all of the presents were unwrapped and you realize you didn’t get the one present you really wanted.

Until we realized there was one random box shoved into the laundry room that said “laundry/basement.” We had learned that the packers’ labels were pretty unreliable/random, so I ripped it open. And there were my glorious spices, tucked away with clothespins and car wash rags. I have already used the frozen pizza seasoning, because I am a gourmet cook.

So the unpacking continues and will continue for a long time. Like everything here, it’s a learning process, with some wins along the way. (Like finding a bi-fold box spring that will fold in half and be delivered in two days!)

I’ll end with my own little “before-and-during” photos – from bare space and camping chairs to our dining table that looks out to the green fields. Not done, but not bad.