You'll have to excuse my absence lately (if anyone reads this, that is!)
As you may know, I got accepted into Athlone IT to study Office Management and I recently found out Laurence and I have been assigned to move into our apartment next Tuesday, which is exciting and scary and involves a lot of standing in front of my wardrobe wondering how many clothes I'll be able to shove into our wardrobe without Laurence giving out to me. Just joking, we'll have a wardrobe each so he can't say anything. Although I can't promise I won't use his wardrobe for my clothes too.
I've been going round the house scavenging for boxes. It's probably a bit early to be packing yet but I'm also one of those people who packs for a holiday 2 months in advance. I also went to the village shop earlier to try and ransack the shed out the back for some boxes but they'd been crushed to go into recycling. I was a bit gutted because I love me a good box hunt. #rockandroll
I managed to convince my brother to let me tip all his belongings out of some boxes in his room and set to raiding the kitchen cupboards. I was amazed at how much of the kitchen stuff was mine, mum said the cupboards have never looked so tidy! I now have 2 boxes full of food to bring up for college, I don't think we'll have to do a food shop for about 4 years now ;-)
All of my kitchen stuff is all packed up now. I went house shopping with my mum yesterday and it was great fun. I'm so lucky to have a mum who is also my best friend and who isn't afraid to tell me to stop being stingy and buy some pillows/a bin/other grown up house stuff I'd never even thought of buying before.
So after all that, I've managed to come up with a few tips for packing and shopping if it's your first time moving out. If this is helpful for even one person out there I've reached my goal!
Tip 1: Penneys, Dealz & charity shops are your new best friends.
I don't know where I'd be without the above shops - probably clutching my purse in a corner somewhere crying as moths fly out of it. You'll most likely find 99% of the things you need in those shops. Penneys is great for cute decorations, bedding and towels. Dealz is your man for kitchen utensils, boring things like bin bags/sandwich bags/kitchen spray and everything else in between. Charity shops usually have lots of dishes, bedding and towels (if you're not funny about buying stuff like that secondhand and are on a very tight budget), and other nice homey bits. I ain't about paying €16 for one bath towel.
My other top picks for cute homeware at the moment are Flying Tiger, Aldi and Lidl. The snazzy flamingo pieces above are all from Flying Tiger - aren't they cute?
Tip 2: Ask shops if they have any spare cardboard boxes.
I usually just ask my local corner shop but I'm sure SuperValu, Lidl, Aldi etc. don't have any use for the cardboard boxes when they're empty. They're usually quite sturdy too as they're made for carrying stock so there's no risk of your lovely new plates falling out the arse of them.
Tip 3: Kill two birds with one stone.
Not literally, I don't think dead birds make a good home decoration. What I mean by this is, if you have quite a lot of crockery and nothing to wrap it in (like me), line a suitcase or box with some of your clothes and then wrap the crockery up in the clothes. That way nothing will get smashed and you can fit more clothes in! Score.
Tip 4: Make a list of e v e r y t h i n g you need.
And I mean everything. Sandwich bags, bin bags, a toilet brush, the lot. We haven't been given an inventory for our apartment yet so we'll have to wait until we get up there to see what else we need to buy. Because I am a list fiend I've written out some stuff I'm pretty sure won't come with the house. I can't believe how much buying there is involved when you move out! I've never had to think about buying toilet rolls or Air Wick before. Exciting stuff.
Tip 5: Get help, if you can.
My mum is coming with me when I move up to help get settled in. She's also offered to give me a hand to clean the apartment too which is great, you never know with student accommodation what you'll find lurking in the cupboards! Our apartment complex doesn't have a lift so we'll have to lug everything up about 4 flights of stairs which is a bit of a pain. If I don't have mad biceps by the end of it I'll be very disappointed.
So there's just a few tips if you're currently getting ready to fly the nest. I start college next Thursday and I'm bricking it if I'm honest, but I'm also really excited for this next chapter in my life. If anyone else is starting AIT next week let me know!
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