Ever since I was a small girl, I dreamt of this life: a knight in bright shining armor, a farm of guinea pigs and a beautiful princess castle with a big rose garden.

At 34, I’ve come to a point where I get to lead this life for real! Ok, admittedly my handsome knight has no shining armor but dresses in casual clothing, the guinea pig farm has turned out to be a very sweet dog and two rabbits and the castle is a beautiful two storey house, a real home for me and my family (I count my pets also as my family of course).

So, now that we got this dream house, there’s the unavoidable hurdle – or challenge – of MOVING!!

On the 9th of July we’ll be moving out of our old 1 bedroom lower ground apartment! I’ve moved quite a few times over the past 16 years: I believe this will be my 9th or 10th within Amsterdam alone.

My past experiences with it have been so stressful, but this time I’m learning to live one day at a time and that takes the pressure off quite a bit.
Also, this time around I will be moving TOGETHER with my fabulous handyman-carpenter-gardener-painter-whole driller-wall filler-money accounting-drop dead gorgeous husband, who of course takes a lot of work out of my hands so I can concentrate on doing what I do best: decluttering my stuff and packing it.(oh..and buying a lot of nice new or second hand things for the house…) and revamping old furniture.

3 Tips for  relaxed, green, social and fun moving and furnishing

#1
Do the stuff YOU do best and ask your friends, family, friendly coworkers, husband/partner and others to come and help you with things THEY are good at and give them a chance to shine.
For example: my dad is an excellent furniture upholsterer and he makes great carpet linings for staircases, so we asked him for that.

Others have ample muscle power and are glad to help you with carrying boxes in and out of the van and heaving them to the attic.

Be sure though to provide for loads of tea, coffee, lemonaded water, sandwiches and succulent homemade apple-pie (my hubbie makes a great one!!)

#2
Buy used furniture from a second hand store and paint it and treat it with a nice redoing of the fabrics. It is so much fun to go hunting for what you need and conjuring up creative plans to revamp the furniture, whilst being green&sustainable by giving it a second life.
Sandpapering and painting are very mindful stress reducing activities and there’s no hurry because you can also sit on the other chairs while you’re redoing one of them. One chair at a time…

#3
Get up in the morning, think about what you are inspired about and go do just that. Being excited about your task or challenge is a good way to beat procrastinating and leaking a lot of valuable energy to resisting tasks.

Yesterday I got in a decluttering frenzy. It’s like a snowball, once it’s rolling it’s unstoppable and I declutter effortlessly. Once I sit down, the magic of the flow is gone and I have to rest and then build momentum for the next amazing thing to do#
Stay in the moment, stay in the day.

The last important thing I want to share with you today: drink a coffee in the morning and don’t forget to laugh about the things that unavoidably don’t go according to  plan! Don’t take moving house so seriously…..let alone yourself!

Please leave a comment below, ask questions or give me suggestions for new topics. You can also do that on Twitter.

# if you want to know more about this way of living life, read Focus by Leo Babauta.