Packing up for a brand new start

Inner, creative me has won over organised there’s too much to do, must stay on track me as I park myself in our new living room to write a blog.

It does, however, come with the realisation that I’m avoiding the inevitable, uprooting years of an existence and packing it into boxes.

For us, this house move is exciting. It’s the beginning of a new chapter where we make our lives easier, give ourselves more precious spare time, and a considerably smaller garden to keep.

This move is about looking forward, onwards, and planning new and exciting trips. It’s about living, about embarking on new adventures as we find ourselves with an empty nest while still only in our early fifties.

Our children are in their twenties. They have finished university and embarked on their journeys in this ever-changing world. They have met lovely partners and are happily living in our capital city. But they regularly come home, filling our house with their familiar laughter. Their hilarity, games, and the joy this brings is, to me, what life is all about.

But our beloved house is too big and the heartache I feel at leaving must be turned into an appreciation that we were lucky enough to be one of its caretakers in its lifetime.

At almost one hundred years old,

Perthshire author Pauline Tait is currently packing up her family home near Dunkeld, downsizing and moving “back into civilisation” in Blairgowrie.

Her cheery stories for children - The Fairy in the Kettle - have been well received and more recently, she branched into adult fiction with A Life of Their Own, about changing your geography to gain a new life. Moving house is a process Pauline thinks many people will relate to and she shared this first instalment of a once-in-a-while blog, beginning as she boxed and labelled her family’s belongings.

it has seen families come and go and the excitement we felt at moving in all these years ago is turning to sadness as we prepare to leave.

I was organised, on track, and in the swing of all I had to do until my youngest came home to pack up her room. There will always be room for our children no matter where we are, but this room has seen her through her primary and secondary years and university.

It has evolved with her, grown as she has, and even although she now has her own flat, it has always been here, waiting on her whenever she’s needed to return.

Now though, those memories have been packed away, boxed up and labelled through tears (mine, I should add) and neatly given their place in our new attic.

I was that same, tearful person a few years ago when we packed up

my eldest’s room to allow for a spare bedroom.

Removing those same boxes from our old attic and transporting them to our new attic, it hurts all over again.

Memories are by far more valuable than possessions and I will live determined never to forget the memories and images that have brought us as a family so much love and happiness in a house that we have adored for so long.

But there is more to life than maintaining rooms that are mostly unoccupied and a garden that never ends.

So where to now?

Well, having had no neighbours or streetlights for almost 20 years and having been surrounded by fields and woodland, we are moving back into civilisation.

We have decided that just because the sun disappears early in the depths of winter our days should not be over.

We are looking forward to the luxury of walking our dogs in the evening under streetlight, of walking to a local shop, of going out for a meal without driving miles to get there.

We have lived the ‘out in the sticks’ lifestyle and we have loved it!

I cannot emphasise that enough, but as we get older (and the point is older…not old) we still have so much to do, so many places to see and so much life to live.

Our house was at one-point bustling but now my husband and I barely make a dent in its rooms.

So, our big decision is to give the town a year, see if we like said streetlights and town living.

We are moving back to where I grew up! We will be closer to some family members and further away from others but as always, our door to them will always be open.

My point is, home will always be where we are, where we congregate and the people we come to for love, support, and to make things better when the universe throws us a curveball.

Just because we are leaving a happy (albeit too large) family home doesn’t mean we can’t create another.

That is the challenge that excites! That is the challenge we are ready for. That is the challenge that will be met as we are why our children come home!

This move is about looking forward, onwards, and planning new and exciting trips