Caroline O'Donoghue: 5 things about moving house

"This is a week of new starts and new presidencies after all, and we’re excited to begin our new term at a bigger house less than two miles away."

There’s a famous Dodie Smith line that begins “I write this sitting in the kitchen sink”. I am not writing this in the kitchen sink, but god, I’m not far off. The table my laptop is sitting on is also home to two teapots, a sack of mini Dime bars, an electric tennis racket for killing flies, a roll of binbags, a dustpan, a shredded copy of the Observer magazine, and some Mexican folk art. I am tits-deep in the mess of human life. I am moving house.

This house move has been a long time coming. Our last move was not a happy affair. Back in 2018, what might have been the most miserably stressful six-month period of my life — the death of one of my best friends and the release of my first novel — was topped off with a sudden eviction from our spacious two-bedroom flat. Our full schedules (and frankly, our mental fragility) meant that we picked a flat that was utterly wrong for us.