Blog

A whole student life to pack up, and four days to do it in? You are standing in a student bedroom that somehow contains an entire life. There is a guitar against one wall, a mattress topper that has seen better days, a bicycle leaning against the wardrobe, and approximately forty cardboard boxes that your […]

Halls end in June, the house-share starts in September — what about the summer? The halls licence ends in June. The house-share tenancy starts in September. Somewhere in between sits a whole room of belongings with nowhere to live for eight to ten weeks. It happens to almost every student at some point. The two […]

The table’s for the grandchildren one day — but where does it wait until then? There is a dining table in my neighbour’s spare room that has not been eaten at in four years. It belonged to her mother. Her eldest grandson is in his second year at Sheffield, and the flat he shares has […]

Whose is the sofa — and where does it go while you work that out? Nobody warns you about the furniture. There are solicitors, court dates, conversations you have been putting off for months. And then, quietly, someone has to figure out what to do with a dining table, a sofa, a bed frame, and […]

Started the declutter, then froze the moment the decisions got big? There is a particular kind of stuck that nobody warns you about. You have started. You have pulled things out of cupboards, carried boxes into the hall, lined up bags along the landing. And then you have stopped. Not because you ran out of […]

Packed down the craft-fair stall with three weeks till the next one? Sunday afternoon. The last box goes in the boot. The trestle table is strapped to the roof. You drive away from the village hall car park and the weekend is done. The next fair is three weeks out, and somewhere between now and […]

Next job’s ten days off and the van’s still full of materials? You finish the first fix and the back of the van is still half full. Boards for the next phase, a box of tiles, the fixtures you ordered early because they were on discount. None of it can go on the client’s drive, […]

Done with the cot for now, but not for good? The first year fills a house fast. The cot takes the corner of the spare room. The pram blocks the hallway. Clothes in six different sizes sit in bags waiting for a child who has already grown through them. You are not done with any […]

Tenant gone but their belongings left behind — are you allowed to touch them? You’ve got the keys back. The tenant has gone. But the flat isn’t empty. There’s a sofa, a few boxes, and what looks like a bin bag of paperwork sitting in the corner. Your next tenant is lined up. You’ve got […]