The Art of Moving

photo taken by: @miftahulhaqq

Looking for a place to live is actually quite intriguing. 

Since I started living in Australia five years ago, I’ve been moving to three different kind of places. The first place me and my husband lived at was a granny flat. It was basically a one bedroom place with a kitchen and a bathroom. For you who don’t know, granny flat is a place on someone’s backyard that they rent out to people. Pretty small it was, probably about 25sqm. But at that time, we were okay. 

The second one, was a unit. Also a one bedroom unit with kitchen and bathroom, only it got a space for living room. Therefor we didn’t feel as we’re cats being trapped in a cage. We had spaces to move around and opening up our place for guests to come.

And last month we were busy again with looking for a new place. Because I was about to come back from Indonesia to Australia (if you read my blogs, you’d know I’d been in Indonesia for a year until 3 days ago). And this time, we also have our brother in law joining us.

Then of course, we need a bigger place. Two bedrooms for sure.

As we started our search, we found lots of options. And we also realized that our previous place was in fact a bit pricey for what it offered. I guess that’s true because when we lived there, some of our friends been saying that for the price we paid, we could actually get a 2 bedrooms place already. But we were happy at that time and we didn’t need two bedrooms anyway. There were only two of  us, so we didn’t really mind.

This time, we finally managed to find a place that suits our needs too. Two bedrooms, no climbing up stairs, near from station because one of us can’t drive yet (read: me), full furnished, not too far from local swimming pool and from our community’s base. We asked for a discount and they gave us pretty good deal (yes, a significantly important news). We were in a bit of rush when we inspected the place, substantively it was the first and only place we inspected. Well, technically I didn’t come on the inspection but through video call my husband put me through. But everything seemed okay and we decided to move in.

I remember my husband asked me,

“What if we found a better place with lower price once we signed the lease?”

“Truthfully, there will always be a better place. Perhaps with a better deal too. But what’s important is this place fulfill our needs for now, and we could afford it.”

In the end, looking for a place to live and moving is a high form of art.

It’s the art of compromising, negotiating, and getting back on what truly matters in our lives. 

What do we really need?

What could we afford?

Once we answered those questions, it shouldn’t matter anymore what people say or if there seems to be a better deal. 

We’ll be happy with what we have already.