How my priorities for my home have shifted

New relationship with our homes

Being locked in our homes day in, day out, has proven somewhat complicated. I’ve always loved my rented apartment and how my housemate and I chose to decorate it - it came furnished, but all the bits and bobs (including plates and cutlery) were brought by us from our previous homes or bought since we moved in here. We were both excited to move in here (we’ve previously lived together), and we’ve loved almost every minute of it. But our desires and priorities have shifted dramatically in this past month.

Reasons why we’ve been living in this apartment for almost two years

We live on the 9th floor and we have a view of Canary Wharf - most notably, the HSBC building and One Canada Square (the tall building with the pyramid roof and a flashing light on top).

We have two bathrooms and can’t ever imagine having to share again (especially in the morning, when we had to schedule our bathroom time to get ready for work).

We have a large open space living area, which we didn’t before. The living room was a bedroom, and the kitchen was tiny. London renting for you in a nutshell.

Our couch and coffee table is in a slightly separated area of the open space living room, making the kitchen area wide and open - we’ve even played frisbee and learned TIk Tok dances in there. The dining table is to the side, next to the full-length windows.

We have a concierge and we couldn’t live without a reception area ever again.

Things we’ve changed since March

We’ve bought a TV from a neighbour for £50. We used it less than 10 times in a month, so we’re not sure this was a good investment.

We’re going to move our couch in the middle of the frisbee/dancing space, in front of the TV (hey, at least the couch is now going to point at something!) to make room for a desk we ordered that’s getting more and more delayed.

We’ve ordered two office chairs.

We care more and more about how tidy the house is.

Things we’ve learned about our home (and ourselves) recently

If you leave the window next to the couch open and the one next to the dining table open, the breeze blows in a circular way, giving both of us headaches.

Having the blinds fully down on a sunny day make the bedrooms heat up unbearably by 9am.

Our neighbouring building has an indoor private garden area. The lucky bastards.

Each of us has her own distinctive way of putting dishes in the dishwasher.

We use way too many spoons.

Google Home is annoying and really not that great (Sorry, Google. I still love you).

We have similar styles of working, so working from home, at the same time, in the living room, is breezy.

My friend’s the kind of person who says “okie-dok” constantly in calls. I’m the kind of person who puts her microphone on mute and ends the call with “I will look into this and get back to you”.

We’ve started going to the massive park behind our building. We’ve never done this before.

We are so blessed to have this apartment (which is a massive step up from our previous apartment with no living room and loads of mice!!). We’re usually two (now 3 - my housemate’s boyfriend) in this large apartment and we could probably go days without seeing each other on a “normal” day.

Things I’d look for if we ever want to move out

I’d love to have a balcony. Full-length windows help, but being able to go out on the balcony for coffee would be a major plus.

I’d love to not face one of the busiest streets and have our windows facing towards and inner garden or a park. Or even a quieter street.

Still have a concierge. Receiving packages has never been easier.

I’d love to have a separate office area, especially cause I’d be working from home 3 days a week under “normal” circumstances.