28 Comments

I loved exploring this idea, Matt, of not just things, but things in their place. When I first moved into this house 18 years ago, I hung my handbag on the bedroom door. That has remained its home ever since. Were it to land anywhere else, I would never find it.

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I love that, Sharron. I think that the bedroom landscape I share with my wife especially is full of things in certain places that never get challenged or moved.

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Lovely piece, Matt. I’m with Vanilla Black on the pens though. Never where they belong! Having been an ‘empty nester’ for some time now, I can attest to the sense of loss of presence of both things and people… but the connecting thread will always remain unbroken. Plus, whenever he comes home, nothing remains in its right place for long, especially in the kitchen!

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Thank you, Kate. My sympathies extend to you on the pen front. Uni drop was yesterday, and so a first day without her today, and it feels only a little sad; her happiness easily tipping the balance the other way. Her new nest looked safe and very cosy when we left.

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Poignant, I too have a child about to leave and for now I’m enjoying the mess as I know I will miss it when it is gone. Scissors, keys and sells tape have a home in our house but seldom live there, and what do you do about glasses?!

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Glasses that need wearing always being lost. Glasses to drink from often being retrieved from corners of their rooms... :) Good luck with waving yours off. We dropped her at uni yesterday and her happiness managing to override our sadness so far. x

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Gulp. Glad she went off happily. My boy is joining the Marines, we have him for another few months and then I think but will feel very final😬

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❤️ Enjoy the next few months. x

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Oh I will! Thanks

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Marvellous. We are in a similar place these couple of end of summer/early autumn weeks - I hope they go well for you all

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You went with soup, I went with soap. Godspeed to you too!

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I loved this Matt, it actually made me laugh as my husband doesn't seem to know where anything is in the house even after being here for 20 years! A lovely gentle read though and a reminder of the importance of the simple things that bind us together over the years, and there are many. You won't remember me but I came to one of your IG styling workshops in Suffolk years ago, it's nice to bump into you again on here.

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Hi Lindsey, nice to meet you again here. And thank you for reading. My wife would possibly have a few reservations too! I had such lovely times in Suffolk with the workshop… I do miss being on the road with them like that. x

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Absolutely she will and with even more love and appreciation❤️ ( although I’m sure she appreciates and loves you all very much anyway!)

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It’s a time of such mixed emotions, but from my experience of the same thing last September, it’s the coming home again for weekends and holidays which is oh, so emotional and just pure love and joy. The best hugs hello ever . ❤️

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Ah, we are already looking forward to that (we're assuming she'll be coming back home!). x

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A friend has been staying with me for a couple of months now, and things are appearing in places they don't belong to, but often it is to create new bounderies. It still unsettles me every so often. I'm learning to navigate around these new markers. I might even miss them when my friend leaves

Love this fragment Matt. Have a good week ahead.

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I will be getting a housemate for the first time shortly. I face this "misplacement" of things as a real challenge. I appreciated reading your thoughts here, Valentina.

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Thank you, Valentina. It sounds like you are managing to navigate quite well. I can quite believe you will miss them too. x

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Can identify with most of what you have written Matt, though am currently rather confused as have just returned from our holiday home in France, which we co-own with another couple. Here, familiar objects are kept in different places. I keep opening a UK drawer expecting it to be full of tea bags. Instead it is home to miscellaneous kitchen tools.

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Thanks, Christine. That sort of living co-owning arrangement must throw up many spatial anomalies! Hope you had fun, and are slowly reacquainting yourself with the old geographical order! x

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Very good Matt, but pens, they definitely don’t have a regular place in our house. That’s why they always disappear

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Pens live in the tin in the kitchen, or the tumbler next to the computer, or the un-closeable drawer of abundant stationery overflow... this really isn't that difficult, Andrew!

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I’m already lost.

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I loved reading this one Matt. Thank you!

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Thank you, Maria, so pleased you enjoyed.

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I watch The English Patient when I need an emotional purge, anything I’ve not dealt with when I’m mentally constipated. I cry and swoon and sigh my way through the entire film xxx

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It's been such a long time since I watched it, must put that right soon. Such a beautiful film. The book has a different, less 'cinematic' quality (if that's not a stupid thing to write!), but is every bit as wonderful.

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