Today marks 14 years since I moved into the flat.

I love where I live and right now, with the the cost of living crisis and the rental crisis (and it is a crisis), I know now lucky I am not to have moved in all that time, this is the longest I have lived in one place since I was 20!

The start of this year was difficult with all the building work and COVID and although I haven’t moved, I have packed up every room in the house and unpacked it again so I sort of feel like I moved!

All that being said, I’m glad that I’ve been in the same place for that long and I’m grateful too. For the space and the people that kept me in the flat when my life and more importantly, my work wasn’t stable.

That is mostly my mum, who came to view the flat with me and knew immediately that this was the one and spent a lot of this year helping me pack.

Seriously, long term stable rental for people that can’t afford to buy somewhere is vitally important for life and mental health. If you can’t put roots down in a place and settle, you never relax, you can’t be part of a community. I’ve had that opportunity. In the last 14 years, I’ve got myself back from a not good place and a massive part of that was having a home I could settle into.

For now, I’m just happy to watch the years pile up, it’s good to live in a place that feels like home!