I'LL SOON GET THOSE CURTAINS
3 June 2007

A central dilemma of my life in the last years can be compressed in one simple question: When is the right time to buy curtains?

Since the year 1999, I have lived in 4 countries and in an almost endless number of rooms or flats. Always renting and (recently increasingly stressfully) aware that my current home was 'only' temporary - a place where I would live during a period of between 4 months and 2 years.

This kind of drifting - although my purpose of staying there was either work or study - has been rather exhausting. Dragging of suitcases back and forwards between my parents' home, or between the UK (where I lived for 6.5 years) and Germany and Belgium. Big time Schlepping is the most appropriate way to describe it. Well, luckily I have met friendly people in all those train stations and airports who have seen my facial expression of dispair.

When renting a flat, curtains are usually included. This means that there is no need for my own. My mum would say 'thankfully' and so did I 5 years ago, but in the last few years my visits to IKEA have turned into rather painful experiences. IKEA is filled with beautiful stuff, but unfortunately there is one requirement: A home.

Without a home where you know you will stay for at least 'a reasonable' period of time, it does not make much sense to buy those big pieces of furniture - or curtains - which could make the flat I live in into MY flat. In a way visits to IKEA have painfully reminded me of the fact that everything I buy needs to be completely necessary, but yet also dispensable. Please Einstein, could you help me with this equation?

That big vase would personalise my home, but: how on earth would I carry it to the next place (read: country) where I would live? So far the conclusion has been: Well, then I don't buy it! Once my ex-boyfriend and I decided to buy a sofabed, a TV and a big chest of drawers - only to find out that my employer (who, obviously and ironically, operated policies which are supposed to make everything fair and beneficial to the employees) couldn't renew my contract because there was a hiring-freeze for permanent positions. The fixed-term contract dilemma equals the curtain dilemma!

Anyway, that comfy sofabed (which represented our wish to establish a home) had to be advertised online and was sold. C'est la vie, I suppose.

But last week I signed the contract for my new flat. I explicitly asked my future landlord to make it semi-furnished. This time I will live with my own things. No matter if it will be more schlepping than it has ever been before. The right time to buy curtains has arrived.