Moving house

My family and I just moved to a new condo at the end of September. It's located in a convenient spot across from the science and history museum. Better yet, there's a botanical garden and a street lined with exotic restaurants within walking distance. However, the hasstle of moving a house was really exhausting. Technically, we haven't even finished moving all the stuff from our old place.

I remember the last time we moved was when I was in high school, about 15 years ago. Over the years, we have accumulated an incredible number of things like books, clothes, cooking utensils, appliances, plates, potted plants and piles of documents from work, etc. About three weeks into moving, we hired a house moving service to deliver our furniture and the majority of stuff. But still, there're fragile or valuable items we must move on our own. You might wonder why it took us so long to move a house, it wasn't because we were living in a big castle or something, but because we had to sort out and pack stuff late after work, making it hard to be quick.

The major challenge I was faced with was to move everything into a smaller house. It was a tough decision to get rid of stuff we had been using for years, such as a big aquarium my dad and I had been maintaining and two desks we had been using for more than a decade. Especially, I have a soft spot for stuff my family and I have spent a long time with. My sister and I even had arguments over what to keep and what has to be let go of.

During the process of moving, I started reflecting on what is truly essential to a family. Maybe we don't need so much stuff to live a comfortable life. But, I'm sure the idea of minimalism doesn't work for me either. Rather than becoming a minimalist, I personally prefer to find a middle ground.

Hello everyone, I've just joined this website and posting my first journal here. One thing I'd like to bring to your attention is that I tend to bring up unimportant details in both my writing and speaking. I'd like to break this bad habit and get to the point. So, if you find anything redundant, please feel free to correct my mistakes.

Also, another problem I'm having is that I've been writing in textbook English, I suppose that sometimes I might make grammatically correct sentences but aren't natural, or they don't make sense.

From now on, I'll be posting journals to improve my English skills, and if you happen to be learning my native language, which is Chinese, I'll be glad to help you in any way I can. Thanks very much!