We left our home in Manila, the Philippines and moved to Tokyo, Japan, my home town, this past summer 2021. The adjustment period has been more challenging on so many levels than I had imagined.

After 6 months since we packed out in Manila, we are settled in our current home at last. I am grateful that we’ve come this far. After having moved from place to place, checking boxes of things to do while taking a vacation in the U.S. for over 2 months during the summer, we were ecstatic about finally moving into our permanent housing at the end of September. It was a relief that constant packing and unpacking came to an end.

We moved into a furnished home just like we did in the past. Our homes in Jakarta, Indonesia, Mumbai, India, and Manila, Philippines, were all furnished.

PAINT OR NO PAINT

This time, I decided not to paint the walls unlike 3 other times. After having put a lot of thoughts into it, I deemed that keeping the white walls made more sense. I couldn’t justify the high cost of painting and hassle to paint back to the original color by the time we leave. I couldn’t imagine getting my hands dirty with paint after having moved from one country to another, either. It almost felt mind-boggling.

Therefore, you may not think there was as much change in this living room from the original. Hopefully, I demonstrate that you could bring your own twist and color to a room without involving lots of DIY’s or renovating. They are not usually realistic options for many people who live abroad and move frequently anyways. Simple changes such as changing pillow cases, adding your own rugs, using your own lamps and mixing a few pieces of your own in the space can bring a difference to the space. Agreed?

Enjoy the tour of our living room!