{weekly to do list}

i really wish this was the tah-dah! list because i'd rather show than tell about what i plan to do in the next week. you'll notice this list is full of the word 'order'. that's because if i don't order a few things in advance i'll be hot mess when i get over there and realize how dumb i was to think that i could go power shopping the day i arrive after flying and transferring and sitting in airports for 18 hours. plus lists are good. sometimes showing this stuff to the world helps because it gets our butts in gear. so please excuse me for a moment while i bore you to tears. see those sharpened pencils on your desk? you may enjoy stabbing yourself in the eyes with them vs. read this petty mundaneness. Mundane with an ity is my new hollyword. you like? Feel free to use it. No need to link back. Free word day! It's my contribution to the already horrible american english language that i regularly help support. just don't say i don't give back. 1. order wallpaper for bathroom and kitchen because if i don't order it now, shipping to germany will no doubt kill me. you have to drive down to some tax office and pay taxes on stuff that is sent from anywhere outside of germany. i order foreign goods on a weekly basis and i've never paid a single tax on anything. technically this law exists in america but i don't think the little guy has to worry about it. maybe stores ordering crates? i digress... 2. order shower curtain. because i can never find ones in germany that are even remotely attractive. most are vinyl or vinyl-esque. and orange. or blue. or they have sunflowers on them. what is with germans and sunflowers? thankfully i see less and less of them as i return each year. i hope they get a new flower as a motif. i would prefer anything really over a sunflower. 3. order mattress. and pray that one mattress arrives vs. two twins. in germany, it's common for couples to have two twins on a frame. i'm sorry, but this is quite awful. who decided this to be the national standard? sleeping on a twin bed, even if it's directly against another twin bed with only a hairline crack separating you from your lover, feels cold to me. i complain about this often, as all the hotels i've stayed in over the years there had these giant beds with two mattresses. my husband would be on his and i'd be on mine. a crack down the middle. a dividing line i guess. that is your side over there and here, well here is my side. this isn't the 1950's. couples don't sleep in twin beds in the same room? crushing them together doesn't erase the fact that they are still separate beds. who invented this idea anyway? this way of sleeping only benefits some cheater who leaves in the middle of the night who doesn't want his wife to 'feel' him rising from the bed. or some one night stander who wants to slip away in silence. maybe those guys dig the two mattress thing. but it feels lonely to me. there is something comforting about feeling someone over there that makes sleeping with a person so nice in the first place. when the mattress moves a little as he rolls over, there is peace in that. a sense of protection. you get none of this on a twin. 4. order a phone (amazon.de). 5. order at least one pendant light so i can see what i'm doing the first night i'm in my apartment! 6. decide what i will take with me, like prints and photos and such that i plan to hang. i have lots of etsy art that i've been saving so i have to decide what i'll pack. i think this will be the most affordable way to adorn the walls for down. etsy prints in ikea frames, baby! but serious... what is up with the dual twin bed action?

Comments

ha, ha it sounds like these twin beds really got you going:-) I think there's quite a pracical reason for the twin beds, people are different and usually a man and a woman are not the same size and have different preferences for their matresses. We have one single matress and I actually sometimes wish we didn't. My husband is bigger than I am and whenever he turns the whole bed moves ... almost eight years of marriage and three children has made me appreciate my sleep.

Good luck with your matress hunting!
Juliette said…
well, you can always buy a 'love bumper' i you kid not! It looks like one of those wacky noodles for the pool wedged in there.

We found the price skyrockets when getting the equivalent of a queen mattress. We did it anyway since we're not fans of having the Grand Canyon in our bed. Lots of people call the large-one-mattress deal a "french bed" -- like that needs explaining, obviously the French are more aware of what goes on in bed and want to make it more comfortable! lol

btw- you can buy little wire things from the hardware stores, like Obi, to just hang a bare bulb for cheaps until you're ready to commit to a pendant. =)
rooruu said…
If you're doing an Ikea excursion, that's a place that usually has good shower curtains. Would it be the same in Germany? Surely Ikea Germany doesn't confine itself to sunflowers.... (ick).

This entry wasn't mundane at all, but made me chuckle and empathise. So much to do, so little time! Breathe, it will all work out...(I know, sometimes it's the little things that are just ANNOYING!).
sarah b. said…
i know exactly what you mean about the two twin mattress phenomenon! when i move to the netherlands, we're definitely buying one big mattress. i keep wanting to ask someone i know there how they, you know, decide which side to be on for their very-private-moments, but it feels weird to ask your boyfriend's brother such a question! i just can't imagine sleeping with a dividing line between us.
sarah b. said…
oh! and i recommend anthropologie for a shower curtain! they have some really beautiful ones, and if my apartment bathroom in the nl ends up needing one i'm ordering one from there (but to be honest, most of my clothes & my bedding come from there so maybe i'm just a bit obsessed). :)
haus maus said…
great ideas ladies, thank you.

oh yeah, anthro has great shower curtains. but i almost want to make my own so that i have something unique. we'll see though, the heart is willing as they say...
Samantha said…
Another potential reason for two beds smooshed together... Europe has a lot of old buildings with small stair cases, elevators, and doorways. Larger beds may fit in the rooms, but may not fit through areas on the way to the room. Bed frames however, can be brought in and assembled in the room. This may not be the reason or the only reason, but it's what I came up with while I was traveling in Austria, the Czech Republic, France, and Spain, and had the same question and irritation that you do!
Anonymous said…
Well, I´m German actually and the last time I went shopping for matresses you could get one big matress up to 160 cm in most stores. We had both - one big matress and twins - and I must say I´d never go back to a big single one. Like Petra said, my man is much bigger than me and prefers a very hard matress I couldn´t live, or sleep, with...

However, you´re absolutely right when it comes to shower curtains ;-) I always drool over the ones I see on US blogs.
Anonymous said…
Two twins beds together drive me crazy as well, although I recognize why some people wouldn't mind. (-: I toss and turn too much so I feel like I'd get sucked into the middle divide during the night.

And I'm glad you're back. This site has been a daily read for me and you were very well missed during the no-updates. (I love decor8, but really enjoy the more personal aspect of haus maus!)
My opinion is definitely the same as Samantha's - I've stayed in some apts. in Europe where I could barely manage getting a suitcase up the crazy 5 flights of stairs without plunging to my death - can't imagine even a full mattress making it up to a lot of these abodes! Are there twin boxsprings involved as well?

How is the fabric in Germany? It's easy enough to hem some and clip it on as a shower curtain. I think they are hard to find because of the whole Euro tub with spray thingee plus bidet action situation. We had to rig one up from rope in our apt. in Venice - no one had ever thought of having a shower curtain there at all!

becky
haus maus said…
hey beckster :)
fabric is okay, nothing stands out.

yes i think that is what it is... old buildings and flights of stairs. i'm not going to live in a pre war bldg though, not yet anyway, and we're only on the 1st floor, which is 2nd floor to americans since german 1st floors are considered ground zero. i still get this wrong when i go visit my friends there. they buzz me in and tell me they live on the 4th floor and i end up on the 4th floor pounding on the wrong door. they are on the 5th floor, not the 4th but to them it's the 4th. i know, i know.
Anonymous said…
I moved back to Germany (I was born here) last year after living in NYC for almost 17 years. I wish I would have seen your blog before, it would have helped me out a lot. I live close to Hannover as well, woot! Anywho.. regarding the mattress dilemma - well it's awful, I totally agree. However you can get the bigger size mattresses here you just have to order them. They do take some time to arrive. If you get an american size one and have it shipped here, be sure to measure your bed first and then also bring along bedsheets etc. Regarding the shower curtain - you are right I haven't found nice onces here, but I knew that so in March when I went back to NYC I brought along a nice one I found at Target. I go back once or twice a year now to NYC and usually go with two almost empty suitcases, on my way back they are filled with things. :-)
Tracey said…
The twin bed thing is frustrating on both sides of the pond. (My husband is also from there and we travel back and forth often).
My dilemma is not so much the twin beds there, but I want to buy duvet covers and linens and can never find anything big enough for our queen size bed here! Enjoy the experience, and stay away from the sunflowers!
Anonymous said…
LOL about the dual twin bed.... We had so many discussions with sellers about that. In Germany you are told that you need two matresses to stay healthy because the someone next to you will ruin your night when he is moving. THAT IS GERMAN- YEP! I keep telling evrybody my night AND my health is ruined by a gap between my husband and me at night and they just give up, thinking I am a stubborn adolescent who does not know better. When we ordered the last big matress, family and friends awed how we could do it, being grown up, sensible, understanding and inteleectually capable of understanding that health is more important then having a matress together. Well I tell friends (not family) that having sex more often is healthier than thinking about back problems all the time when you think of your bed... So let them stay in their twin bed, with a perfect back but utterly frustrated because of the gap in between them...
yvonne
Susan said…
Lame Q I know...

but what font do you sign your name in - I l*o*v*e it!
Jessica said…
OMG - you are so right on so many things. For starters, I agree - etsy prints with ikea frames is a good way to go. I blogged about some prints that I hung with the cheapy ikea clip frames recently and the wall came out lovely.

As for the two mattresses together - I know - this is crap. We went from a king size to a queen size to avoid just this. We are told you can't get a king size mattress here (we live in Switzerland, perhaps Germany is the same) - you have to get the two mattresses together. CRAZY!! So be careful if you ordered a king size bed as you might have to resort to two mattresses.
Honeygo Beasley said…
You forgot ...

7. Take me!
Anonymous said…
Quick word: Make sure you're OK with not being able to use European bedlinen on your mattress - it doesn't fit coz the American Queen is bigger than the European Queen. You usually have to order extra length bedlinen to make it fit, which limits your bedlinen choices as not all manufacturers do extra length.
Cherryskin said…
Eugh, sunflowers*. In the same mental "bin" in my mind as those teal-and-peach jumble-pattern bedspreads found in yick motels (WHO designs those jumble-pattern fabrics, anyway???!!!)
(*I do like the real thing.)

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