Dear LPG, 

I wonder if I am the only person who has ever found walking into a space that should have been so familiar was not quite the same after a bit of a break. I think we all have the occasional experience of walking into a familiar room or space, and although we can’t put a finger on what has changed, we know that something has. 

After a two-year time window where pandemic restrictions left so many changing and updating little things in their houses for want of something (anything) to keep us sane, I found it hard to keep up with the little changes we have made.

When there was so little to do, I learned quite a bit about internet buying and found myself updating silly little things. 

Amongst others, I got a new set of cushions for my chairs and settee, which changed the colour and left me feeling slightly more optimistic, and I bought myself a new front door mat. 
There were other things too, and I forgot each new item relatively quickly as they blended in. Still, so many of my friend and family visitors could sense rather than see the difference as soon as they entered my slightly unfamiliar space.     

For a short while just after those restrictions were cancelled. I got used to visitors getting to my front door and saying those words, ‘something has changed…’ and it is a phrase that I got used to using a bit more often when a visitor too.

Two years have passed, and that need to visit and be visited has evened out a bit now. Not being stuck at home all the time has left us focussing a little less on our interiors, but the other day, I visited a friend who had moved her hall dresser a bit further along than I remembered. As soon as she opened her door, the words slipped out, ‘Something’s changed!’ although if she had not told me, I still don’t think I would have known what.  

NT, Beckenham.