Eric and the kids will mostly have brand new furniture for their new apartment.

A lot of what we have here has been bought specifically for these rooms. They’re the right size and shape and colour for their places. It wouldn’t make sense to move this sofa elsewhere and buy a replacement for it here, or the kitchen table, etc.

Bookshelves are an exception. The IKEA Billy is the quintessential bookshelf in Sweden, and unless you’re splurging on something custom-built, it rarely makes sense to get anything else. It’s just a matter of choosing between oak veneer or white.

Since we’re divvying up the books, we’re doing the same with the bookshelves. I helped Eric move half of ours to the new apartment today, along with the first batch of boxes.