Efter att vi hade packat upp allt, kändes lägenheten äntligen som ett hem.

Efter att means after in the sense of after doing something / after something had happened.

So:

• Efter att vi hade packat upp allt = After we had unpacked everything

It introduces a subordinate clause, which is why the next part of the sentence follows Swedish subordinate-clause rules.

A close alternative is när (when), but efter att more clearly emphasizes that one action was completed before the next situation began.

Because this is the past perfect (also called the pluperfect), which is used for something that had already happened before another past event.

• hade packat upp = had unpacked
• kändes = felt

So the timeline is:

1. We unpacked everything.
2. After that, the apartment felt like a home.

If you said Efter att vi packade upp allt, that is possible in some contexts, especially in informal speech, but hade packat upp is the clearest way to show that the unpacking was completed before the feeling changed.

Packa upp is a particle verb. It means to unpack.

• packa = to pack
• packa upp = to unpack

The word upp is not just up in a literal sense here. Together, packa upp works as one unit with its own meaning.

In this sentence:

• hade packat upp allt = had unpacked everything

So it is best to learn packa upp as a complete verb.

The comma separates the introductory subordinate clause from the main clause:

• Efter att vi hade packat upp allt,
• kändes lägenheten äntligen som ett hem.

In Swedish, commas are often used less strictly than in English, so this comma is partly a matter of style and clarity. With a longer opening clause like this, the comma is very natural.

So the comma is helping the reader see where the background event ends and the main statement begins.

This is a classic example of Swedish V2 word order.

In a main clause, the finite verb normally comes in the second position. If something other than the subject comes first, the verb still stays second, and the subject moves after the verb.

Here, the whole subordinate clause comes first:

• Efter att vi hade packat upp allt = first position

So in the main clause, the finite verb must come next:

• kändes = second position
• lägenheten = subject, after the verb

That is why you get:

• Efter att vi hade packat upp allt, kändes lägenheten äntligen som ett hem.

If you started directly with the subject, you would say:

• Lägenheten kändes äntligen som ett hem.

Both are correct; the word order changes because of what comes first.

Here kändes means felt or seemed/appeared to feel in a personal, experiential sense.

• Lägenheten kändes äntligen som ett hem = The apartment finally felt like a home

It is the past tense of kännas.

A useful pair is:

• känna = to feel, to know by touch, to know a person
• kännas = to feel, seem

Examples:

• Jag känner honom. = I know him.
• Det känns bra. = It feels good.

So here, kändes describes how the apartment was experienced, not something it physically did.

It looks like one, because it has the -s ending, but in this kind of sentence you should think of kännas as its own common verb meaning to feel / to seem.

So although the -s ending often forms passives in Swedish, kännas is very commonly used with this special meaning and is not best understood here as a normal passive translation like was felt.

So:

• kändes here = felt
• not naturally was felt

That is why lägenheten kändes som ett hem means the apartment felt like a home, not the apartment was felt like a home.

Because it refers to the specific apartment already known in the context.

• en lägenhet = an apartment
• lägenheten = the apartment

The ending -en is the Swedish definite article suffix.

So instead of putting a separate word before the noun like English the apartment, Swedish often attaches definiteness to the end:

• lägenhet = apartment
• lägenheten = the apartment

Because here hem means a home as a noun, not home as an adverb or destination.

Compare:

• gå hem = go home
  Here hem has no article.

But in your sentence:

• som ett hem = like a home

Here hem is a countable noun, so it takes the article ett.

So:

• ett hem = a home
• som ett hem = like a home

That matches English quite closely.

Som here means like.

So:

• kändes ... som ett hem = felt like a home

It is used to compare one thing to another:

• Han jobbar som lärare. = He works as a teacher.
• Det ser ut som regn. = It looks like rain.
• Lägenheten kändes som ett hem. = The apartment felt like a home.

In this sentence, som ett hem expresses that the apartment now had the feeling or character of a real home.

Äntligen means finally / at last.

In this sentence it comes after the subject in the main clause:

• kändes lägenheten äntligen som ett hem

That placement is very natural.

If the sentence started with the subject, you would usually say:

• Lägenheten kändes äntligen som ett hem.

So the position of äntligen is affected by the normal Swedish sentence pattern, especially the verb-second rule.

Yes. Allt and allting both mean everything.

• packat upp allt = unpacked everything
• packat upp allting = unpacked everything

Allting can sound a little fuller or slightly more emphatic, but both are natural.

So your original sentence would still work perfectly with allting.

Yes, that is also possible.

The comma is helpful and natural, especially because the opening clause is fairly long, but Swedish often allows this kind of sentence without a comma too.

So both are acceptable:

• Efter att vi hade packat upp allt, kändes lägenheten äntligen som ett hem.
• Efter att vi hade packat upp allt kändes lägenheten äntligen som ett hem.

With the comma, the structure is a little easier to see at a glance.