Moving is thrilling, but moving in doesn’t have to happen immediately if you just purchased a new home! The home you bought is somewhere you’re going to live for years, so it’s a good idea to get some items out of the way before you move all of your furniture in.
If you can follow these steps, you’ll be set for a smooth moving process!
Deep Clean
Unless you’re buying a brand new home or building your own: your home is going to have little signs that someone else has lived there. Nobody wants to walk through their bedroom and feel the previous owner’s long hair get stuck on their feet. So instead, take a day or two and deep clean the house. The main focus should be the kitchen and bathrooms to ensure that it feels like a fresh start. You can also hire a service to do this, but doing it yourself will save you a lot of money.
Paint Anything You Want to be Painted
Painting before you move in is the surest way to keep your furniture from getting stained. When you close and get the keys, pick up some paint swatches and then go over and try to pick good colors for each of the rooms. Then carefully paint, and give the walls the color you want. If you’re painting the exterior of your home, you could wait to do that until after you’ve moved.
Consider Refinishing the Floors
When your home is empty, you’re set up for the easiest path to refinishing your floors. Look at the carpet, hardwood, tile or linoleum and decide if your floors need to be updated. The carpet often needs to be changed between owners since it holds much grime and can get dirty quickly. This can be expensive to do and will take up to a week to complete, but afterward, you can move into a home with new floors for a fresh start.
Research Zoning and HOA
Although this should be one of the first steps to buy a house, if you’re not clear on what zoning laws or HOA rules you’ll have to follow in this area: research before you move in. Most homeowners associations don’t go out of their way to be controlling, but it’s good to know if they have any rules about cutting down trees, adding lawn furnishings, or painting the exterior of your home. Likewise, zoning rules matter if you’re interested in updating or adding to your home, and it’s good to know what you’re allowed to do.
Schedule Time Off to Settle
Request a week or two off for moving and settling into your new home. Although you could absolutely move during the weekend and get back to work the following Monday, you’ll feel exhausted, and it will affect your work. Instead, schedule some time off so that you can get comfortable in your surroundings and sleep off the stress of moving all of your belongings, and work will still be there for you when you get back to one hundred percent.
