You’ve worked hard on getting all your stuff packed up, hired an experienced moving company, and landed in your new home. Then there’s that inevitable moment of staring at piles of boxes and thinking, “Where do I start?”. We all want to feel at home, so here are our best unpacking tips, listed in chronological order, to make moving to a new home feel as homey as possible, as soon as possible.
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Give your new home a thorough cleaning
If you can do this step before you even move your belongings in, all the better — but give yourself the feeling of a clean slate, where you can build your new life, by scrubbing out the dust and dirt of the past inhabitants. Bring along your personal favorite cleaning products with scents that you enjoy so your new home can already start to smell like you, and the new sparkle will be all the more incentive to settle in.
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Set up your bed first
At the end of a long day of unpacking, you’ll want a cozy place to rest your head. Take the time to decide where you want your bed to go, put on a set of clean sheets, and create as appealing a space as possible in the surrounding area. That means avoiding piling stuff on top of your nicely made bed over the course of the day because, really, who wants to have to clean it off before you can go to sleep?
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Put your toiletries in their place
Now that the bathroom is squeaky clean, arrange your toothbrush, toothpaste, soap, and so on just how you like them. A house feels more like a home when you can sleepily reach for the toilet paper and it’s there for your use! Don’t worry about arranging everything perfectly quite yet, but be sure the necessities are at your fingertips — or nicely tucked away in the medicine cabinet, if you prefer.
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Unpack your other necessities
Now that the bedroom and bathroom are in place, prepare the other heart of the home: your kitchen. Get the plates, bowls and silverware put away so you are ready for a meal (or a bowl of cereal), and organize all of your favorite heirloom knickknacks so that they’re where you’d like them. Organize the spice rack, get a sponge by the sink, and make a cup of tea. The more you can set up the heart of your home to feel like your kitchen, it will feel warmer, more welcoming, and more comfortable so you can start really settling in.
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Set up your drawers and closets
After a well-deserved snack in your newly organized kitchen, set up your dressers and closets, and unpack your suitcases and clothes so that you’re not living out of boxes. Nothing says “I’m still moving in” like trying to find your socks in the morning, so take the time to organize everything just how you’d like it- and in such a way that it feels like you never moved. This might also be a prime moment to actually fold all those t-shirts that end up in a pile and start a new “normal”!
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Finally, set up the living room
Let’s face it — if you set up the living room too early, the temptation to sit and take a “quick” break might derail your well-intentioned unpacking efforts. So leave this one for last and, once you’ve set up your favorite cozy space to take a breather and relax, you will have accomplished the biggest stuff already and feel like you deserve to crash on the couch with a smile on your face.
Now that you new home is set up, add your personal touches to make it feel like home.
