How much of your upcoming house, condo or townhome purchase is about the structure itself and how much is about the lifestyle? Chances are the answer includes both, with the structure taking the lead until you get closer to move-in day.
A new-home purchase isn’t just a roof over you or your family. It’s the place where growth and change take place, where planned and spontaneous celebrations arise and where every manner of emotion will surface.
Go ahead and embrace the wow-factor of the freshness, the newness, the energy efficient and automated features and the gleaming surfaces of the models you tour. Let your chin drop at turnkey, high-end kitchens, comfortable living spaces filled with natural light and the ways that new homes are designed with flexibility to accommodate people’s changing lives.
The number and types of rooms, the home’s orientation and everything from the foundation to the type of roofing under the solar panels will figure high on your list of expectations.
But be sure to consider what you don’t know. For example, how soon will the place feel like home to you? If you expect life in the new house to feel immediately cozy and familiar, you may experience a few weeks of frustration.
Although everything is still untouched and the walls haven’t yet witnessed a single meaningful memory, there are some pre-move-in tasks that can help warm up the spaces for your senses. Doing so will help make the initial several days feel less like living in a vacation home.
Instead of dreaming about getting to use the gleaming quartz counters or the spacious shower in the primary bath, go back to basics. Before move-in day, complete the normally mundane tasks of grocery shopping, cooking, laundering bed and bath linens and packing everyday items using the rule of last-in, first out.
Preparation for the new home by doing things you’ll need to do anyway makes good sense. It also makes good scents.
While packing up the old home, pre-make some of your household’s favorite dinner meals and store them in the freezer for cooking and eating on your first few days. Pack pantry items you use daily — like cereal, noodles, rice, snacks and oils — in containers you can open right at move-in. Keep tea or coffee supplies handy if either is essential to your daily sanity.
During the first couple days at the new home, all you’ll need to do is make a quick trip to the local grocer or farmer’s market for breakfast and lunch items, perishables, garnishes and baked goods to finish off the homemade meals you already prepared.
If you purchased new bath and kitchen towels for the new home, wash and dry those a few times before moving in so they smell and feel like home. Better yet, wait on buying new towels and do some instantgratification home decor shopping a month after move-in.
Have bed sheets and bed covers ready for immediate bed making.
If possible, have family members make their own beds, set up their own bathrooms and unpacking their belongings.
Tip: If everyone can pack and label their own things, they’ll know where items are, which simplifies unpacking.
Other quick tips for week one of making sense and scents at home in the first two weeks: Got pets? Have their food, toys and bedding ready right away.
Don’t bother washing pet bedding before the move; let it smell like home. The same might even go for throw blankets you all use on the sofas.
Bring the laundry with you from the old house and put a few loads in the new machines while unpacking.
Bake some favorite homemade goodies a couple of times in the first week.
Order in from a restaurant near the new home. After initial wipedowns with your own home-cleaning products, don’t bother with much cleaning the first couple weeks unless absolutely necessary. Have some friends or new neighbors over for visits.
Welcome home!