Moving into a new home, especially one you’ve bought, is supposed to be an exciting experience. You’ll be moving into something you could’ve spent years trying to obtain. As much as you’ll look forward to it, though, there could be a lot of stress involved.
With how much there is to take care of, it’s easy to see why that’s the case. You could even feel overwhelmed.
While this can be common for many people, it doesn’t mean it’s something you need to settle for. By knowing which steps you need to take, you make it a lot easier for yourself. At a minimum, you’ll make it all more straightforward.
Some of these are relatively obvious, but some of them could be relatively easily overlooked. It’s worth diving into ten of the more important steps our contributor shares to take when you’re moving into a new home.
There’s no reason why they shouldn’t help.
Moving Into A New Home: 10 Steps You Need To Take
1. Start With A Deep Clean
One of the more overlooked parts of moving into your new home is giving it a deep clean. That’s because most people expect their house to already be clean. While that’s true to an extent, it doesn’t mean it’ll be as clean as you’d like it to be. It could need some work.
It’s best to do this before moving any of your belongings in. You wouldn’t have to worry about your furniture getting in the way, so the process will get a lot easier. While this could take a little time to do, it shouldn’t be too much of a struggle.
2. Sort Out Your Utilities
Without your utilities, you’re not going to have any water or electricity. That’s obvious, but what isn’t so obvious is you’ll need to spend some time and effort actually setting up your utilities. You’ll have to get in touch with your utility providers to get everything done for that.
In some cases, you’ll have a few options for your providers, so it’s worth comparing these before deciding. Thankfully, the process of actually setting up your utilities shouldn’t be too complicated. You might need to wait for your providers to send someone out to set everything up, though.
3. Change The Locks
One of the first things you should do after buying your new home is change the locks. While the sellers should give you all copies of the keys during the buying process, that doesn’t always happen. You’ll want to make sure you’re the only ones who can actually get into your home.
Then there’s the fact the current locks could be relatively old. They’ll be easier to break because of that, even accidentally. Nobody wants that to happen, so you’re better off changing the locks as early as you can. Your new home will be safer because of that.
4. Install A Security System
While locks are there to prevent people from getting into your home, it’s always worth putting a little extra effort into it. A security system could help make sure your house is as safe as possible. It’s worth doing this when you’re moving into a new home to keep you safe from the start.
Cameras can be a great addition, but it’s worth investing in at least alarms. With these, you can make sure you – and the authorities – are quickly informed when someone tries to break into your house. It’s the least you can do to make sure your home is safe.
5. Get Insurance
One of the more overlooked parts of buying a home is the insurance. While you’ll be obligated to get this if you’re getting a mortgage, many people don’t put a lot of thought into their homeowners insurance. Make sure you actually spend some time on it, however.
You should make sure it’s as comprehensive as possible to avoid any financial problems if anything happens. While you’ll need to balance this with the cost of monthly premiums, spending some time on it helps you figure this out. Get it out of the way as early as possible.
6. Move Your Belongings In
Once you’ve made sure your house is as safe as possible to live in, and properly clean, it’s time to move your belongings in. This can often be one of the more time-consuming parts of moving into a new home, but it’s one of the more important. Thankfully, it shouldn’t be too complicated.
It’s worth setting aside two or three days to get this all done. Have a plan to make it as easy as possible for yourself. Having an idea of where all of your furniture and other belongings will go helps with this, so put some effort into that before moving everything in.
7. Test Out Smoke Detectors
There’ll be quite a bit of safety equipment around your home, even if it’s relatively small. Your smoke and carbon monoxide detectors are some of the more notable. They’re there to make sure you’re aware of when there’s a problem that could be life-threatening. With how important this is, it’s worth getting it out of the way early.
Getting new batteries for them first could be recommended. It’ll make sure you don’t need to worry about replacing the batteries anytime soon. The previous owner mightn’t have done this in quite a while, so the batteries could be close to dying.
8. Pet Or Kid-Proof
If you have pets or kids, then you’ll need to make sure your new home is safe for them. That means pet-proofing and kid-proofing your home. Getting this done as early as you can is recommended. Preferably after you’ve moved most of your belongings in, but before you properly move in.
That way, you don’t need to worry about your kids or pets hurting themselves while you’re in the middle of getting everything done. For the sake of having peace of mind about it, it’s worth making this one of the first steps you take.
9. Set Up Internet
Setting up your internet can be quite important, but it’s easy to forget to book some time to get this done. You could need someone from your provider to come out and actually install everything for you. It’s worth booking this as early as you can, as the appointment could be weeks away.
It’s worth booking this before you plan to actually move in. That way, you wouldn’t have to be without the internet for too long after moving in. Since this could be an important part of your home entertainment system and other areas, you’ve no reason not to get this done early.
10. Update Your Address
One of the easier to overlook parts of the process is updating your address. You’ll have to do this with more than a few institutions, with the Post Office being one of the more obvious. There’s also your bank account, employer, and several other places you should update your address with.
If you don’t, you could run into problems long-term. You wouldn’t end up getting important mail you might need from your bank or other places. While you could have quite a few places to update your address with, it shouldn’t take long to get through each of them.
Tips To Make Moving Into A New Home Easier
Once you know the most important steps in the process, moving into a new home gets a lot easier. That doesn’t mean they’re all you need to know before you start. In fact, it can be worth knowing a few tips andy tricks to help with the process.
Some of the more notable of these are:
- Get familiar with your circuit box for when there are any electrical issues
- Know where the water and gas shut-offs are for when you’re getting work done
- Find out when your trash and recycling pick-ups are
- Get familiar with any HOA rules, if there are any
With these, you shouldn’t have much of a problem moving into a new home. You’ll make the process more straightforward for yourself, and you could even avoid a lot of the moving-related stress.
There’s no reason why you shouldn’t take advantage of them from the start.
Moving Into A New Home: Wrapping Up
Moving into a new home can be an exciting and enjoyable time, but it can easily become overwhelming. You’ll have quite a few areas to look after and steps to get done. It’s easy to see why so many people get stressed out because of it.
There’s no reason why you should have to settle for that, however. Instead, there are ways to make it easier for yourself.
One of the more notable is to know which steps to take when you’re moving into a new home. Some of these will be more obvious than others, but that doesn’t mean they’re any more or less important.
By knowing which steps you should get out of the way, especially at the start, you should make the process a lot easier for yourself.