For many adults, both young and old, moving into a new apartment unit can be a challenging experience. Whether it’s hard because it’s your first experience of living independently, or because it’s been so long since the last time you moved, keeping a mental checklist of the tasks that need to be completed can make things easier. By focusing on a few key steps, one at a time, the process can seem a little bit more manageable. A lot of these steps actually happen before you move anything of your old stuff in.
Before moving in, survey your new space without any furniture or electronics, and consider the walls, carpet, and lighting. A trip to your local Home Depot store can get you equipped with a couple of gallons of paint, plush new carpet to cover those beat-up wood floors, and some new track lighting to brighten up that bedroom with no sunlight from the window. Next, recruit a few friends or bribe them with a few beers, and set aside a work day to give the skeleton of your new living space a makeover.
After making some basic cosmetic changes, it’s amazing how fresh and clean your new home can look. Reward yourself with a trip to the nearest Sears or Lowes location , and look to upgrade some of your large and small appliances. These stores are great places to buy refrigerators, microwaves, espresso machines, and other necessities of modern life. Even if you don’t spend a ton of money, upgrading something and small and simple as a new blender can make using your new kitchen really feel like a different experience.
Finally, examine the bathroom and bedroom, and look to see if there are any towel racks, toothbrush holders, beside tables, lamps, or other necessary furniture and accessories that won’t arrive with the moving vans. Bed, Bath, and Beyond, or IKEA locations are usually good bets to find a wide variety of these types of items with relative ease.
Finally, if you can afford it, the cost of paying professional movers to pack, ship, and unpack what seems like all of your life’s belongings is usually well worth the expense. The time, and even the basic physical strain, of boxing up dozens of items, lugging heavy furniture in and out of a moving truck, and trying to get everything returned to U-Haul by closing time is a huge stress. Giving your new space a fresh coat of paint, buying a new coffee maker, or purchasing a new reading lamp are equally as important, and a lot more fun than moving, so focus on those tasks. Leaving the physical labor and stress to the pros if you can.
