The average age for buying a first home these days is roughly 33, and this average seems to be increasing year over year. Regardless of what age it happens at, buying your first home is a huge achievement.
However, buying a home is only the first step in the process. The next step is moving into a home, which is a lot more complicated than it sounds. Between getting your furniture in the new space, assuming you buy it unfurnished, and figuring out how to arrange it, there’s a lot of work to do.
You won’t have to go it alone, though. We’ll offer some advice in this article.
1. Change Your Address
One of the most important steps in moving into a new home is to change your address, and phone number if you have a home phone. This shouldn’t be as much of a hassle these days, because having to mail things is not as common as it used to be.
These days, most messages and information can be delivered by text or email. Even money can be sent online, so the only people you need to change your address for should be your mail carrier, any company that you order packages from, and any relatives that still mail things to you.
2. Downsize
A new house represents a new phase in life, and that means a lot of changes. Getting rid of some things you don’t need or use anymore is often part of this transition.
You have a lot of options when it comes to getting stuff you don’t want, but the most common is having a yard sale. Yard sales are a small-town way of getting rid of things you don’t need.
If you have a yard sale and find that a portion of your items didn’t sell, you can donate them to charity organizations, such as Goodwill. This organization is happy to take some of your used toys, clothes, and games. Keep in mind that the items you donate should not be damaged in any way.
3. Do a Final Walkthrough
It’s best to schedule one last walkthrough before you move into the place. Not only does this walkthrough help you identify issues you may have missed the first time you looked at the house, but it also lets you pay attention to anything you might want to change.
Perhaps you want to paint the walls before you move in or replace the flooring. On a final walkthrough, you can focus on these features and try to figure out what to put in their place.
Though we’d all like to think nobody would purposely conceal potential problems for fear that nobody would buy the house, such things do happen. That’s why it’s important to be careful and get an inspection.
4. Set up Your Utilities
The last thing anybody wants to do is move into a house, only to realize that you haven’t gotten the electricity, plumbing, and internet haven’t been set up yet.
How your appliances work is going to influence your life in a few significant ways. Some houses have sewer connections while others have septic tanks. Each one is going to be unique when it comes to maintenance.
It’s important to set up your utilities as soon as possible to ensure that you don’t have to go without them. It’s also important to hook up your TV or hire someone else to. It can be difficult to get the right digital TV tuning frequencies.
5. Hire Movers
While we all like to think that we can move into a new place without much help, most of us can’t. The average weight of a sofa, for instance, is over 200 pounds, and that’s just one of many things that the average adult owns.
We should point out that it’s customary to tip movers. The traditional amount is about 20%.
Lifting multiple heavy objects over a short time will put a strain on your body. Also, if you’re not used to lifting, you’ll feel it tomorrow as well.
This is because pushing muscles beyond their comfortable limits often causes a small amount of tearing. The next day, the muscles repair and the pain kicks in. It’s an unpleasant process, but it’s also the process through which muscles grow.
The bad news is that if you strain your muscles a few times without much of a rest, you can cause more severe damage. Carrying heavy objects into your home for a few days carries this risk if you’re not used to it.
6. Maintenance Checklist
Though the work is mostly done after moving into the home, there are still some other things to do. This is the time to make any aesthetic changes you wish to make to the home.
It’s also a good idea to write down any small chores or tasks you have to do while you’re still getting your bearings. The stressful and hectic nature of moving may cause you to forget more mundane tasks, like getting groceries.
Having a checklist might make all the work, both mundane, and moving-related, easier to manage.
Tips for Moving into a Home
Moving into a home can seem like a monumental task, but it doesn’t have to be. Like most things, breaking it down into smaller tasks can make it a lot more manageable.
We’ve discussed a few such steps in this article, but there’s no limit to how many or how few things you want to put on your list. It’s really up to you and how you prefer to work.
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