New year, new house, new rules….I am writing this post because I have been wanting to write it since I moved here. I had a weird moving experience and I have never really stop and gave thought to it until now.  The longer I am in my new home the more I realized that there are certain things I wish I would have known or took into consideration as a first time homebuyer. For someone who has moved so many times I thought this could be beneficial for those of you who plan on moving or are contemplating on making a home theirs.

5 Things to consider before moving into a new home

1. Moving is a never ending job.

   Just because you pack up and leave your previous home does not mean the moving stopped just yet. Unpacking boxes is another “move” all in its own. We currently have boxes and boxes of unpacked stuff in our garage that I do not look forward to unpacking. I quickly realized moving to a new location is a never unending story until the last box is opened and cleared out.

2. Hire the RIGHT kind of help.

   This I say from experience. When we moved from North Carolina to Texas we hired all kinds of people to help us move, clean out our storage, and what-not. I say “we”, when in actuality it was the mister who hired all of our help and let me just say, the movers that helped us move our items into our pods were the most disrespectful and laziest men I have ever seen. All they did was complain. They complain the boxes were heavy,  that I had too much stuff, and who knows what else. I literally had to threaten them to go and I would find help elsewhere (it was just too much for me to handle). 5 paid men from a local moving company were paid to help load the pods, since I could not do it myself and it took them forever to move boxes that were already boxed and furniture that was all stored in one area of the house.  They even had the nerve to ask me for items that they could not get into the pod. Upon further investigation (once our pod shipped and were delivered) we realized that they did not pack the pods properly to accommodate what we had. So you can say, I arrived to our new house with a ton of scratched up or broken furniture and some items broken due to the way they stacked the boxes. The day we unloaded our pods was a very sad day for me.

3. If buying a home, request that previous owners hire cleaners.

   I love my home. I LOVE MY HOME. I love my home. Thank goodness I saw past the dirt and crud the last owners left behind. No the house was not a mess when I moved in, but it wasn’t in tip top shape like what you see in an episode of  First Time Homeowners on HGTV.  All the windows  were all extremely dirty along with laundry room and commode. I think they may have forgotten that room even existed. All I could do was shake my head. Maybe I hold expectations too high, who knows…

4. Get a feel for your house, before making any changes.

   I started planning the look and style I wanted for my home long before closing date. I toured the house via FaceTime and fell in love. I knew it was perfect and I thought I wanted it one way and ended up styling it a whole different way. I thought I wanted an all white-walled house, that soon changed after the first month of me living there. Unfortunately, I started painting the front of my house white and I hated it. What I am trying to say is don’t be impulsive, let your house speak for you.

5. Decorating takes time, don’t rush it.

   I just figured this out like yesterday. Sometimes I forget that building a cozy, stylish home takes time. You have to live through the feelings and feel your way through your home. I feel like lately I have been making impulsive decisions because I just want the house to be complete, but I forget impulsive decisions means more money spent…What if I change my mind? I cannot return that can of paint I just bought or that cut wood I just purchased…tell me about it!! These are things that I have done and regret…You live and you learn, I guess…

Take it from me, these are my tips/tricks and what-not to having a stress free move and home-buying process. As my house is slowly becoming my home, I still feel like we are moving-in it. Boxes and furniture fill our garage waiting to be unwrapped. The rooms are still bare waiting to be decorated. Moving takes time and I am learning that life is not pinterest perfect and that is okay…it is a process.