Setting up Your New Home Requires its Own Plan

Getting your new home set up is a wonderful culmination of all the hard work you’ve already done to make this move happen. And it also requires an exceptionally strong (and yet flexible) plan.

Task One

To start, ask yourself: What rooms do you use every day? As we mentioned in our last post, these are: bathrooms, bedroom(s), kitchen. Getting these essential rooms set up will go a long way in making you feel settled in!

If you’ve done your homework, then you’ve labeled the boxes for the kitchen not only with that all important word – kitchen – but also more specifically which cabinets which boxes should be unloaded into. That way a mover or a friend or a teenager or a spouse (or even you if you’re too exhausted to think) will be able to put the appropriate items away in the appropriate location.

Take it from your NYC professional organizer: moving in, like all other parts of the process, is all about flow.

Similarly, if you do have multiple bathrooms, make sure that the boxes are labeled to indicate which bathroom they’re destined for. It doesn’t have to be complicated. Bathroom One, Bathroom Two, and Bathroom Three are perfectly good labels as are the names of specific family members. Then each bathroom should have its own sub-labels, such as Bathroom Two – Linen, Bathroom One – Cleaning Cabinet, and so forth.

Did you use some masking tape to label all the cabinets in each room before the move? Not yet? No problem, just make sure it happens before the unpacking begins! You will not create too much information or too many labels. This is one of my best home organizing tips: label, label, label.

By using a complete, yet simple labeling system, and focusing on the must rooms on Day One of the move-in, you will be able to have a successful day, one that sets you up for Task Two.

Task Two

This is the day that you start unpacking the rooms that are, while still important, less immediately necessary than those you tackled on Day One. The Day Two rooms may include:

• Play room
• Family room
• Living room
• Home office

Again, you will have done yourself a favor to have pre-labeled the storage parts of these rooms with the names of the boxes that will be unloaded into them. For instance: Jerry-desk-file-drawer. Using a labeler for this purpose isn’t a bad idea, but masking tape and a marker will do just as well and may even be faster. Remember, you can also simply number all of the boxes and have a master list detailing which boxes correspond to which rooms. Your labeling system should be the one that makes the most sense to you.

The end of Task Two can feel great, as quality-of-life spaces are starting to take shape around you, and life starts taking on a semblance of normalcy.

Task 3

Your movers (even if they were your friends) will have put a certain number of your belongings into storage spaces. These may include: an attic, a basement, or spare room. Wherever your “cold storage” actually is, make sure that such things as holiday items or china are made most accessible. You’re not going to want to move heavy items, in the way of things you’ll need to get to quickly. This is one of those home organizing tips that applies to everyone, not just those in the midst of a move!

As an NYC professional organizer who has overseen dozens of moves, I will say one last time: It’s all about flow. Get a plan, make those labels, and then be the professional mover that we all have inside of us. Executing a move, particularly the setting up phase, well is just enormously rewarding. Good luck!