Preparing Your New Home Before the Move

It’s a big task and there are many moving parts. The move from start to finish can totally consume you for a long time: planning, packing, moving, cleaning.

When you arrive at your new home, you’re faced with even more challenges. It may seem like a small thing to decide where to put the furniture, photos and dishes, but after all the work moving out of the old home, the last thing you need is another big decision or major project. Doing some work on your new home right away will make moving in feel great.

Choose the projects that are the most pressing. If your budget won’t allow re-carpeting the entire house, just do one floor. If you can’t face decorating decisions for every single room, then just do the rooms where the decisions are easy. Check out some of our pre-move-in projects that can save you time and trouble in the long run.

Flooring

If you’ve purchased a new home with carpet you hate, you’re probably thinking that it has to go. Should you wait until you’re moved in, or tackle the job now? You may decide that it’s too much to think about right now, that you should leave the decision about a replacement for later after you’ve settled in. You may not have the budget or time to do anything but move. But be sure to weigh in the “cost” to you in both hassle and time if you wait to do a necessary project later.

Replacing carpet is a major project, and if you have the money and you can make just this one decision at moving time, you’ll really be doing yourself a favor. If you put it off, you’ll be faced with moving all your furniture out of the rooms. If you can do it when you move, be sure to order the flooring well in advance of your move. Make arrangements to have new flooring installed a day or two before you move in. Cover the new flooring with mats, tarps, or area rugs so the movers don’t track in dirt or scratch the wood. Then, when they set your sofa and coffee table in place — you’ll be home.

Shop our local ReStores for quality, discount flooring such as tiles, carpet and wood flooring. You don’t have to spend a fortune to give your new home’s floors a facelift.

Painting

It’s always easier to paint an empty room: There will be no need to move furniture, take down draperies, clear out the closets, or take every picture and mirror off the walls. Allow several days to repaint before the movers show up, especially if you’ll be doing the work yourself. This type of project always takes longer than you think. Or, hire a crew of professional painters or friends to come in and get it over with in a day or two. Painting even part of the house before you move in can be a terrific time saver. If you can’t decide on colors, then just have everything painted a clean white, a pretty light beige, or another background color you love — depending on what works best with your furniture and color schemes. Once the major patching, priming, trim work and base coats are in, adding another wall color later can be a snap.

Locks and Keys

You’ll never know how many keys to your new home are floating around unless you get new locks or re-key the existing locks. The previous owners may have given a key to neighbors, workmen, relatives or cleaning services, and you’ll have some peace of mind if you get new ones. This is a project to do just before or soon after you move in.

Central Oklahoma Habitat ReStores offer great deals on quality new and gently-used building supplies, home improvement products, furniture, appliances and a wide variety of household items. The prices are unbelievably low! The Habitat ReStores stock everything from flooring and paint to unique area rugs, antiques and collectibles. Our inventory is constantly changing. You can check out our Facebook page, COHFH ReStore to see the latest deals.