Settling In: Pre-Move Pointers for Taking Stock
Despite all of the hassle moving represents, when the anxiety is
gone and the dust has cleared, most of us have to admit that
it's a liberating experience. It forces us to rid ourselves of
the clutter accumulated in the house we're leaving. Whether of
not you buy new furniture for your new residence, the motions of
packing up and heading for different surroundings is a positive
experience for most movers. It's an opportunity to start over.
Before you move, it's a good idea to take inventory of your
belongings and consider what place they'll have -- if any -- in
your new home. After all, when you moved into your current home,
your family's needs were different. Since then, its occupants
have become older, hobbies have been abandoned, tastes have
changed, and now, suddenly, items you once thought you'd die
without don't seem that wonderful anymore.
* Taking stock of your furniture is a good place to start; after
all, if you decide to get rid of a piece or two, you can save
yourself the considerable expense of moving them. In addition to
your furniture, take a good look at your lamps, rugs, pillows,
and other accessories -- particularly the ones you've stored
away for months -- and decide whether they really reflect your
tastes anymore. Some of them may serve little purpose other than
to clutter your closets and collect dust. Rid yourself of them,
while reminding yourself that everything you pack means more
boxes, more packaging and labor costs, and more to unpack later.
* An effective strategy is to draw on paper the floor plan of
your new home. Sketch in the designated spots for your
furniture, making sure you've noted where such obstacles as
fireplaces, windows, built-in shelves or desks, etc., are
located. Remember where your electric outlets, telephone jacks,
and television hookups are located, and make sure you've
considered the direction in which your doors open. If you're
looking for a more exact plan, with square footage taken into
account, take a note from Better Homes and Gardens Online, which
suggests using graph paper to draw your rooms to scale. Each
square translates to one foot of available space.
Here's where your creativity takes over: After measuring the
size and shape of each major piece of your furniture, draw them
on graph paper using the same one-square-per-foot scale as you
did for the rooms in your new home. Then cut the shapes and
arrange your miniature furniture within your various room floor
plans. Once you've made a decision about what suits you and
where, attach the shapes onto the page.
While this process requires a little patience and a little more
creativity, planning ahead enables you to avoid either moving
heavy furniture yourself, long after the movers have left; or
having your movers pause upon entry into a room, shouldering a
heavy load as you decide where that 300-pound dresser should be
placed. (Of course, you'd be lucky to find such a tolerant
mover.) You've got a plan of attack that makes your life and
your movers' lives easier. You can point them in a direction and
move on to the next item. The bottom line is that you're paying
by the hour, and a little sketching and cutting now will save
you labor costs later. Take the trouble to draw only your major
pieces of furniture; your smaller items and accessories can be
placed anywhere for now, until you have time to consider the
perfect spots for them.
This strategy also allows you to experiment with various
arrangements that you may have considered in the past, but
abandoned because it seemed like too much effort to pursue. And
trying out new configurations is a consolation for not being
able to purchase new furniture. Even if you've resigned yourself
to a sofa that doesn't thrill you anymore, arranging your
furniture in a different manner may provide you with a
completely new outlook on belongings that once seemed tired.
That variety, combined with a new place of residence, is bound
to inspire you. And don't restrict your furnishings to the rooms
in which you've traditionally placed them. For example, the
chest of drawers sitting in your bedroom might look even better
in your new living room. This move is your big chance to
experiment -- and you don't even have to move the furniture
yourself.
And while you're laying out your plans on graph paper, you might
want to determine the focal point of each room first -- a
fireplace, a large window, anything that grabs you when you
first enter the room. Then arrange your furniture around that
focal point. And while it's a given, it's well worth repeating
that you should consider how each room is going to be used
before you design its layout. For example, when you're planning
your living room, if you plan to spend a lot of time
entertaining there, you'll want to place chairs and/or sofas
close together and provide plenty of walking room, as well.
After you've taken inventory of your current home, take stock of
your home-to-be, starting with the kitchen and its appliances.
With any luck, you'll have ensured that all of those kitchen
appliances are in good, safe, working order long before your
move. Make sure the hot water system is both working and the
correct size for your family's needs. If the answer to either of
those questions is no, replacing the unit will save you both
considerable energy and money. Then investigate your new home's
heating and cooling system, which is going to represent a
predominant percentage of your monthly energy expenses. To
figure out if it's running in top condition, determine the
Seasonal Energy Efficiency Ratio (SEER) rating for your air
conditioning and heating unit. The higher the SEER rating, the
more efficient the system. A rating under 8 is considered
relatively inefficient. Also check your ductwork to ensure that
its size is appropriate and that it's clean. Finally, make sure
your thermostat and controls are operating correctly.
Home owners often forget that clothes washers and dryers eat up
energy, particularly when stackable units are involved. Because
users can't fill them with much clothing, they're forced to run
more loads though the units, resulting in increased energy
consumption and subsequent expenses. On the other hand, units
that are too large may use excess water or heat. Regardless of
the type of unit in your new home, make sure that the washer
drains properly and that your dryer is vented out of your home.
And speaking of energy consumption, study all doors, windows,
vents, and other passages to the outside for cracks. If you see
any gaps or if you feel any air streams, seal them either with
caulk or weather stripping. And check your windows to find out
if they're double-paned and fit tightly.
Finally, if you can't paint your new home's interior prior to
your move-in date, don't unpack until you do. And be sure to
consider the direction of light in your home -- where it hits
the walls and the shadows it creates. Painting your dining room
a deep shade of forest green, for example, could backfire on you
if your lot is heavily treed, or if the room generally doesn't
receive much sunlight. The color that seemed vibrant in the can
may leave you simply depressed once it's covering the walls of
an already dark room.