Congratulations on making it to your new home. Now, what next after the move? Well, you all know that unpacking your items in a new home is as bad as packing them for a move.
Sadly, you’ll find more information about packing for a move than there is about how to unpack in your home. Maybe, people think there’s fun in opening boxes to make the new house a home. How unfortunate!
Can unpacking get any easy? Yes – this guide proves it gets easy. Read through it and discover the hacks you’ll wish you knew sooner.
1. Planning Is Key
If you want to streamline your unpacking process, try planning for it beforehand. While it seems easier to jump in and open boxes head-on, do not try it. Planning will make unpacking straightforward and save you from the avoidable chaos you are about to create.
You can start planning to unpack while still in your old house. You know, when packing for the move, consider how it’ll influence the unpacking part.
Organise And Label Your Boxes
It’s not every day you have time to unpack your belongings, so do it right when it comes. And, how can you make use of the opportunity before you? Label your boxes.
Knowing the type of items in every box while unpacking will prevent unnecessary scrambles in your new place. For instance, while packing, note on every box the room in which the items will move.
Secret – it is easier if the label is on the sides rather than the top.
Take Photos
Don’t you find turning a shelf to befit the taste you want hard? Having a photoshoot of items in your old house before packing them will save you a lot. It is one way of referencing. You’ll be able to replicate your arrangement to your new home by understanding the place where every item fits.
2. Create A System
Understand what it is you are unpacking before you empty your boxes. For it to happen, you need to have an unpacking goal and a system to reach it. Use your inventory list of the items you have to prioritize what’s worth.
Plan Out What Goes In First
Prepare for a craze if you cannot plan on how to unpack in your home. Therefore, when prepping your unpacking schedule, determine the essential room, and begin from there. Plus, knowing the items you need most is a great place to start.
Bet you need bulky furniture like the bed, sofas, and table the most? Unpack them first and move them where it’s fit. While at it, however, you must situate the items at the farthest place in the room. It’ll help you create more space to move around the house.
Ensure There Will Be No Obstacles At All Times
Once the bulky items are secure, other boxes with other not-so-important items can await unpacking. Meanwhile, ensure that you keep them out of the way so they don’t cram all over the place.
You can stack the piles of boxes onto each other in the hallway or other rooms to create floor space to move around. You can as well haul luggage in different rooms until every heavy item is in place.
If boxes scatter all over, they’ll block the way when you are unloading your items. Keep an eye on fragile boxes.
Delegate Tasks
You need as many helping hands as you can during unloading time. If you are lucky to have a friend agree to help, bring them on board. You have kids- the better!
Ensure that you assign everyone on board roles to perform to speed up the process. Save the games and stories for the time when everything is in its place. Oh, yeah, and the housewarming party.
Minimize Distractions
While having some rhythm in the background while unpacking is a great idea, a TV is a no-go-zone. Music from the radio is better than on TV. Apart from that, ensure that the individuals helping you out do not start games mid-way.
To discourage distractions, try creating distance between yourselves. For instance, make everyone work in different rooms. You want to finish on time, don’t you?
3. Clean Before You Unpack
After relocating to a brand-new house, you want to transform it into a home as soon as possible. You can’t do that if you realise that you put your bed on dirt and that your glassware is sitting on dust.
As disheartening as it gets, you can avoid it by cleaning the house before unloading. For your information, it is easier to clean an empty house. You can do it a day before moving.
For a fresh start in your home, shampoo the carpet before the furniture arrives. Mop the floor, dust the cabinets and drawers before you unpack. You’ll feel how uplifting tidying beforehand gets when you are upbeat after unpacking the entire day.
4. Place Boxes In Designated Rooms As Soon As Possible
Now, do you want to know why labelling boxes are vital? Wait for the time that you have to designate the boxes to specific rooms.
It is crucial to label, describe, assign room number, or colour-code your boxes if you want it easy when unloading. The reason is that once the items come off the truck, you can place the boxes in the right rooms. It is a time and space-saving idea.
Utilise What You Have
Coming up and down the stairs with enormous boxes can eat off your back. You can use the help from friends and movers.
But if they are not around, avoid breaking your back by using creative means to get your items to your house.
One way to do it is by using slides. They don’t have to be specially made, in fact, you can make them yourself. Do you want to know how? Empty some cardboard boxes, flatten them on the stairs, and slide your luggage down.
If you can, use something with wheels like a suitcase. Or, rent out a Dollie to move your luggage. It’ll save your back from the soreness and pain.
5. Start Unpacking The Essentials First
You’ll be the worst unpacking offender if you prioritise unpacking a TV before you assemble and arrange your bed. Like, you’ll need a good night’s sleep when you finish unpacking before you get too comfortable to watch TV.
Whatever room you are unpacking, ensure that items you need most come first. If you are a family, a couch, a dining table, bedding, bathroom items, and kitchen appliances must be immediately accessible.
6. Unpack One Room At A Time
You don’t have to unpack everything in a day when moving in is overwhelming enough as it is. Give yourself breathing time by doing one room at a time like a pro.
And count on it to be easy if you had put each box where it belongs. The reason is that if the cardboards are already in the room, you can arrange everything at your pace.
The Heart Of Every Home
Start with the heart of your home- the kitchen. The reason is that eventually, everyone will start yawning and craving for a freshly cooked meal. Plus, you’ll need a refuelling station for the energy levels you lose in between emptying large boxes.
If you start with the other rooms, the chances are that you’ll be too sore to unload kitchen appliances. Meaning, you won’t have the place and items you need to prepare a refreshing meal when you badly need it.
How To Unpack Kitchen Items
1. Start unpacking the essentials
No one says that you have to unpack all the kitchen items. You can start with a few immediate necessities – cooker, a few plates, spoons, cups, and cooking pots for day one.
Organise the kitchen in a way that items you’ll use more often are within your immediate reach.
2. Cover one area at a time
As tempting as it can be, don’t unpack all places at once. You should, instead, unpack and organise one area at a time.
For instance, begin with the dishwashing place and put away the utensils you frequently use. After you finish, proceed to the cooking zone and prep the heating appliances like the stove and oven.
You can then work your way to determine the cooking space. For instance, prep your countertop and pantry place for your dry food. Covering one area bit by bit will prevent you from forgetting crucial items. It is also a trick to help plan your kitchen space.
3. Start organising the items that go on the top shelf of the cabinets
After determining where each item fits, you can go on and organise them in the kitchen cabinets. It is a great idea to fill the top shelves first because it’ll be hard to forget where to sort the items.
4. Secure the fragile china in the cupboards
Remember the box you labelled fragile? Ensure that you secure the items in that box before you knock them over and damage them. Arrange the fragile items like glassware carefully in cupboards.
Apart from the fragile, ensure the items you spend a fortune on are also in a safe place.
5. Store the rest of the items
You must have left space for other items after the primary spots are full. After every item has found a place, go through the rest of the items on the countertop. If you find anything worthy, find room for it in the cupboards or the cabinets.
And, if you have items you use frequently, put them where you can easily access them.
Preparing The Sleeping Quarters
After the day has taken a toll on you, you won’t survive the next unpacking day until you have a good rest. Therefore, prep the bedroom next after the kitchen,
Make sure you assemble and organise the bed. If it is too big to do it alone, ask for help. Or, you can read the manual that describes how to put it back and fix the bed.
Ensure you understand where your covers are because; it takes a while for a new house to get warm.
Getting The Shower Area Ready
At the end of the day, you need to drain the sweat and fatigue accumulated when unloading. If there’s anyone in the world that deserves a deep refreshing shower, it is you.
Therefore, ensure that you hang up the bathroom curtains and towels. Apart from that, ensure that your toiletries are in their rightful places.
Do you have a medicine cabinet and prescription medicine? If yes, kindly fill it up because headaches are inevitable after a hard day of work.
7. Hire Professional Movers
Prepare yourself for unpleasantries if you think moving houses is as easy as snapping fingers. The work involved isn’t a child’s play.
However, things get more comfortable moving if you hire professional movers to help you. You don’t have to worry about finances because most of them are affordable and deliver worth for your money.
They’ll help with packing, lifting, and unloading your luggage. Plus, they are accountable and secure. Are you still in doubt? Even the chronic DIY person could use every helping hand you could get if you want easy relocation.
Enjoy The Moment
Packing is fun and adventurous only if you stop procrastinating and thinking of it as a chore. While you make use of the helpful tips, remember to make your home a place you’ll want to come back to at all times.
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