![What to Do on the First Day in Your New Home [10 Must-Do Tasks]](jpg/first-day-in-new-home.jpg)
Congratulations! You’ve just crossed the threshold of your new home.
That’s right – you’ve reached the new residence. Unfortunately for you, your Move day is not over yet – not until you close your eyes and call it a day. And until then, you still have a number of very important things to do.
Of course, the things to do on the first day in your new house will be determined by the time of your arrival. If you reach your destination too late in the evening, then you won’t have much time for urgent post-move tasks except one – to go to sleep. In that case, your first day in the new home will practically start when you open your eyes in the morning.
Here are the top 10 things to do on your first day in a new house.
1. Check if all utilities are running properly
What happened when you entered your new home and flipped the light switch? What about when you turned the faucet handle for the first time?
Of all the things to do when moving into a new house, your very first task is to check whether all house utilities are up and running as they should be. Naturally, the major utilities to worry about are electricity (power), running water and gas. As long as you’ve transferred the utilities before the move, everything should be fine.
Locate the electricity meter and water meter and record their readings, then keep those digits in a safe place. This is important in case of discrepancies and a possible dispute later on.
Internet, phone, and cable TV are also important utilities but you can always have them re-connected at a later stage when you’ve had a few days to get adjusted to the new home settings.
2. Inspect the home for any signs of trouble
No matter how late you arrive in your new house or apartment, it’s critical that you find the time to inspect it for any problems or signs of trouble. Remember that the place you just came to is unfamiliar and it’ll take some time before you discover all its secrets.
Once you’ve made sure that the major utilities are working fine, go from room to room and check if all seems normal. Inspect all windows and doors and check if they can be locked securely. Examine all water lines and look for any plumbing leaks or dripping faucets. Also, keep an eye out for worrying signs of damage (mostly from water or fire), as well as for signs of possible infestations.
It’s important to do that inspection right after you move in – it doesn’t have to be too thorough because you won’t have enough time on your first day in your new home. Consider it a preliminary home inspection and schedule a more exhaustive one sometime in the next few days.
3. Take all boxes to their correct rooms
Do yourself a favor and take all moving boxes to their destination rooms.
If you’ve done the sensible thing and hired professional movers to protect and transport your household items (furniture pieces, boxes, etc.), then you can be sure that they will unload your belongings from their moving truck and take them to their destination rooms. And as long as your moving boxes are properly labeled (How to label moving boxes like a pro), then you shouldn’t worry about them too much – not until it’s time to unpack them, that is.
If you yourself are unloading your stuff out of the moving vehicle, possibly with a few good friends, then you should take those cardboard boxes to their proper destination rooms. Don’t just stack them up in the hallway or inside the room closest to the front door. The extra effort will pay off handsomely the next day when, willy-nilly, you’ll have to start unpacking those containers one by one.
4. Unpack the essentials boxes (Open-First boxes)
Speaking of moving boxes, what you should do right when you move in is to open up your essentials boxes – something that is extremely important in case your other household items are yet to be delivered by your cross country moving company. Those survival boxes are not named Open-First boxes without a good reason, don’t you think?
You may have used a great tactic when packing your essentials boxes – one survival box per person. And if you did, then identifying the packed necessities for each family member will be a simple task. Ultimately, the simpler the things are on your very first day in your new home, the more time and efforts you’ll save.
Unpack toiletries and other items for personal hygiene, medications, essential clothes and other things that you’re going to need desperately until you can gain access to the rest of your possessions.
How to pack an Open-First box when moving
5. Make sure your children are both safe and comfortable
Some things will always be much more important than others, so your post-move mission to start working on your moving into a new house checklist from top to bottom – that is, to handle your critical high-priority tasks first and foremost.
If you just moved into the new home with small children, then you’ll already know that their well-being, comfort, and safety are above all else. And even though the new place will be strange and unfamiliar for everyone, you have to make sure your kids’ routine is re-established as soon as possible. That will restore their feeling of security and will reduce the stress and anxiety they must be feeling at that very moment.
If you’ve happened to notice any dangerous areas or hazardous items during the initial inspection of the new home, then take the time to eliminate those dangers ASAP. In the next few days, your post-relocation moving checklist should remind you to child-proof the entire home as well.
6. Take care of your pets
Don’t neglect your pet’s needs, especially right after you move into a new home.
Moving with pets can be rather challenging, especially during the first few days after moving into the new home. Both dogs and cats are very sensitive so the abrupt change of scenario may affect them more than you expect. In the very beginning, your pet animal may exhibit the usual symptoms of separation anxiety – look out for uncharacteristic behavioral patterns such as excessive sleep, lack of appetite, or extreme barking or meowing.
What to do on the first day in your new apartment or house? Keep your pet indoors but make them as comfortable as possible by providing the conveniences they are used to. Introduce them to the new place carefully, room by room, as they’ll probably be scared of all the strange sounds, smells, and views.
Offer your pets water, food, and even their favorite toys from the old home. Make sure there are no open windows or doors from which your animal friend may escape – the new home adaptation period will take time.
7. Get your bed assembled and ready for use
Regardless of how much time you’ve got until your battery gets completely drained for the day – some, little, none, you’re going to have to ensure you’ve got something to sleep on after the extreme exhaustion that the majority of Moving days seem to bring.
If the new place comes furnished with a bed, then you’ll only need to unpack the bedding and make up the bed for a good night’s sleep. On the other hand, if you’ve hauled your bed all the way from the old home, then it’s time to re-assemble it in the new house as soon as you possibly can. Again, the bed re-assembly process will be so much quicker when professional movers are paid to handle it.
However, if there are no beds in the new residence and you’re waiting for one to be delivered or to be bought, then your only option is to spend the night on an inflatable mattress or inside sleeping bags.
Safety tips for moving furniture
8. Prepare the bathroom for a refreshing shower
Among other things, your own move day will definitely leave you exhausted, hungry and dirty. Of course, there’s a big difference whether you’ve moved just across town or moved thousands of miles across the entire country. The time period from leaving your old home to entering the new one can last anywhere from a few hours to a few days.
Nevertheless, one thing is clear – you’ll be really looking forward to taking a hot shower before you slip under the bed covers and call it a successful day. And to be able to do just that, you’ll need to prepare the bathroom for basic usage too.
Unpack your toiletries and arrange them in the new bathroom. Then, hang the shower curtains and unpack the towels or bathrobes. Regrettably, you may need to give your bathroom a quick clean-up if you detect that it’s too filthy to be ignored even on your very first day in your new home.
Finally, get in the shower or hop into the bath to finish your challenging Moving day in style.
How to pack a bathroom for moving
9. Make plans for a quick dinner
Once you’ve tackled the bedroom and the bathroom, it’s time to pay attention to the kitchen simply because you won’t want to go to bed hungry. It’s not a secret that the kitchen is one of the most difficult rooms to pack and unpack, so you won’t have enough time to unpack and arrange all the kitchen items during the very first day in your home.
Ordering pizza from a local pizzeria can save you precious time – time you should use for completing a number of more important tasks.
Basically, you’ll have three good options to have something to eat before going to bed:
1) eat some home-made sandwiches or ready-to-consume canned food which you’ve brought along,
2) order in from a local restaurant (pizza, Chinese food, etc.), or
3) eat out at a restaurant in the neighborhood so that you can relax a little bit and celebrate the end of Moving day – the most nerve-wracking and exhausting day of the entire move.
Don’t forget to locate and unpack the coffee maker before going to bed – you’ll thank yourself for that the next morning.
10. Take it slowly: you can’t do it all on Day 1
Obviously, it’s useful to know what to do immediately after you move into a new home. Nevertheless, it’s even more beneficial to understand that you won’t be able to finish too many tasks right after the move.
Be realistic about the amount of work you can do in a single day and don’t be too harsh on yourself. After all, you just survived a tough Moving day, so it’s time to take it one slow step at a time. Ultimately, it’ll be some time before you really settle into the new place.
The thing that really matters here is to prepare a good plan for action for the following days and weeks so that you use every hour effectively. Here are the top 5 things to do after moving into a new house:
- Clean thoroughly your new home;
- Inspect and improve the overall security of the home;
- Child-proof and pet-proof the new residence;
- Start unpacking the rest of your boxes as soon as possible;
- Register your vehicle if you’ve moved to a new state.
Thanks for the advice And I’m ready to start in a new home.