After packing and moving, the challenge of unloading your items and arranging them in your new place remains. When your movers are all finished, you might not be sure where to start unpacking. The good news is the hardest part of your journey is over, but if you’re still having trouble staying organized after a move, follow this guide for a few helpful unpacking tips.

Clean the space

If you have time at your new home before any unloading begins, make sure the space is in ready condition for your new items. Bring a vacuum cleaner, dusting supplies, and a few other basic cleaning items before your belongings are unloaded from to your new home.

Brand new homes tend to have a lot of drywall dust leftover from construction, and if you’re going into an older home, there’s a good chance previous owners didn’t sanitize every nook and cranny before moving out. Such tasks will be much more difficult with boxes and furniture in the way, so the best time for a fresh clean slate is before anything is moved in.

Unload Boxes Where they Belong

Hopefully you’ve labeled your boxes beforehand because this helps immensely in staying organized while unpacking. While your movers are there doing the unloading, direct them to where you’d like each packed box to go. This should always be the area the items will ultimately end up. This is particularly important for large pieces of furniture so they aren’t dragged around. The first step is to start with the essentials, and then unpack room by room.

Unpack Bedrooms and Bathrooms

It’s always nice to have a cozy place to rest and clean up after moving, so we recommend starting with your bedroom and bathroom. This way you’ll be able to recuperate and work on everything else while fresh and rejuvenated at the beginning of each day.

Ensure bathroom fixtures are in full working order, as they will be a necessity. Arrange your towels, soaps, cleaners, cabinets, and medicine cabinets on the first day you get there. There’s a great level of comfort in having a fully stocked bathroom and a bedroom to retreat to after a hard day’s work.

Unpack the Kitchen

After that, the kitchen with all its cutlery and dishes is an important place to tackle so you’ll have the ability to prepare meals. If it seems like too much at once, start with what’s immediately needed. Make sure your appliances are functional, and start plugging in your kitchen accessories like coffee machines and toasters.

Arrange Your furniture

Once you’re finished with your bedroom, bathrooms, and kitchen, you can begin furnishing the rest of your home. We recommend starting with the assembly of furniture. Take your time and be careful not to overexert yourself to avoid injury. Also be careful not to damage your brand-new flooring by dragging heavy things haphazardly. Make sure you have the proper equipment, and tools handy prior to any moving, assembly, or installation.

Unpack utility areas

With all these essentials covered, everything should gradually fall into place and you can begin working on utility areas like the garage, basement, or attic. With everything else unpacked and arranged, you can gauge the shelf space you’ll need for tools, accessories, seasonal items, and other things you simply need to store away until they’re needed. 

Minimize Distractions

Unlike packing, there usually isn’t a tangible deadline to get everything unpacked right away, but don’t let this new freedom overwhelm you. Things can get intimidating in a new home that’s unfurnished. Especially with boxes lying around and pets or kids doing their thing. Think of it as an opportunity to set your own deadline. Doing so will give you a goal to achieve in a specific timeframe. A fun way to instill this is having something fun to look forward to, like a housewarming party – you certainly deserve it!

Set a timer and allocate your time and resources wisely.  Start with large, functional items, and save visualization for décor for a later time. This can be a fun time getting things just how you like them while having some time to cherish sentimental items. So, keep the electronics away; there’s a good chance it makes sense for them to be the last things unpacked and installed anyway.

Ask for Help

Remember, there’s no shame in asking for help – we know there’s a lot of ground to cover. Friends and family will likely be happy to assist you, and pizza parties before being completely settled somewhere are often fun and memorable experiences to look back on. Furniture assembly services such as Handy will let you hire someone to take some of the burden off your mind, but always be sure to ask your moving company whether they have unpacking or installation services if you’d like to avoid some of the hassle since they’ll be the first there.

RLD Relocation is Here to Help with Your Move

We hope you find some of these tips useful, so be sure to reach out if you have any questions or are interested in a free quote to start you off right while getting settled somewhere new.