Buying a new house or apartment can be incredibly exciting. You’re moving on in life, getting a new place to call your own, and in all likelihood getting a major decision off your chest. At the same time, however, a new place can feel surprisingly empty or impersonal without some extra effort. It feels almost sterile if it’s a new building and if someone else just moved out, they left their memories and energy behind. As Derek from Dawson Property Management puts it, it’s not yet your home. Here are a few things he recommends to do to make your new residence feel more like a home when the time comes.
Explore Furnished Apartments
This is something that you’d have to do before you actually secure a new residence, but if you’re still that early in the process it’s worth considering. On most apartment- and home-hunting sites, you won’t find clear options for pre-furnished real estate. But this is an option you can sometimes have if you’re being moved by a company, and along those lines some more specific searches can turn up results. For instance, think of something geared toward a particular area, or even toward company accommodations. Looking up corporate housing Cincinnati might wind up turning up more results than simply searching for apartments in the same city. At any rate, if you find a furnished place, it might feel a little less barren and more unique than the alternatives.
Bring In Unique Art
It’s never been easier to find unique and interesting home art at affordable prices. In some cases you can even customize it, using photos and paintings of your choosing to create classy, professional pieces for your walls. And there might not be a better way to make a new house or apartment feel like your own home. The full décor will take time to develop, and will rely on little touches you add over time. But filling up a few of the walls with posters and canvases gives the new place personality right off the bat.
Do Some Remodeling
Remodeling might sound a little bit counterintuitive when you’ve only just purchased a new home. That said, unless you had a say in the designing and building of said home, you probably wouldn’t mind changing a few things. So long as it’s in your budget, it’s a good idea to go ahead and get these out of the way early on. It might be something relatively simple like repainting interior walls. But you can also install new cabinets, change the flooring, or choose a particular room to remodel just the way you’d like it. Whatever you choose to do, it will enhance your feeling that the new place is a true home when you know you’ve had a say in customizing it.
Start A Garden
This is really only an option if we’re talking about a house, rather than an apartment. But if that happens to be the case, this is as good a way as any to add a personal touch to the property. You may not be able to put plants in the ground depending on the time of year, but even buying some outdoor furniture or laying out boundaries can make you feel like you have a project underway. And that’s part of the fun of this idea – it’s a nice start to adopting your new home, but it also gives you something you can continue to work on in the coming years.
Bring Home A New Car
This is a pretty expensive option when you’re just putting down money on a new place of residence. Then again, you may at least want to swing by the car dealership and see if there’s anything you like that you can fit into your budget. Stacking expenses (meaning a new car and a new home) can at least get them both out of the way. But more importantly, it enhances the feeling that you’re getting a fresh start. Driving a new car up to your new home makes the whole ensemble feel more comprehensively yours. It’s a bold stop, but a fun one if you can fit it into your budget.
