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Settling In
By dan the roommate man, Fri Dec 9th
Despite all of the hassle moving represents, when the anxiety isgone and the dust has cleared, most of us have to admit thatit's a liberating experience. It forces us to rid ourselves ofthe clutter accumulated in the house we're leaving. Whether ofnot you buy new furniture for your new residence, the motions ofpacking up and heading for different surroundings is a positiveexperience for most movers. It's an opportunity to start over. Before you move, it's a good idea to take inventory of yourbelongings and consider what place they'll have -- if any -- inyour new home. After all, when you moved into your current home,your family's needs were different. Since then, its occupantshave become older, hobbies have been abandoned, tastes havechanged, and now, suddenly, items you once thought you'd diewithout don't seem that wonderful anymore. * Taking stock of your furniture is a good place to start; afterall, if you decide to get rid of a piece or two, you can saveyourself the considerable expense of moving them. In addition toyour furniture, take a good look at your lamps, rugs, pillows,and other accessories -- particularly the ones you've storedaway for months -- and decide whether they really reflect yourtastes anymore. Some of them may serve little purpose other thanto clutter your closets and collect dust. Rid yourself of them,while reminding yourself that everything you pack means moreboxes, more packaging and labor costs, and more to unpack later.
* An effective strategy is to draw on paper the floor plan ofyour new home. Sketch in the designated spots for yourfurniture, making sure you've noted where such obstacles asfireplaces, windows, built-in shelves or desks, etc., arelocated. Remember where your electric outlets, telephone jacks,and television hookups are located, and make sure you'veconsidered the direction in which your doors open. If you'relooking for a more exact plan, with square footage taken intoaccount, take a note from Better Homes and Gardens Online, whichsuggests using graph paper to draw your rooms to scale. Eachsquare translates to one foot of available space. Here's where your creativity takes over: After measuring thesize and shape of each major piece of your furniture, draw themon graph paper using the same one-square-per-foot scale as youdid for the rooms in your new home. Then cut the shapes andarrange your miniature furniture within your various room floorplans. Once you've made a decision about what suits you andwhere, attach the shapes onto the page. While this process requires a little patience and a little morecreativity, planning ahead enables you to avoid either movingheavy furniture yourself, long after the movers have left; orhaving your movers pause upon entry into a room, shouldering aheavy load as you decide where that 300-pound dresser should beplaced. (Of course, you'd be lucky to find such a tolerantmover.) You've got a plan of attack that makes your life andyour movers' lives easier. You can point them in a direction andmove on to the next item. The bottom line is that you're payingby the hour, and a little sketching and cutting now will saveyou labor costs later. Take the trouble to draw only your majorpieces of furniture; your smaller items and accessories can beplaced anywhere for now, until you have time to consider theperfect spots for them. This strategy also allows you to experiment with variousarrangements that you may have considered in the past, butabandoned because it seemed like too much effort to pursue. Andtrying out new configurations is a consolation
for not beingable to purchase new furniture. Even if you've resigned yourselfto a sofa that doesn't thrill you anymore, arranging yourfurniture in a different manner may provide you with acompletely new outlook on belongings that once seemed tired.That variety, combined with a new place of residence, is boundto inspire you. And don't restrict your furnishings to the roomsin which you've traditionally placed them. For example, thechest of drawers sitting in your bedroom might look even betterin your new living room. This move is your big chance toexperiment -- and you don't even have to move the furnitureyourself. And while you're laying out your plans on graph paper, you mightwant to determine the focal point of each room first -- afireplace, a large window, anything that grabs you when youfirst enter the room. Then arrange your furniture around thatfocal point. And while it's a given, it's well worth repeatingthat you should consider how each room is going to be usedbefore you design its layout. For example, when you're planningyour living room, if you plan to spend a lot of timeentertaining there, you'll want to place chairs and/or sofasclose together and provide plenty of walking room, as well. After you've taken inventory of your current home, take stock ofyour home-to-be, starting with the kitchen and its appliances.With any luck, you'll have ensured that all of those kitchenappliances are in good, safe, working order long before yourmove. Make sure the hot water system is both working and thecorrect size for your family's needs. If the answer to either ofthose questions is no, replacing the unit will save you bothconsiderable energy and money. Then investigate your new home'sheating and cooling system, which is going to represent apredominant percentage of your monthly energy expenses. Tofigure out if it's running in top condition, determine theSeasonal Energy Efficiency Ratio (SEER) rating for your airconditioning and heating unit. The higher the SEER rating, themore efficient the system. A rating under 8 is consideredrelatively inefficient. Also check your ductwork to ensure thatits size is appropriate and that it's clean. Finally, make sureyour thermostat and controls are operating correctly. Home owners often forget that clothes washers and dryers eat upenergy, particularly when stackable units are involved. Becauseusers can't fill them with much clothing, they're forced to runmore loads though the units, resulting in increased energyconsumption and subsequent expenses. On the other hand, unitsthat are too large may use excess water or heat. Regardless ofthe type of unit in your new home, make sure that the washerdrains 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 seeany gaps or if you feel any air streams, seal them either withcaulk or weather stripping. And check your windows to find outif they're double-paned and fit tightly. Finally, if you can't paint your new home's interior prior toyour move-in date, don't unpack until you do. And be sure toconsider the direction of light in your home -- where it hitsthe walls and the shadows it creates. Painting your dining rooma deep shade of forest green, for example, could backfire on youif your lot is heavily treed, or if the room generally doesn'treceive much sunlight. The color that seemed vibrant in the canmay leave you simply depressed once it's covering the walls ofan already dark room.
About the author:Since 1989 dan the roommate man has helped 1000's of people findroommates. Need help? Contact him at 800-487-8050 orwww.roommateexpress.com
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