Kit Davey, Interior Designer
18 Years in business - Over 2,600 homes transformed!
Tips From Kit
Want to see more? Click here to see more Tips.
Planning a Move to a New Home
By Kit Davey
Moving is complicated and stressful. Fortunately, there are great sources for help with handling the details and complex scheduling. Unfortunately, there are few sources for help with placing furniture and décor in a new home so you can live in a comfortable, functional and beautiful space right away.
Get help with the details
Start your planning for a move as early as possible and get help from these sources:
- Internet sources: www.artofmoving.com and www.avatar-moving.com.
- Free brochure: American Moving and Storage Association (703-683-7410); ask for “Guide to a Satisfying Move” or send a stamped, self-addressed envelope to AMSA, 1611 Duke St., Alexandria, VA 22314.
- Order the “Relocation Planner” by Office-Right. Available at www.office-right.com for $25, which includes shipping and handling.
- Ask your Realtor for any in-house publications s/he may have.
Creating a Space Plan Here’s how to prepare so that you can place your furniture and other possessions properly with a minimum of effort:
- Begin collecting packing materials and boxes. Check the ads in your local paper for free moving boxes. You can also purchase used ones for about half the cost from moving companies.
- Go through all your possessions and cull out old, unused or broken items. Set up a donation pick-up or hold a garage sale to get rid of these items. The idea is to move into your home with only things you use and love.
- Start packing seldom-used items, such as old tax files, seasonal clothing, books and memorabilia. As you box up, write the contents on the outside of the box, along with the room where it should be delivered. Have you avoided filling out a personal inventory for insurance purposes? Since you are boxing up everything anyway, why not videotape or fill out an insurance inventory form at the same time? This information can also help if something is lost during the move.
- If you hire a moving company, you may want to leave the packing of delicate items to them, so that you can be reimbursed if things get damaged.
- Ask your real estate agent or the apartment manager to set up a visit to your new home so you can assess the space and how you think you will use it. Take a camera, tape measurer, pad of paper and pencil. As you walk throuugh your new home decide how you plan to use each room and what pieces of furniture you have to fulfill the function.
The positioning of furniture in your kitchen, dining room and bathrooms will probably be obvious. Bedrooms usually have one or two possible configurations. If you own a king- sized bed and large nightstands, you might have to measure to make sure they will fit in the new space.
- If it isn’t obvious to you how you will place your old furniture in your living or family rooms, measure and photograph them. Sketch scale drawings of the rooms and make several photocopies. Then measure the footprint of the furniture you plan to fit into the rooms and make scale images of them. Cut them out, place them on the floor plan and start “rearranging” the paper furniture. Come up with a Plan A and B and trace the final plan onto your scale drawing. Use the plans to direct your movers on move-in day.
- If you plan on painting and recarpeting before you move in, get estimates in advance and set up the work for the day after you take possession of the home.
- Hire a professional cleaning service to clean up your new home and your old house; you’ll probably be too exhausted to do it yourself.
- After placing the major pieces of furniture and unpacking essentials (kitchen, bath, clothing, bedding and food items), start to make your home cozier by hanging artwork. Follow with placing your accessories, a room at time. You may feel compelled to put everything out; don’t! Select your choicest pieces and store the rest. Examine the box after six months and rotate your treasures, or donate those you feel you can live without.
- Live in your home for at least a year before remodeling. By then you’ll know how you really use the space, which rooms get high use, what the light is like in every season and your storage requirements.
Kit Davey, Allied Member, A.S.I.D., is an interior designer specializing in room re-design, design consulting, staging and professional organizing. Call her at (650)367-7370 or write her KitDavey@aol.com You can visit her website at www.AFreshLook.net.
Want to see more? Click here to see more Tips.