How to Settle into a New Home

If you’re in the process of moving home or have recently moved, it’s understandable that at times like this you might be feeling a little unsettled.

Our home environment profoundly affects our emotional state, and when you move house, it’s a bit like someone thrashing around a stick in an otherwise serene lack… it’s disruptive and unsettling.

Yet, people often buy a new house with the expectation they will feel ‘at home’ straight away. This doesn’t tend to happen instantly, however as home is not a place - it’s a feeling, and this feeling can take some time to develop.

Furthermore, there’s a need to mourn the loss of your previous home in order to embrace the new, and it can take a little time to adjust - therefore if you’re feeling unsettled and like your new house is yet to feel like home, take reassurance in the fact this is normal.

In many ways, home is a sense of belonging that brings comfort to our lives; and whilst it can help to undertake maintenance tasks and interior design changes to your new home, it’s important to understand that home is a feeling, not a place, and that feeling is something that will develop over time.

One of the best tips with regard to turning your new house into a new home is to take immediate action with regard to unpacking boxes and setting up the home. The best time to get started is right now... as in, you might want to stop reading this and get straight to unpacking boxes, as the longer you leave things in boxes the longer you will feel unsettled and the more overwhelmed you will become.

Indeed, moving home can feel very overwhelming, particularly when faced with a mountain of boxes. The best way to approach this is to chunk it down into more manageable segments.

Rather than have twenty boxes to get through in one room it can be helpful to separate them into four piles of five boxes. This way, things will hopefully start to feel more manageable and you can get through these in short bursts, rather than feel overwhelmed, and in using this short-burst activity you will develop momentum which will fuel your motivation and drive to get onto the next little pile.

The other factor, is that you want to make your home feel like “yours” as soon as possible. There’s a good chance your new house will have remnants of the previous owners tastes and stylistic preferences.

There’s often a feeling that the house belongs to someone else when you first move in, and it’s important to make your mark, cleanse, and connect with space. You also want to ensure you start to put things up that make you feel at home, for instance, your kids craft projects or artwork you’ve had for a long time.

In essence, it’s important for your new home to be filled with your energy so that you can start to associate your new house with being your new home.