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This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of CORT . All opinions are 100% mine.
We recently moved homes to be closer to the boys’ high school. We moved into a great home for us that hadn’t been updated since it was built, so while the layout worked for us, the carpet, paint, kitchen, fireplace, bathroom fixtures etc. did not. So, we did 3 incredibly stressful things all at once: prepped a home for sale, moved, and renovated our new home. I learned some things from our last move, we made some mistakes, and we ate A LOT of takeout. I think I can finally say that I’m ready to pass on a few tips to hopefully ease some of the stress you might have when doing one (or if you’re crazy like us) all of these things.
I recently read this great article “Temporarily Yours: Finding a Place to Stay While Remodeling Your Home” from CORT and thought it was GENIUS. We moved from one home into another only to start remodeling it immediately which increased the stress of the move exponentially. We’ve also remodeled the floor in our previous home which was just as “fun”. I hadn’t thought about finding a temporary place to live because 1. my first though, long term hotels, aren’t for us and 2. I didn’t want to have to move all of our furniture multiple times.
CORT offers furniture rentals and will deliver when you need it and then pick up entire rooms of furniture when you’re done. Imagine starting renovation on your home and being able just to take some clothes over to a temporary home. Having a place to relax in the evenings, make and enjoy meals, or still celebrating holidays outside of the chaos of renovation is such a HUGE relief of stress. Check out their article on different options for temporary housing including tips for moving with pets! When we renovate again, finding a short-term living space and renting rooms of furniture from CORT will be one of the first things on the budget. Having a place to unwind, eat, and sleep is definitely important to me and CORT is such a great service that can make it feel like a home and not just another stressor.
PACKING, MOVING, & RENOVATING TIPS
On to the tips. Here are some tips for us on packing, moving, and/or majorly renovating a home beyond the genius idea of temporary housing and furniture rental from CORT. Tips that you can take and leave as you please, but hopefully will find something to ease your stress just a little!
- Start well before the move in getting rid of unwanted or unneeded items. Donate what you can and recycle the rest. Once you’ve done this. Do it again. There will most definitely be plenty more you can get rid of when you really think about packing and moving.
- Pack away as much as possible, as far ahead of time as possible. Anything you don’t need for day to day goes in a box! These are the boxes you’ll want to have in the back of your storage unit or garage since you don’t need to get into them.
- Pack up everything but the bare essentials. One spatula, one pan, a few towels etc. is all you need to get through a few weeks.
- When you think you have enough time planned for the move or renovation – add more time. Something always comes up and adds on time to the project.
- If you are moving, then renovating, or just renovating a large room – wait to unpack that room (or pack it completely up). It will get MESSY and it’s much easier cleaning dust out of an empty cabinet than a full one.
- When doing DIY projects – rent the good tools. Take it from me, the little bit of extra money you’ll spend renting the best gear will more than pay for itself!
- Plan meals ahead of time. Make a list of one pot meals, make ahead freezer meals, or a big list of takeout to keep the variety coming. If you have a great go-to list, you will reduce some of that stress each night. There are some great ready-made meal companies out now to try as well.
- Be ready for things to go wrong, because they will. If you are prepared mentally you can say “ok, this is just one of those things that is going to happen” and calmly deal with it. I don’t think we’ve ever had a move or renovation without SOMETHING coming up.
- Take lots of pictures. Life gets so crazy that it is so easy to forget to document it. Photos help not only preserve memories, but keep vital information, receipts, notes, a visual inventory of rooms or boxes etc.
- Don’t forget the pets. Keep the dogs involved in the move/renovations – sniffing out new things, busy with toys and walks, or just a little extra attention. This will help them deal with the transition but also help prevent them acting out because they aren’t sure what’s going on only adding to your stress!
- Make time for rest. We went several days going non-stop from sun up to 2 or 3am and it really took a toll. Sometimes you have to keep going but any chance you can, schedule time to relax in the evenings.
- Embrace the chaos. This is a crazy but fun time in life. Embrace the chaos, know that it’s temporary and try to get through each day with a smile.
We have quite a bit more renovation to work on here but we have most of the house set up and feeling like home so it makes the small jobs much less stressful than they would without the relaxing spaces to retreat to. Having our dining room finally done and set up was such a highlight of our move.
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What flooring did you install in new home? Looks beautiful and similar to the Shaw flooring in previous post/home.
It’s Shaw Resilient Vinyl! Info here: https://allfortheboys.com/new-floors-shaw-floors-resilient-vinyl/