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10 Ways To Make a New House Feel Like Home

This post is featured on behalf of Martin Atkins.


Finding a new home is a daunting, stressful task that can take up a lot of your time. But when you move in it’s hard for it to feel like ‘yours’ straight away. Even though it’s your furniture in the rooms, it can take a while for that feeling of home to really settle in.

For a while, you will find yourself having to correct yourself whenever you refer to ‘home’ as your old place and not the one you live in now. It’s a tricky transition, some people fly through it and can call anywhere home in moments — but for most it takes time. And for those who move frequently, the point where you start calling a place ‘home’ will be the time when you have to move again.

There are many ways to make a house feel like home, some can take time, and some can help instantaneously. Here are some ideas that can help make the new place feel like yours:

1. The First Thing

Before you even move, make sure you are moving into the right place. Is it the right size? Is the location right for you – are there local amenities close by, or will you have to drive to get there?

Visit the place beforehand to make sure it has the right feel for you. Choose the right building type for your needs, are you looking for luxury properties, or something more rustic? A house or an apartment? Does it have the right amount of storage space, or will you have to get creative?

It sounds like a long list, but these things will help to make the new house feel like home sooner rather than later.

2. Unpack

Unpacking is a something that you are going to do anyway, but try not to let boxes stay unpacked for long. If you can take some time off work to get it all done in one go, then perfect. If not, then try and blast it out over a couple of weekends or after work.

The sooner all your stuff is out, the sooner it feels more homely. Having boxes tucked into corners just reminds you of moving, or of your last home.

3. Pets

If you have a pet already, they will make their mark on the new home soon enough. If not and you feel like something is lacking – then why not look into adopting a dog, or cat or getting some fish?

Having a pet in the home can make the place feel more loved, particularly if it’s just you, or just you and your partner/friend living there.

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4. Frame It

Once you know where things are going to stay, start hanging photos and any other art-work. Family photos can really help to make a place feel like home. Having familiar faces around the place is comforting.

If you don’t know if you have settled on the furniture arrangements but want to get the photos up ASAP, or you are renting and aren’t allowed to nail hooks into the wall, look into adhesive frame hangers instead. That way you can unstick whenever without holes littering your walls.

5. Clean It

It may have been professionally cleaned before you moved in, but the act of dragging in all the furniture and unpacking will have dusted up the place again.

Whip out the vacuum and the duster and give the place a once over. Not only will it do the cleaning job, but it will smell a bit more like home and not like the moving truck. You can also light your favorite candle to get rid of that ‘just moved’ smell.

6. Hang-Out

Spend time in each room. Cook a  meal you know well in the kitchen — this means that you won’t burn anything while you’re looking for your things, but you will bring familiar memories into an unfamiliar place.

Have a movie night in the lounge, spend time doing something other than sleeping in the bedroom, and spend time in each of the children’s/spare rooms.

7. No Dump Zones

The garage and the attic are often the areas that become unnecessary and unorganized ‘dump zones.’ If you have things that you don’t know what to do with, neatly store them away for a few months — if you don’t miss them then donate them.

Get shelving and boxes for the garage and actually put things away properly. The same goes for the attic — when it comes to pulling down the Christmas decorations you’ll find yourself hunting around for hours because they have been unceremoniously shoved to the back of the pile.

If you have lots of junk that you simply don’t need any more, consider renting a dumpster. This is a perfect time to declutter your home and life!

8. Decorate

If you can, want or need to, then decorate. Nothing makes a house feel more like yours than spending time improving it.

Your taste in color schemes or decorations will bring your personality to the house and make it more yours instantly. You don’t even need to paint — maybe just get some new bed covers or some new cushions for the couch. The little things can work as well as the big.

9. Guests

Invite everyone over! Once you’ve settled in, have the family over, or a group of friends. Sharing your new home will give you a sense of pride and love for this new building.

They might also have some good ideas for storing the things that have ended up in your dump zone. Filling a house with love and laughter will do more for making you feel at home than anything else.

10. Time

As annoying as it sounds, the best thing for making a house feel like home is time. The more time you spend there, the more you think of it as home. You learn all of its nooks and crannies, where the best place to sit to catch the last evening rays are, and where the internet dead zone is – every house has one!

Over time you will fill the house with new things, new memories and new people, and it will be your home.