Moving into your first apartment or just moving into a new apartment or house? These essential items are important to have before spending the first night in your new home. After all of that unpacking, imagine not being able to take a shower because you don’t have a shower curtain? For these reasons, we wrote this handy guide/checklist to make your move-in as seamless as the rest of your move.
Bathroom Essentials:
The first thing on this list is a shower curtain with a liner. Maybe you already have a decorative or funny shower curtain that you packed as part of your move; we’d still advise that you replace the liner when moving into a new place. Things like magnifying makeup mirrors might be important if you did not pack yours, during the move. Does your new place have a toilet paper holder attached to the wall? If it doesn’t grab yourself a standing toilet paper holder and round this part of the house to stock up on toilet paper, toilet brush or scrubbing pads, and a plunger.
Grab some kind of disinfectant specifically for bathroom surfaces. If you didn’t pack one it’s also extremely important to have a first aid kit in your new home because during the moving process and beyond accidents happen that may require disinfecting ointment, bandages of varying sizes, ace bandages, and some over the counter pain relievers.
Kitchen Essentials:
Moving into the kitchen there are a few things that you may have decided to throw out or leave behind when moving, but that doesn’t make them any less necessary to have in your kitchen. Beyond dishware, silverware, and that expensive set of pots and pans that you probably packed during your move, maybe your last apartment had a microwave already installed and this new one doesn’t. Take some time to organize your kitchen and decide where all of your appliances will go. Consider items like a dish rack, paper towel holder, and the cutlery organizer as they may not have been packed. Tupperware and Ziploc bags should also be purchased along with any spices that may have been thrown out or left behind to get your kitchen cooking ready on day one.
Windows and Lighting:
While natural light is important to think about when considering a new apartment or house, you don’t want to be woken up at the crack of dawn. Does your new place already have blinds on the windows? If not consider your options between blinds, curtains, and shades for all of your windows. While blinds and curtains will let in some light even when closed, you might want to consider blackout curtains or shades for your bedroom and something different in the living room and kitchen area.
Curtains and shades also provide you with more privacy which should also be considered when making this decision especially if you’re moving from a house to an apartment building. When it comes to electrical lighting, look to see if the overhead lights came with dimmer switches. These can be installed later, but when you just move in start thinking about where you can place any lamps you may have packed with you during the move. Make sure to have a few spare bulbs tucked away as well, just in case.
Wires, wires, and more wires:
Make sure to pack at least a couple of extension cords in case those lamp plugs don’t reach the nearest outlet. Hopefully, during your packing process, you labeled all of your wires or packed them with the appliance they go into so you aren’t left with a box full of random wires. It’s also a good idea to pack a surge protector or power strip for areas around television consoles and desktop computers where you’ll likely have multiple things that need to be plugged in close to each other. While a power strip simply allows you to plug multiple things into one outlet, a surge protector will protect your devices in the event of a power spike. It’s always a good idea to grab a couple of packs of AAA and AA batteries for things like remotes and household appliances that might require them.
Storage Solutions:
Even if you packed all of your hangers for your move, consider buying an extra set of hangers. Things like plastic bins or vacuum storage bags are great if you’re conserving space (as is usually the case in NYC apartments). These also make storing away those winter or summer clothes when they’re out of season that much easier. Make sure if you packed plastic bins they fit under your bed or within your new closets. This would also be a chance, especially when downsizing if a storage unit would be helpful for your move. FlatRate offers storage solutions of all shapes and sizes, and we even have an entire article devoted to it on our blog.
Final Essentials:
A basic tool kit includes a hammer, screwdriver set, an adjustable wrench and pliers, nails, screws, and potentially a drill. Having this on hand will make the process of hanging things on your walls easier. If you’re renting an apartment, consider sticky hanging hooks rather than nails. Doing this will increase the possibility of receiving your entire security deposit back when you move out. Adding a box cutter will come in handy considering you may have many moving boxes to break down.
Living in a building with a doorman is a different situation than living in a house. If you live in an apartment building without a doorman, consider changing at least one of the locks. The previous tenants (or their friends) may have key copies, and landlords rarely change locks. It’s easy enough to unscrew your locks and replace them with new ones. If you need to hire a locksmith, it isn’t as expensive if they are just changing a lock. Lock changes usually only take about 15 minutes.
We hope this blog helped answer some questions about the items to have on move-in day. Thanks for reading and if you’re interested in reading more blog articles by FlatRate Moving. If you’re still at the beginning stages of moving always feel free to contact FlatRate Moving to request a quote either by phone or by the handy request a quote feature on our website.