There is an important difference between a house and a home, even if it seems like semantics at first. A house is somewhere you live, and as long as it is sturdy and safe, just about any structure can work. On the other hand, a home is where you feel like you belong, where you can relax, and where you can spend valuable time with family and friends.
When you first move into a new place – even if it’s beautiful – it might feel more like a house than a home. This article aims to help you change that as soon as possible. By exploring some of the ideas below, you should be able to turn your house into a home and make it somewhere that you’ll love to live for many years to come.
If you are still looking for the right house to call your own, reach out to the Tate Realtors at Smith Marketing. With experienced experts on your side, the stress of the process will fade away and you’ll be able to enjoy the process of finding the perfect place to live.
Start with Pictures
This is an easy first step, so it’s the natural place to start this discussion. Shortly after you move into your new space, or if you have been there a while and it just doesn’t feel like home, add some pictures to the walls. Family photos are an obvious place to start, but it doesn’t have to stop there. You could also print and frame pictures you have taken of some of your favorite places to visit, or photos that remind you of fond times in your past. Even just a few pictures will go a long way toward making this feel truly like your home, so this is a quick and affordable project to take on.
Find a Way to Incorporate Nature
Even a nice house can feel cold and impersonal if there is no nature brought into the space. You don’t have to be a master gardener to bring in a couple of indoor plants to help on this point, or you could even select some decorations that are made from wood to get a similar effect with no maintenance. You might find that the power of nature is so strong that you wind up bringing in more and more elements to continue adding to this strategy.
Create a Comfy Spot
One of the things that can make a house really feel like home is having a dedicated spot where you know you can curl up and relax at the end of a busy day. Often, this will be a cushy sofa in the living room, or in a den or basement in front of a television. Whatever your personal preference happens to be, take the time to decorate this space to your tastes and make sure it has everything that is needed to be your favorite retreat. If you are currently looking at homes for sale, keep in mind the desire to develop this kind of oasis and favor homes that have an obvious spot for such a setup.
Get Organized
This is an easy point to overlook, but it’s an important one nonetheless. When you move into a house, it’s common for your stuff to just spread out everywhere – and in the busyness of daily life, you might not ever really get around to organizing it properly. As the weeks and months pass, you still don’t feel like you are at home, because the house is cluttered and you don’t know where anything is.
Set aside some time as soon as possible to address this problem. By getting organized, you can start to shape the house into something that feels like your own and is a good fit for your whole family. This not only means putting away things in strategic places, but also decluttering by getting rid of stuff that you don’t need or want any longer.
Make the House Work for Your Life
If nothing else, a home should be a place where your life flows naturally, and your daily activities and rituals can be completed without complication. So, for example, if you work from home, it’s important to have a dedicated office space rather than just grabbing your laptop and working on the couch. With a specific desk that you can go to any time you need to work, the house will be one step closer to being a home that functions perfectly.
There are plenty of other examples of this concept that go beyond work. For instance, if you like to exercise at home, carving out a space where you can keep some equipment – even if it is in the garage – is quite helpful. Or, if you love watching movies as a family, designing one room as a small theater can again make it feel more like your own and something that is customized to your tastes. Working with an AllenTate team like Smith Marketing can make it easy to find precisely the right house to check all of these boxes.
Go Above and Beyond in Your Bedroom
For all of the attention that gets paid to places like the kitchen and living room, it’s the bedroom where you are going to spend the most time. This should be a retreat, and it should be a comfortable spot to settle in for the night and get some much-needed rest. Small touches can go a long way in a bedroom, including things like investing in some quality sheets and pillows, or adding a feature like a ceiling fan to keep the room more comfortable on summer nights.
Smith Marketing is an Allen Tate Realty team that will jump into action to help you find the ideal home for you and your family. Once you have found that ideal property, you can utilize the advice above to quickly make it into a home that feels like it has been yours forever. Get in touch today to get started.