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House hunting & packing

Christina F.

Veteran

Hi everyone! I have been luring on here since my last post a couple of weeks ago. Nothing much online can hold my attention right now. Apologies! So I figured I'd post about what I have been focused on.

Now, I don't want to be that person who moves during a pandemic, but we had already been planning to do it, so.... we are now prioritizing workspace for each of us, and outdoor space, which we weren't before. This means almost certainly moving from Manhattan to Brooklyn, and more than double, up to triple the indoor space we have now. We are still looking uptown from where we are now, but I think it's looking less likely as there is no outdoor space to be had in our price range.

We are going upstate for part of the month but already looking. Our bridge loan will be ready around when we return--we cannot sell our current tiny place while it's full of our clutter. Heck, I think we may even have to move ourselves and the cats out first before a lot of the less urgent stuff can be packed. So many books and board games.

We will need a new bed and bureau, but the ones I fell in love with are made-to-order and take months. We can get a mattress first and use the current basic bed frame we have, which I believe will expand. Or I could choose something else and paint it to the color of the other ones (indigo). I also need a new desk, but that will be easier. The current items aren't nice enough to bother moving, and we've only been waiting to know our new space to replace them. Other items can be replaced over time, if need be. We plan for our new home to be our forever home.

Moving from a tiny one bedroom to a three bedroom/possible duplex is going to be a big change. I've been trying to declutter the house slowly, and fortunately thrift stores here are reopening. I'm excited but also scared of organizing it all. Much of the new home will look empty for a time, especially by comparison, as we get enough furniture to fill it. On the upside, I did see some places with walk-in closets. Dangerous!

Anyone got packing tips or home design tips? Send 'em my way! MY home design previously has been random, and not really design at all, but I'd like to plan better this time.

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14 replies

Latest reply was from kkards

Suz

(website)

Veteran

This is exciting news, Christina! I hope you are able to find a new place. It makes so much sense, for so many reasons. We don't know how long this is going to go on, and if you are working from home, it becomes more important than ever to have a bit more room.

Home décor is as personal as fashion, of course! Some fabbers are real experts at it and probably have a systematic process. Mine has been more iterative. We each came with things -- we kept some, got rid of others. We collected more together. We try to make it all work.

But, as with clothing, it's great to narrow down an overall style direction as well as key colours/ neutrals. Do you like modern or traditional or a mix? Do you like a bit of clutter or none? Do you like calm neutrals or bright hues? Do you want each room to be completely different from the others or do you want a more integrated look, for "flow." What are the unchangeable features of the place and do you want to emphasize them or disguise them or mitigate them? And so on.

If you start with questions like that, you'll be on your way.

One fun way to proceed is to pick a favourite inspiration piece -- maybe a work of art already in your collection -- and use that as the core for deciding your colours, etc. I've done that in small apartments years ago and it worked really well.

For our current home, the existing paint colours were not too different from the colours in our old home (yay!) and so our furnishings worked pretty seamlessly with that -- simplifying the move, at least for now. We may make changes later but right now, we want to reduce stress.

My home decor colours, in contrast to my clothing colours, tend to be warm (a lot of gold and yellow with some dark red, mossy or sage green, and deep blue). I like it because I get to enjoy colours that make me happy (yellows, golds) even though they don't look good near my skin.

You might want to sign on to Houzz and browse rooms -- similar to Pinterest but just for home and garden stuff. You can create idea boards and inspiration boards and (if you like) find service professionals in your new area.

Colour choices are partly preference but also partly related to whatever light the place receives. So especially for paint, it might be wise to spend some time in the new place before making firm decisions, or come back to it for several visits at different times of day.

As for packing and moving in a pandemic, well, I (sort of) did it. I say sort of because we got the bulk of our stuff from Ontario in November, well before COVID, and moved it into the house, but we were not able to move permanently from Vancouver until May, and needed a small van to get our things from there.

I think with our current knowledge of the virus, as long as you are wearing gloves and masks and using sanitizer etc. the chance of picking it up from surfaces like cardboard boxes is quite small. So whether you pack your own things or have movers do it, you should be okay. You will just need to get out of the place (I imagine) if movers are doing the work.

We, with a friend, did the smaller portion of our move (during COVID) ourselves. (We had movers for the stuff that came from Ontario). We simply left it in the boxes until the next day before unpacking, washing, putting, away.

Theoretically, I'd say, get rid of what you can before you go-- no point hauling stuff you aren't going to use. BUT in this circumstance it might be harder to sort at your old (smaller) place than at the new one, so you might just throw some things in boxes anyway and decide later.

Good luck with it all!

avicennia

Veteran

I’m very much into design, but wouldn’t know how to advise others. So good thing that Suz has given such good advice. The process will be trying, but the extra space will be worth it! Good luck!!

Anonymous

This is my dream - to move into a Brooklyn townhouse . Can I come over and take on your decor project ? I also do garden and patio design too

rachylou

Veteran

I start packing months before I start looking for a place, lol My big tip is make sure you can still lift the box after you pack it up... and lift it easily, because there will be a lot of them! Also: content label top and a side... because when they’re stacked, other boxes will conceal the label. And the things you’ll want first need to go in the truck first.

You’ll want to live in the new place for a bit: the actual space will influence what you like and want. *Sigh.* I bought my sofa for three dwellings past. It’s kinda old fashioned and now that I’m in an actual old-fashioned kinda place... it’s too much. I’m too lazy to have it redone, but I should.

Christina F.

Veteran

Suz! What a wealth of information. Thank you! I think I have a vision for the bedroom and half of one for my study. My husband wants his study to be a full on Victorian library with an escritoire, eventually! So the rooms will not all be quite the same... I think I like things to be neither too modern and clean, nor too classic, so I guess I’m eclectic like with fashion. I do like colors for decor, like I do for clothes! I also saw that Rifle Paper now makes wallpapers and I kind of love them.

I have already gotten rid of, or put aside a lot of what I want to get rid of. There will also be some furniture we don’t take-we can get one of those junk services. My IKEA drawers are falling apart, and my desk has its surface partly rubbed away. The mattress is old and smaller than what we will want. The rest, barring maybe a crappy bookcase or two, can come.

We also have art - more than we can display! We just got two pieces from the home of my late grandparents-in-law. One is a painting his grandmother did, and another is a Laotian handcraft (she helped refugees open a store in the 80’s). Plus we have our own art including a huge framed old time map of manhattan, the magazine cover of me and the cats M had done, some of our photos printed out, an authentic old school poster of a vaudeville throwback show from the 40’s... lots to work with. Less in the way of other decor since we have no free wall or shelf space now.

Thanks, avicennia! Moving is always a pain. But it will be worth it in the end.

Lisa, I do t know for sure that we will end up on Brooklyn! I saw one remodeled duplex in a brownstone that I just swooned over, but it’s much too far from the subway. The other stuff is more modern because the buildings were very new. More of a clean slate, I guess. You can come decorate once it’s safe to do so!

rachylou, I wish I could start packing! There is nowhere to put the boxes, though, especially since we are both here 24/7 now and need work space. We have a few book boxes already from some layout changes we made in the bedroom, but it’s a small fraction of the collection. We have four tall bookshelves, plus two smaller ones and some in boxes. Plus tons of board games. Sigh. My husband is also not good at letting things go.

I think I won’t plan our full new space until we are there a bit. But I want to maybe choose some paint and have any painting done first. I always hated the paint color here; my husband moved in before me and didn’t care. And of course we never got around to changing it once all our stuff was in. I think except for the bedroom and my study I may leave most walls white though, and my husband wants execute his Victorian library over time.

Angie

(website)

Fashion Stylist

How exciting, Christina! A new chapter, and something to look forward to. We did this a year ago - but moved from a tiny city house to a waterfront loft apartment in Seattle. The move is hectic, but the process is very satisfying. You will have a lot of fun!

As someone who has moved a lot (and from country to country), don't be in a rush to get it all perfect at once. Get set up as best you can with what you have so that you are comfortable and can work, but really think about your new home purchases and the decor. Make sure you BOTH like it, and that it reflects your aesthetics AND practical needs. LIVE in the space first. Feel your way. It will stand you good stead in the long run if you take the time upfront.

Decide where in the home you want to spend big, and where you can spend budget. Be patient and enjoy the process

JAileen

Veteran

How wonderful! We moved from Houston to Lake Tahoe years and years ago. Nothing broke! My tip: pack your dishes on edge, not flat in the box. As for decorating, that’s incredibly personal.

NancyW

Veteran

We moved from a small (not tiny), city apartment to a house about double to size. Read everything you can about moving strategies and pull out the ideas that make sense to you. My advice is to make your bedroom a haven and your offices workable before you turn to the ‘public’ rooms of your new home. I think people often do it the other way around, but think about waking up on a Sunday morning in a room that is neat, reflects your taste and is filled with your favorite art. The living room can wait, and if it is empty, then post-pandemic there will be more room for a cocktail party!

Diana

Veteran

We did something very similar (moved from a 1-br apt to a 3 story, 3-br townhouse) 1.5 years ago, and I am thankful every single day now in the current situation that we have the extra space.

My biggest advice for moving/decorating is not to buy a lot of new things until you have moved in to the new place. (Aside from really obvious things like the bed and desk). We found that all of the furniture from our cluttered small apartment actually was sufficient in many cases for the new house, it just looked much better and more spacious! And the things we ended up needing to buy were not necessarily the things we'd expected. Also, it's a lot easier to have an idea of what will fit/look appropriate in a new place once you're actually there.

Gail

Veteran

Exciting for you. Can you pack some non essentials that you definitely want to keep and rent a small storage unit to store it in ? I think just getting some items out of the way helps to move forward while you home search. .
My daughter lived in a tiny apartment in Manhattan and I thought how much there possibly be to move , wrong ! There was a lot when she moved to Brooklyn I couldn't believe how much that little apartment held lol.
Good Luck with your search.

Anonymous

Yay! You could design the new space with Roomstyler

Christina F.

Veteran

Thanks everyone! I will respond in more detail but rest assured I plan to wait on most of my changes. My husband will want to see any new furniture in person in a store, and that will be hard for a while because there’s a pandemic. :p

I did decide I want to get vintage looking travel posters for my new office. We have a couple, but I might get some more from Etsy.

Aquamarine

Veteran

Exciting! I agree with Suz’s suggestion to get on Houzz. I could spend hours on there, collecting inspiration photos as well as reading the forums and articles written by design professionals.

I recently moved my mother out of her home and then put the house on the market afterwards (to minimize any exposure for her). It was easy to get movers, etc. because of the pandemic, so you have that going for you.

kkards

Veteran

Nice. I hate moving and I have had some really bad experiences with actual movers...so lets start there...when its time to move DO NOT pick a mover until you have actually had them come out an look at your stuff to insure that the number of people and the truck are sized for the job. and make sure that they actually know how to get to your new place, including any and all traffic restrictions in the old and new neighborhoods.
I’ll put a plug in for Queens, I have a sister who lives there and I’m always surprised that the range of housing...and the reasonableness (all things considered) of the pricing