How to Make a New Place Feel Like Home

There’s no place like home. And a new place does not feel like home until all the little, and not-so-little things become familiar, comforting, and hopefully bring you a sense of joy.

By that I mean, sitting in a favourite café drinking your preferred beverage, watching the world go by, or walking in a park where you can visualise how it will look as each season changes, even just meeting a neighbour in the street for a chat.

Your community and location are as much a part of what makes your home, a home, as the four walls.

To get those sensations, that feeling of home will take time and effort.

To build that rapport, that connection with your new community requires a certain amount of strategy.

So what can you do to make your new town or city feel like you belong, that it is home?

What is the best way to fit into a new community? Just how do you become part of a community in an area you have no connection with?

In this week’s home moving blog, we seek to answer those questions.

You may also like to read: Ways to Save Money After Moving Home. Moving home is a great opportunity to look at your finances and see if there are ways to save some money on your household expenses. In this guide, we look at various ways to make your household budget go further.

Start Researching Your New Area Before Moving Home

Moving home can change every aspect of your world. Job, home, friends, environment, and maybe even the local dialect will be so different as to feel you have moved to another country.

The sooner you get to know your new area, the sooner you can start getting settled into a new neighbourhood, and the sooner it will feel like home.

You may also like to read: How to Avoid Culture Shock When Moving Home. Even if you are just moving to another part of the city it can feel very different from where you have moved from. In this guide, we look at all aspects of culture shock, from its causes to its symptoms, and how to manage culture shock.

Use tourist information websites, social media, and Google Maps to locate any vital shops you may need in the few days immediately after your home move.

You will almost certainly need to know where the nearest grocery and DIY stores are.

The internet will give you lots of resources to find out about your new community. Look at online community groups, blogs, and local news sites, all will give you lots of useful information.

Even finding out about local slang words can make the transition into your new community easier, as well as provide you with hours of entertainment!

And of course, if there are no blogs or social media groups for your new area, why not create one? This will be a great way to integrate into a new community and local affairs.

Of course, the internet can never replace the actual ‘feel’ of your new community.

So get to visit your new area as often as possible before move day, if that is not possible Google Street View will begin to make landmarks familiar to you.

Social media networks may also have uploaded videos of your new area that will help you familiarise yourself with local events, news, and places of interest.

Use this research period to create a list of questions that the person moving out of your new home may be able to answer for you.

Where’s the best vet? Where is the nearest garden centre? There are many many questions that you may need answering.

Using the classic “Is there anything I forgot to ask” or “Is there anything else I should know” questions to your vendor may reveal a wealth of useful information.

You may also like to read: How to Create a Home Moving Binder. A home moving binder contains all the information that you need to know about your new home, In this guide, we look at why you need a home moving binder and how to create one.

Your First Week in a New Home. Tips for Settling into a New Town

Your first week is probably going to be spent getting moving boxes unpacked and the home organised.

But this will no doubt throw up a few opportunities to get to know your new neighbourhood.

The route to the local DIY store may well become a well-trodden path, as will the supermarket. But each trip will help you to become familiar with your new surroundings.

Don’t know where to find a fabric shop or the best place to get fresh eggs?  Great ice breakers to speak to your new neighbours about who will be a font of local knowledge.

It is important as well to take some time away from unpacking, just to relax a bit. Unpacking your home contents can be just as time-consuming and stressful as packing them.

Take the family on walks around the neighbourhood, to the local park, or to places of interest. Try to start creating memories, to develop a bond with your new surroundings.

Just a simple walk around the block offers you the opportunity to become part of the community. A simple action, but you will instantly become a piece of the local jigsaw.

Be aware that after the stress of moving home, relocation depression can soon develop. Becoming familiar with your new area, and creating routines, and places of reference will help stave off that depression.

You may also like to read: How to De-Stress After the Stress of Moving Home. Now that you have actually moved home it is time to start looking after yourself again. In this guide, we look at various ways of managing the stress that you have been under the last few months.

Don’t forget that your pets are just as susceptible to stress and depression as you are, if not more so.

Spending quality time, instilling new routines, and making exercise time as stimulating as possible, will all help your pet adjust.

Your Children too may have found the home move traumatic and will be full of trepidation about what the immediate future holds.

A new home, school, friends, and town may be daunting for them.

If it is the summer, perhaps you could source some summer activities for them to do with a local youth club or their new school. Is there a summer church or community fete they could help with? Is there a tennis club nearby?

This will help them quickly form new friendships and will get them out from under your feet whilst you organise your new home.

You may also like to read: How to Not Get Overwhelmed Unpacking After a Home Move. Unpacking after a home move can be just as stressful as packing was. In this guide, we look at how not to get overwhelmed when unpacking and setting up your new home.

The Next Phase. How to Settle Into a New Community

After the first few weeks of getting everything in order and restoring a sense of normality, you might be considering tackling a few larger jobs such as cutting down old trees or painting the exterior of your home.

It is worth checking first with your local planning officer, or the residents association if anything you are considering doing breaks any bylaws or rules.

Even if you know for a fact it doesn’t, knocking on the door of the chairperson of the resident association and seeking their ‘approval’ could all be part of the ‘new to the neighbourhood etiquette’.

It might just earn you a few brownie points.

That aside, you will probably now be in a position to start making a social circle in your new community.

You may also like to read: How to Overcome Loneliness After Moving Home. In this guide, we look at how moving to a new place alone can become your new superpower and how to embrace your new life on your own.

Your residents’ association or neighbourhood watch meetings will be a great place to meet new people and to help get you involved in the local community.

If you have moved to a new city like London or Bristol, the chances are one of your old social circle will know someone who has also moved there.

Use those kinds of contacts to extend your new social circle, and crucially they will be able to empathise with you about your big move, they will know the pitfalls to avoid and the shortcuts to getting familiar with your new place.

Find a local café or restaurant that you like, the more you visit it, the more likely you are to see regulars there whom you can bond with, after all, you have something in common already.

Walking the dog in the park is another great way to meet locals, and may spin off into joining dog-related clubs, attending dog events, or just having someone to chat with while your dogs play.

Getting out of the home as often as possible will expose you to the habits and lifestyles of your neighbours.

If you see a neighbor who needs assistance with a chore in the garden, why not offer your expert assistance?

See a neighbour with a flat battery on their car, why not offer your jump leads?

Small ideas that will endear you to your new neighbours and help form new friendships.

Something as simple as keeping your front garden tidy and well-maintained could be all it takes to get you accepted into the local community, especially if the previous tenants or owners were less particular than you.

If your neighbours all have immaculate exteriors to their homes, and yours is not of a similar standard, spruce it up, it will show you are making an effort to fit in.

You may also like to read: Home Moving Etiquette. Home moving etiquette is the things that are polite and respectful to do when moving home. In this guide, we suggest the do’s and don’ts when moving home to make your first impression count with your new neighbours.

The First Year in a New Home. Fitting into your new Neighbourhood

The first year will be all about creating a home, and a social circle, integrating into a new community, and building a new life.

But after the introductory contact, sometimes it can be difficult to keep up the momentum of that initial meeting. So why not use social media to create a new community or hobby group?

See if there are local charities or other worthy causes that you could help out with.

You could consider creating a dining or book club, anything that interests you and could help keep the kindle of friendship alive.

If you have an interest in local or environmental issues why not start, or join, a group that tackles these problems?

And don’t limit yourself to just your immediate environment. If you live in a large town or city each district will offer a unique perspective on your surroundings, a new dimension.

Equally, the surrounding countryside of your village will offer you plenty to explore, along with other quaint villages, nature parks, or stately homes. All will offer you the opportunity to join action or hobby groups, as well as great days out to create those important family memories.

You may also like to read: Moving Home as an Introvert. Not everybody is comfortable with making new friends or even being sociable. In this guide, we look at ways to make moving home and into a new area easier for introverts.

Moving home is a challenge, creating a new life even more so. But things have a habit of working out for the best.

Take the time to get to know your new home, find ways to become part of the community, and explore your new surroundings.

You never know what you might discover, or what new adventures await you.