We bought a lot of things when we moved, and only some of them were worth buying for our house, in retrospect. Which ones? Come on, you know I’m going to dish.
And while we’re at it, I’m not going to sugarcoat it either: in the month that we actually, physically acquired our new house, we spent a zillion dollars.
No but actually, we spent over $9,000, when a normal month rings in closer to… $4,000. So let’s call it $5,000 of house-related spending.
Can we take a moment of silence for our savings accounts? I think it’s appropriate.
In all seriousness, though, our savings accounts were a lifesaver this past month, because we had planned pretty meticulously, and saved pretty aggressively, to make sure that what we knew was going to be an expensive month wouldn’t land us in a pile of debt. (My stance on that is the only thing you should finance when buying a house is the house… sorry not sorry, financing a couch isn’t a thing I can get behind, especially with interest rates starting to rise.)
So sure, we spent a lot of money – and to completely justify it to myself, that figure includes food, and restaurants, and the bills we had to pay anyways. (Still a ton of money, though.)
Looking back on it now, though, here’s what was extremely worth it, and what we could have done without.
And before diving in, if you’re planning on buying a house and wondering how much you “should” plan to spend beyond your down payment, none of that $5,000 includes closing costs, and it rings in at about 1/8th of our down payment savings.
Just like, for context.
What was beyond worth it?
Furniture pads
We’d never had hardwood floors that we particularly cared about, and we moved into a main floor featuring basically brand-new, gorgeous hardwood floors.
Cue not being able to put a single piece of furniture on them until we bought those sticky pads to go on the bottom of everything… and then went on Amazon to order more because we thought we bought more than we needed, but it was not even close to enough.
Restaurants and takeout
Giving ourselves the luxury of a takeout budget, whether to sustain us as we continued to unpack, or to go out for a break from moving oh-my-god-another-box-of-books?! was a true lifesaver.
As was sitting down for more than five minutes at a time.
Convenience foods. All the convenience foods.
When we weren’t eating takeout, I lived on Costco ham for a week, and I would do it again. Invest in foods that you can eat out of the fridge with minimal prep, because you’ll thank yourself when you finally get around to eating.
Movers, oh my god get the movers
We spent three full days moving boxes from one house to another, and if we hadn’t hired movers to handle moving the Real Furniture, I honestly think I would have had a breakdown. Paying for two pros to pack up and professionally move the big pieces – think beds, TVs, couches, etc. – was beyond worth it.
Especially since we saved a solid $400 by a) having everything ready to rock and roll for them so the move went super quickly, and b) paying on debit to get the “cash” discount.
The king sized bed
I’ve been saving for – and talking about – getting a king sized bed for over two years now. And if it’s on your radar too? Start tossing $50 or $100 aside every month for it now, because it is SO WORTH IT. (Caveat that you need to make sure you can physically get it into the building and your bedroom, because they’re huge, but that’s part of the allure, yaknow?)
Our new office furniture (and tech)
I work a lot, and a lot of that happens at home. I used to work primarily on the couch with my laptop, but as part of the move, I upgraded my office setup significantly (like, monitor, new desk, keyboard, etc.) and I couldn’t be happier with the outcome.
The monitor alone, you guys! My neck has never been happier.
Kitchen table
We just… needed a table to sit at to eat. And it’s nice being able to sit down and eat.
That’s really all I’ve got to say about this: seating is good times. You will want seating ASAP.
Storage “solutions”
Getting boxes unpacked and put “where they belong” will slowly but surely be the best feeling ever – but you might need somewhere to actually put the things. We bought five heavy duty storage shelves from Costco and set them up in the basement, and I think it probably saved our relationship.
Good champagne to celebrate
As you’ll know if you saw my tweet about it, we bought The Fancy Champagne to celebrate moving in, and it doubled as a surprise engagement celebration, too! Well worth it, both from the celebration angle and the “wow, it tastes amazing and I am now ruined for the cheap stuff” angle.
I felt like a bad PF blogger for buying the fancy champagne for the new house
But then we got engaged so that's just good value pic.twitter.com/zVq2hDJ8Rk
— Desirae Odjick (@half_banked) June 22, 2017
Microwave
We did not have a microwave for the first week we lived in the house, and trust me: when you want to eat now, and it’s going to take 45 minutes in the oven for your food to not be freezing cold? You will want to prioritize a microwave. (Unless you’re living that microwave-free life by choice, in which case, power to you.)
New lightbulbs
You know what will make you feel happy about your new space? Fancy lightbulbs that match the light colour and brightness you actually enjoy. Both The Fiance and I are big fans of bright, daylight bulbs, so we replaced basically every lightbulb in the house in the first week, and we’d do it again.
What would we skip if we did it again?
Move-in cleaners
Get ready to think I’m a total spoiled brat here (you’re not wrong) but not only do we have a company we use on a regular basis to clean our house, we went “all out” and hired “professional” move in cleaners to do a deep clean of the house.
And it was. not. worth. it.
If you have a cleaner you know and trust (or family who love you enough to help?) get them to come in and help. Don’t hire a brand new cleaner you’ve never used, because in our experience? It won’t be anywhere near worth the 4X price tag. (Move in cleaners are so expensive.)
Light fixtures you don’t love
Installing light fixtures on ceilings is a massive pain in the butt.
Installing light fixtures on the ceiling that you immediately take down because you hate it and you should really have spent more than $20 to get something decent? The worst.
The pillow we got upsold on buying our mattress
This is a split decision, because The Fiance loves the pillow the sales guy suggested to us while we were buying our mattress. I, on the other hand, hated it with a fiery passion that consumed my soul as soon as I actually slept on it. Who likes a hard pillow?! (Other than my fiance, whom I actually knew this about going into it.)
Lesson learned: If you’re focused on buying and evaluating one thing, only buy that thing, and go back to focus on other purchases.
Mail forwarding
If you’re good about ~logistics~ and can update your address with your important services in a timely manner, there’s not a whole lot of crucial mail you’ll miss, if any. We did get mail forwarding, and some packages still made their way to our old house.
You had one job, mail forwarding.
What would you add to the list?
I guarantee that anyone who has moved – especially into a new house – has ~opinions~ on what was and wasn’t worth the money they spent when it happened. So spill, pals: What would you add to the list of things that were worth it, and things that weren’t?
This is SPOT ON, as usual. 150% to the movers. We used towermoving.com, and always to storage solutions!! + champagne haha. I would add also worth it is any kind of paint or wallpaper because if you don’t do it beforehand, you never will! xo
Omg, yes 100% to paint and wallpaper! We *uber* lucked out that the house had been freshly painted in a really nice light grey that we actually like, so we didn’t have to paint, but in our last place it took me three whole years to paint the main floor room by room (and in some cases, wall by wall, haha.)
I wholeheartedly agree with the fact that movers are 100% worth it!! We moved twice – once about 45 minutes north and then 45 minutes right back down south – without movers. My boyfriend and I only had our two sedans to transport everything and I can only imagine how many trips we took. Not to mention we moved from the third floor to the third floor.. Then we moved across the country and took advantage of the company movers and O.M.G. it was a life changing experience. Because we used the movers that his company worked with, we were able to have them pack AND unpack everything as well (the cost was the same) and goodness gracious, please do yourself a favor and splurge! So incredibly worth it.
Ooooof, third floor to third floor is about as brutal as it can get! My quads hurt just thinking about it, haha – especially moving a whole living space! The last time I moved before this, it was more the “I’m a university student who has a few suitcases and a bed” kind of moving, which wasn’t unbearable, but oh man. The amount of stuff in a whole house definitely requires movers!
As someone who didn’t get movers, I agree with hiring movers! I was quoted around $400 (plus tip) for movers. We decided against it, but ended up paying $150 for truck rental/gas and $60 on pizza and $30 on beer (to thank those who helped us). Our moving day ended up being during a heat wave and was treacherous. So, for an extra $160 or so, it would have been TOTALLY worth it to get movers.
Although I find this list would definitely vary depending on whether you are renting or buying a new place. For example, the furniture pads are a great idea but not as life-changing for a renter (sorry, landlord!)
Hahaha I totally agree – things are different when you’re renting the place for sure! And you know what, that totally reminds me that all in we probably paid like, $200 in cash tips to different services over the course of the move (v. much including delivery guys bringing us greasy food!) and I’d prioritize and include it in any future moving budget. When people make my life as easy as movers do, I prefer to throw money at them to the extent of my ability, lol. (Not that we like, grossly over-tipped, but I’d say we fell on the generous side of things!)
See, mail forwarding was a life-saver for my VERY ABSENT MINDED partner. He had important health related stuff and GOVERNMENT SERVICES he swore he updated but never went through. I 100% recommend mail forwarding if you’re moving with another person who isn’t the most…reliable with that sort of thing.
We didn’t do movers because I “hired” some strapping friends of mine instead, but also apartment –> condo means there’s not that many big ticket items. That and we bought a real NOT-HAND-ME-DOWN couch and it was delivered a month later. SO WORTH IT.
It’s funny because literally today we got some things in the mail that had been properly forwarded. It’s like they *knew* I wrote this and wanted to prove me wrong.
I’m still giving mail forwarding the side eye, but it *might* end up being not the worst money we spent in the long run (to be honest, it’ll never outstrip that freaking pillow.) It’s just like, SO expensive. SO EXPENSIVE!
Mail forwarding is free, or like $1, in the US, so I didn’t worry about that. Having just moved, we didn’t get movers, and it worked since we had generous friends help, but next time I am hoping to get relocated for work and get relocation benefits to get movers. I still probably wouldn’t pay for it out of pocket (I’m too cheap)
My favorite purchase in our new place is my $200 rug from target, it’s beautiful and ties the whole room together. It wasn’t strictly a need, but it makes me so happy.
$1?!?!?! See, that is a mail service that values “getting people the right mail”. It ran us like… $95-ish dollars for two names at one address for a year?
Now I’m jealous that you guys have Target AND good, cheap mail forwarding, lol. But that’s actually a really good note – we have a few rugs I don’t love, and we’re going to see my side of the family in upstate NY soon. I’ll have to add Target to my list of places to visit while we’re there! (JK it’s not a list it just says “Chipotle” on a piece of paper.)
I was going to say mail forwarding is cheap in the US. I couldn’t remember how much it cost but I know I didn’t question doing it so it must not have been much. When I moved into my house from a 1 bedroom apartment there were a couple people telling me I would have to buy so much stuff right away and I think that is a misconception. I made a list of “wants” before/after I moved in and have slowly been working my way though them over the last year. Personally, I think you know more what you want and need after you have been in a house for a while. Yes I had some bare walls for a while but I’m glad I didn’t rush to buy decor.
We hired a painter to paint all the rooms (except bathrooms, which will wait until we renovate them) including ceilings, before we filled them with furniture. Sooo worth it to get it done without shuffling things and a huge time saver!
I can’t even imagine painting ceilings myself, I really can’t! And I completely agree that getting painters would have been a thing we did if we didn’t love the colour they had chosen in the house already – I mean, you saw how it took me three years to paint three rooms at the old place, lol.
Movers are so worth the cost. Just to save your back if nothing else. I’m not 21 years old anymore. And more importantly, neither is my back. I can’t deal with moving anymore. And neither should my friends. One of the joys of getting older and having good jobs is that you can pay strangers to do the heavy lifting (literally here) for you. No more having to pay friends with beer and pizza. Your physical and mental health will totally thank you after the fact.
And they are typically insured in case they break something. Your friends won’t help you out if they break anything.
Yes! The insurance was a HUGE factor for us – we actually have a few things that we care enough about / spent enough money on that we wanted any damage to be covered, not to mention any potential holes in drywall fixed, lol. (Which let’s be real, is not a thing you can ask of generous friends who are already giving up their Saturday!)
Gosh I really wish movers were an option for our upcoming move! I doubt I could convince a company to go from Southern to Northern Ontario though. So uhaul it is!
Mail forwarding better get its crap together! I’ll need its services sooner rather than later.
Who did you go with for the movers?
I’m just thinking, I’d be worried using them because I’ve heard of horror stories of moving companies holding people’s belonging hostage because they do a bait and switch. They tell you it will cost $X dollars and then tell you its actually more because the weight was more than what was claimed (I haven’t used movers, so I don’t know the process) it would be. And eventually the person succumbs to the ransom demand so they get there things back.
Depending on how large or heavy the items are, and the travel distance, I’m just thinking it might make sense to get a cube van (5 tonne truck) and do it yourself and hopefully nice friends/family 🙂
But would love to know which company you used and if you recommend them for when the day comes from me 🙂
Also, can you elaborate on this mail forwarding thing? Its a service? Provided by whom? Canada Post?
Congrats on the engagement!
Space heaters in the winter! OMG it was a life saver and probably helped me save some dollars when I only need to heat the rooms I am spending time in.
Now in the summer, I’d like to get myself an A/C also!
I was going to hire move in cleaners before moving into my home but I found that the house was cleaned quite well by the sellers already! So I’m happy that I didn’t spend that money on move in cleaners if you say it wasn’t worth it! 😀
Lol! We got mail forwarding too and were also thoroughly disappointed with the accuracy. We even got mail from the NEW owners sent to our house which was now two hours away. When we called Canada Post to ask them how we should get the mail back to the new owners at our original address they couldn’t tell us. Isn’t mail their job?!?! Shouldn’t they know?!?!?!
Movers are THE BEST! I would add rugs. I have (and prefer) hardwood floors, but it’s hard for my dogs to jump up on the couch or the bed from hardwood. They need rugs to get purchase so they can get on the furniture with me. I have a 5 x 7 rug in the living room and a bathmat next to the bed for them. It needs to stick in place without leaving marks on the floor. I tried a more expensive, shaggy rug in the bedroom that shed like crazy. I got rid of it for a $15 bathmat.
I’m literally getting the keys to my new place in two weeks. It’s a condo so it’s bit different, but this was so helpful!
I’m so glad to hear that! Yay! And smaller spaces would definitely be an adjustment, but I’m glad it was still helpful – congrats on the soon-to-be keys!
A big reason we’re still in our (sort of crappy) rental is because moving itself costs so much. Even though we had friends help us out when R and I first moved in together, we’ve accumulated so much more stuff that I wouldn’t feel right asking our friends to move that much stuff!
When I was single and moved from one apartment to another, I hired a guy off of Kijiji. He and his friend did a good job and were totally worth it – until he wanted to charge me more for paying by cheque instead of cash. I told him he could either take my cheque for the amount we agreed upon or he could wait in his van while I drove to the bank. He reluctantly took my cheque and deposited it right away.
Oh my gosh that sounds like kind of a nightmare – I’m so sorry that happened! And I 100% know that “this is way too much to ask friends to move” feeling, lol.