5 Items to Buy When Moving Into a New Home

Moving is stressful whether you’re packing a U-Haul to go coast-to-coast or simply upgrading to a home with more bedrooms for the kids. Oftentimes, crucial items get lost, either during the moving process or soon after—when the boxes get scattered and the exhaustion settles in. Here are the items you’ll want to have on hand as soon as you’ve moved in:

Flashlights, Candles, Matches
There are some items you can live without for a brief time, but it’s definitely bad news to move in without a stash of flashlights or an assortment of candles and matches easily available. If a sudden thunderstorm strikes and the lights go out before you’re settled in, or there are any other issues with the power, you could be stumbling around in the dark.

Toiletries
One of the first things you’ll want to do after a long, hard day of moving in? Get freshened up. Avoid scrambling around for soap, shampoo and toothpaste at the last minute and ensure that you have basic toiletries on hand. If you aimed to pack light and used these items all up before moving, make sure to stop at the store and pick these up as soon as you can.

Extension Cord
Electrical issues are some of the most common faced by new homeowners, but that doesn’t make them any less frustrating when they happen. Keep an extension cord on hand in case something goes awry during your first few nights. Even if you’re content to wait a few days to change a flickering lightbulb in the upstairs hallway, you’re unlikely to be so patient when you can’t plug in your hair dryer or charge your phone.

Floor Lamps
Rooms that are not well-lit are often considered “a problem for another day,” but the last thing you want to deal with when you’re unpacking as the night sets in is darkness. It’ll slow down the unpacking process and cause extra frustration you don’t need on an already stressful week.

Clocks
In this day and age, analog clocks may as well be obsolete, but it’s still important to have them. Digital clocks can malfunction during power outages, phone batteries can die, and the last thing you want to deal with during a move is not knowing what time it is, risking being late for work.