Moving Into a New Apartment: How I Shop for New Decor + Get Organized
We're moving into a new apartment! And while we're SO excited, moving out is an undeniably chaotic experience. There's shopping for my new apartment, preparing to move everything over to the new space, and trying to stay organized throughout it all... it's a lot.
I know you know what I mean about the chaos of moving! So in this video, I'm sharing how I've been getting organized before packing a single box. There's so much you can do before you start actually moving to make the process feel so much easier!
So if you want to hear my moving tips and tricks, how I shop for decor, and specifically how online shopping for home decor can be done in an ultra-organized way (I'm talking about how to create a beautiful visual shopping list for yourself in a Milanote moodboard), then watch on!
Video Transcript ↓
So we all know that moving into a new apartment is… a lot.
When moving, you kind of have to embrace the fact that there will be a certain level of chaos involved. But that doesn't mean the chaos can't be controlled. And it can actually be fun! Invigorating, even.
So in this video, I'm going to share exactly what I've been doing to prepare for our move into a new apartment.
I'm going to show you how…
I've approached shopping for new furniture and decor for this new space
I've been organizing it all
I’ve been preparing for the actual move without packing a single box yet!
My hope is that you can take this process I'm about to share and basically just copy/paste it into your own life, and bring a certain level of calm and organization to the inevitable chaos of a move or a redecorating situation.
1. Making a Moodboard
Moodboarding can be such an effective way to visualize how decor and furniture might look together!
I personally didn't create a moodboard for our moving process because we're keeping pretty much all of our current furniture and decor, and basically just transferring it over to the new apartment. So I didn't really need to create a moodboard to visualize how things might look together.
However, if you're buying lots of new furniture and decor, I think that it's very effective to make a moodboard filled with the things you're thinking about buying so that you can kind of get a sense of what they'll look like together.
And I show you how exactly how to create a decor moodboard in my workshop, Decorate Your Dream Apartment Without Spending Money on the Wrong Decor for You! It's a one hour free workshop where I share three key steps to decorating your apartment.
And one of those steps is moodboard creation! I give you a whole tutorial on how to make a moodboard in Canva and actually build a mood board for you in the workshop, so you can really get a sense of how easy it is and how fun it is!
In this FREE, 1-hour workshop, I teach you how to…
Discover your personal style so you can decorate a space that feels like YOU
Create mood boards to help you visualize what your apartment could look like before buying things
Shop for decor in a way that will save you money and allow you to buy things that actually fit your space and your personality
If all that sounds like exactly what you need to create the dreamy apartment you’ve been yearning for, click here to watch the workshop!
So now, onto what I have been doing to prepare for this move!
2. Gathering Messy Links
This phase of the moving preparation process involved shopping for the new pieces of decor and furniture we're going to need for the new space. And this is what I'm calling the “Messy Links” phase.
First, I started thinking about the various pieces of decor and furniture that we’re going to need for the new space. I went to my go-to sites like Wayfair, World Market, Target… and just simply typed in what I was looking for (“desks”, “nightstands”, etc). You can keep this so simple!
So as I was finding all these various things, this is where the messy linking comes in. Anytime I found something that I liked, I just opened my Notes app, pasted the link, and that's it!
This was just to make it so that I could shop for decor in a nice, loose, creative way without worrying about the structure of staying organized - or at least hyper-organized (which is what we're about to get to in a second!). It felt good to have a nice messy approach, just so that I could freely look for decor online.
3. Creating a Visual Shopping List in Milinote
After gathering links to pieces of decor and furniture in a more messy and loose way, I took all the stuff that I had found and brought it together in a more visually effective way.
And this is where a new love of mine comes in, and this new lover's name is… Milinote.
If you haven't looked into Milinote, I highly suggest you do! I use it to stay organized for so many different things.
And in this video, I shared my screen and showed you exactly how I used Milinote to create a visual shopping list of all the decor and furniture we’re thinking about buying. If you want to see this in action, definitely watch the video!
By using Milinote to organize your decor shopping, you end up with a visually pleasing board that displays the prices, the photos, and the links to each piece of decor and furniture all in one place.
Here’s what my shopping list in Milinote looks like!
It's basically a shopping list on steroids. You have all the information you need in one place, and it'll help you make decisions on what you buy because you're seeing it all laid out visually.
I can tell you from experience in creating this board that it has been my savior while shopping for decor. It's also been an amazing way to show my boyfriend, Kobee, what I'm liking, and then we can both collaborate on what we're finding!
4. Planning a Move in Asana
Now, let's dive into the final phase of my moving preparation process, which uses another program that I love very dearly; it's called Asana. And I’ve been using Asana to plan out everything we need to get done for this move!
While Milinote is great for the visual side of getting organized for this process, Asana has been awesome for the logistics.
And if you want to get a visual on how I’ve been using Asana for this, be sure to watch this video!
Basically, I went into Asana, created a new project called our Moving Plan, and then put in some sections:
Important dates and times (when we need to pay our first month’s rent, when we pick up our keys, when we scheduled the Uhaul, etc.)
The first steps that we needed to take (setting up an account in our building’s online portal, signing up for a parking pass, reserving the freight elevator for when we move in our large furniture, etc)
Categories for the furniture and decor we’re going to move over there; big stuff (our couch, bed, etc), medium sized stuff (rugs, tables, our TV, etc), and then the small stuff (the little pieces of decor - clothing, kitchen stuff, bathroom stuff). Basically, everything we're moving has been categorized in Asana.
If you find intense gratification and checking things off on a to-do list, by the way, then Asana will be your best friend.
And what's also cool about Asana is you can see your project in a bunch of different ways. So you can do the Kanban style and you can also toggle over to the calendar view, which is amazing for any of your date-specific moving tasks.
As you can see, we can easily, at a glance, see when we have to pay our first month's rent, when we pick up the keys, when the Ikea delivery is coming, when we're getting the U-Haul, and so on.
Asana makes it so that you can take everything going on in your brain and everything you have to do for your move and places it into one system. I feel so much more prepared and so much more in control! And I feel confident that we have everything that we need to do planned out, and we're not going to overlook anything.
So if you're a nerd for organization tools like I am, you should definitely check out Asana if you haven't already!
So there you have it, that was our moving preparation process. As of right now, we just kind of have to sit back and wait for Tuesday, which is when we pick up our keys!
Let me know in the comments below, how do you prepare for moves? Do you get super organized or do you kind of fly by the seat of your pants? Let me know below.
And if you’re still not sure how to create your dream apartment and you're wondering things like:
“How do I discover my personal style so that I can make these good choices for my decorating?”
“How do I become more confident in my interior styling choices?”
“How do I mix styles?”
“How do I actually arrange things in my apartment?”
Then I got you covered…
If you're wanting to dive deeper into learning about how to style your apartment step by step, that's where my online course Small Apartment Styling School comes in!
Small Apartment Styling School basically holds your hand through your styling process and tells you exactly what to do step-by-step, so by the end of the course you feel like you know your style, you know what to buy, and you know how to place it in your apartment with confidence.
Imagine living in an apartment that actually boosts your mood everyday and makes you feel welcome, and makes you feel a sense of belonging and being at home.
Just because you rent your space doesn't mean you can't own your style, and Small Apartment Styling School helps you do that!
My current students have been a raving about how helpful the course was for decorating their apartments and I am so proud of what they've achieved after enrolling in the course!
Small Apartment Styling School will help you decorate your apartment step by step, including:
Figuring out your personal style
Choosing a color palette
Mixing different interior styles
Learning about the different interior styles that are out there and which ones might be a good fit for you
Arranging and accessorizing your apartment room by room - living room, bedroom, kitchen, bathroom.
All of this and more is in Small Apartment Styling School, so if you want to learn more and join the waitlist for the next time it opens for enrollment, click here!
For daily glimpses into my studio apartment life, you can follow me on Instagram @moda.misfit.
And for regular doses of apartment styling tips and small space decor inspiration, subscribe to my YouTube channel and hit the bell to be notified when a new video goes up every week.