How do you decide what to do first when you move into a new home?

[Honey1975]

We've recently moved to a bigger house and although we're loving having the extra space, I keep seeing things that need doing & can't decide what to do first.

There is nothing major that needs doing but it is quite tired looking so could do with a paint throughout. We need curtains and furnishings which I'm desperate for as it feels quite cold so am thinking these might make it feel warmer & cosier. But I don't know what furnishings to buy as if we decorate they then might not go.

There are loads of little jobs that need doing too, hooks & shelves down & up in various places, door handles replacing, torn lino floor needs sorting etc.

I'm not very good at prioritisng and think oh i'll do this now and then see something else that needs doing. I am very good at leaving a trail of destruction behind me!

Both dh & I work, we have two youngish dc's and weekends are often busy.

Just wondered if anyone had been through similar and could give advice on how you planned and prioritised things?

No advice but I’m wondering the same when we move next month, I’m going with the idea of completing one room at a time, rather than a bit here and there. Living room is going to be priority as most time spent in there, and the carpet is horrendous... but once we’ve paid to get all that sorted I’m not sure when we can get the rest done - eeek!

We are planning a room at a time and have just just done one downstairs room and it finally feels like home.

Don't do what we did, which was rush to decorate everything and regret our choices a year later!

Work one room at a time, the room you will spend most time in and relax most in. For us that was the living room. We did give the bedroom a lick of paint at the same time, and recarpeted the entire house (to be fair it was flowery or colourful carpets everywhere!)

I've been talking about replacing our door handles for three years now... things just get bumped down the list as you live there longer and think "this needs to change NOW"!

There are different approaches that suit different styles. If you like each room to stand out in unique ways then my approach is not for you! We started with flooring and walls, one unified floor and wall colour throughout. We then did curtains for each room (they do vary). Last we did the big jobs like fixing the kitchen and bathrooms. Small jobs we've done along the way, like changing plastic light fittings for brushed metal ones or plastic track curtain "rails" for nice actual curtain rails.

my advice is to forget about all the little twiddly, finishing touches or minor details and get the shitty, time consuming big jobs done first.

we have recently moved and the walls were a grubby red shade or peachy terracotta in every single room including the hall way.

previously we'd have hired a decorator and taken the financial sting (last house cost 3k to do 2 main living rooms, hall and one bedroom). When we moved, we literally only had emergency funds left which we couldn't spend, so we have had to decorate ourselves. we have done two rooms so far and its been tiring but better to do as soon as we moved while we hadn't fully unpacked.

hate the rest of my house but at least i have lovely soft white dining and living rooms.

Start top to bottom so you don't have to traipse all the decorating stuff through the freshly decorated areas, potentially damaging it.

I also agree with redmark in relation to getting the big crappy Jons such as paining done first. Accessories are the last thing to worry about if there are bigger jobs at hand