As you may or may not know, my husband and I recently purchased our first home! While it is exciting, I wish I did the research first. Outdated homes are a lot of work!
When moving, whether it is to a new rental or something you own, there is always stress involved. So much to pack, organize, and still somehow manage your day to day life with work, kids and pets. I moved twice in two years, first to a new rental, then our house. Here is a list of things I either did do or things I wish I did, when we initially moved to our new home.

Change exterior locks
One of the things I was extremely insistent on after the purchase of our home, was changing the exterior locks. Previous owners, realtors, and potentially construction folk all have had access to the keys to your home. For some peace of mind it is smart to replace it right away.
We decided to wait a few weeks to replace ours, only because we wanted to paint the door a more fun color. I also wanted to replace the ugly brass handle from the 80’s to something more my taste.
If you like the front door just the way it is, a lock smith can switch it out easily for you!
Clean clean clean
Unless your new home is brand new, I suggest cleaning and scrubbing the whole house before moving furniture in. During the first house tour, there were rugs in most of the rooms, and a lot of furniture still in the house. This meant we couldn’t see how dirty the house really was.
Due to the house smelling like old food during our last walk through before getting possession of the keys, we had already agreed to getting a shampooer and scrubbing the whole place down. And man I’m glad we did. The original 80’s carpet definitely has lived way past its expiration date.
If it is in your budget, I recommend replacing carpet and/or flooring before moving in. Not only will you know the floor is clean and all hidden messes have been ripped up, but you wont have to deal with moving furniture around the house later for installation.

Replace light switches and outlets
There reason as to why this is something that should be on your list of things to do is two fold.
First off, many homes have mismatched plate covers and switch types or they are dirty. While this is just a visual issue, it’ll make the home feel updated and cleaner.
Double checking the wiring is safe. When buying a used home, you never really know what is hiding behind the walls. before the age of the internet, most people hired professionals to handle daunting projects. Now, everyone thinks they can do something themselves. The issue is, there is a lot of wrong information on the internet, which could lead to fire hazards.
Make sure you know what you’re doing if you plan on reinstalling the outlets and switches yourself!