Once you have boxes unpacked, it’s time to organize.

This is one of my favorite things to do but I know not everyone enjoys this process (a-hem, but please don’t look in my guest closet right now – on my to-do list). If you take it little by little, a drawer here, a closet there, cleaning and decluttering are made easier because everything has – or should have – a place.

When you’re renting home, you might have smaller spaces to work with, so maximizing every square foot you have is important. But once you do, know that it will make being content easier – at least it has for me 🙂

An easy way to make the place feel like yours and make you more content where you are… paint!

I’ve never painted any walls in our homes {we’ve been fortunate to have neutral walls for the most part like here and here}, but I sure have painted lots of furniture – almost every piece actually.  Paint is an inexpensive way to brighten up a space and who doesn’t love a clean, fresh start in a new home?  If you do consider painting the walls, make sure you talk to your landlord first and get a green light on your project.

Have you ever painted a rental?

Both times we’ve moved, I’ve made a big effort to get boxes unpacked as quickly as possible.

I find it hard to feel like I’m at home when I’m staring at cardboard and newspaper that once wrapped breakables.  And if I don’t feel comfortable in my environment, I get frustrated rather quickly.

But that’ just me. 😉

With our last move, I decided to keep all of our boxes in the guest room, and one by one, I was able to make them disappear over our first few days in the space.

Some people will find other ways to begin settling in, but for me, unpacking is one of the quickest ways to start really enjoying new home.