Congratulations! You’ve closed on your new home! Now the real work begins. Before you pack up your bags and hire a moving company, you should make a running list of what needs to be done before you move in. While you may have a lot on your plate, you don’t have to let it overwhelm you. If you stay focused on the priorities, you’ll be settled in and enjoying your house in no time.

Create a Checklist 

Be ready to jot down all of your to-do’s to help you keep track of what has to be done before you get comfortable into your new place. Your checklist should involve home security checks, learning about your utility system, the best way to clean your new home before you move in, inspections and energy audits. Once you cover these basics, you’ll be able to move onto buying essential items for your new house and knowing the best time to buy some of the bigger purchases, like appliances.

Home Safety, Security Checks and Replacements  

One of the first tasks is making sure your home is safe from outside intruders. These days setting up a DIY security system is easy considering all the smart security tech available. It’s a good idea to change the locks and deadbolts because it’s hard to know how many copies of those keys could be floating around. You might consider smart locks, so you don’t have to worry about keys. And then there are the indoor threats to factor into your safety checks like carbon monoxide and fires. With a little research, you can target the best locations in your house to install a carbon monoxide detector and smoke alarms.

Get to Know Home Utilities and Systems 

Once you have the utilities set up in your home, it’s important to spend some time understanding how they all work. That’ll help you identify areas where you can make those systems more efficient. Whether you’re learning how to prevent your pipes from freezing, your basement from flooding with a backup sump pump, or if you need to connect a new circuit in your breaker box, preparation is everything.

Preparing the Home With Cleaning To-Do’s 

A new house may look clean, but it could still benefit from a good scrub from top to bottom. Cleaning your new home and learning tips from the pros before moving in will get rid of hidden dirt and dust as well as pests like cockroaches. Plus, it’ll be much easier to clean before you unpack all those boxes and start moving furniture.

• Best Household Cleaning Supplies and Products: Do you know which products are best to clean your wooden table or that you can use a buffer to remove shower door scum? Know which supplies and cleaning products are optimal to making your house shine.

Storage and Organization  

You can’t live out of boxes forever. As you unpack, you’ve got a chance to get control over the clutter right away, so it’s important to have storage and organization solutions ready to go. Implementing these solutions can help you save space, which in turn can make cleaning much easier.

Inspection 

The report prepared by your home inspector is a great starting place for deciding which projects will need your attention right away. Beyond that, use your own judgment. Give the house a thorough inspection of your own to determine what needs to be addressed and when. Using a few, simple DIY inspection tools, you might be able to ascertain some issues with your walls, plumbing and more without a professional.

Energy Audit 

You don’t want to be shocked about your first power bill, so one of the first things to do is give your new home an energy audit. Whether you choose to hire someone or do it yourself, this will help you identify trouble spots in your heating and cooling system and other utilities and get them fixed. And if you really don’t like surprises, we have a list of 20 things that you can do — anything from replacing a furnace filter to cleaning your refrigerator coils — that will keep your house running efficiently and give you peace of mind.

New Homeowner Products

There’s no shortage of things you could buy for your new house. It’s a list that could get long and very expensive pretty quickly. The key here is to focus in on what you need. Use this list for guidance and know what to avoid.

New Homeowner Resources 

If you have any questions on products that you’re considering purchasing for your home, these national home improvement chains are tried-and-true resources.