Make your New Home YOURS

7 ways a Military Spouse Settles in to a New Home

The home. What makes it yours? What is it that makes it the place we want to be after a long day?  Many would argue it’s the people, many would argue it’s a zip code; I would argue it’s the personal touches we place and culture we build in it as we live our lives there. 

Hey y’all, I’m Meghan and if this is your first time here, welcome to my blog!  AR bound is a name I came up with because eventually, my husband will be done with the active duty lifestyle, at which time we will go “home” to Arkansas.  Well, something I think about often is how I can make all the temporary places we live: feel like home.

In 2021, we moved together twice, and I moved alone once.

I went home to be with my family during a deployment.  I was pregnant and my husband deployed almost immediately upon arrival to our new duty station at Fort Bragg.  Then thank God we both returned to North Carolina following the birth of our first sweet angel.  It took a second for us to get settled here, but here are the seven ways I made our new home, start to feel like ours. 

To read more about our life as an active duty family, click here. But, without further ado, here’s how to make your new home feel like yours!

First, I started making meals in our kitchen DAILY. This makes the new home feel like YOURS!!

There are two ways to feed your family: you can cook, or pay someone else to.  Touching and interacting with your home, giving each room purpose—use, is a great way to start to recognize it as your own.  Once you get to know your oven, sink, and pantry, suddenly you’ve created a rhythm!  One that is yours.  

There is nothing like a systematic approach to make your home start to feel familiar.  Think about it.  When you cook in someone else’s kitchen, it couldn’t be more obvious that you’re a fish out of water.  Not knowing where anything is increases the difficulty of getting that job done!  Problem solving your way through everything couldn’t be any more of a fun sucker. That’s why to make your home YOURS, you need to get familiar.  I find the kitchen is one of the earliest places to achieve this familiarity because it checks a box that you already have to take care of: your family has to eat! 

Second, make your bed.

Inviting location to end your day? Check.  Necessary in every single home.  It is so important to have your bedroom be a place of relaxation!  Having a room that at a minimum has a nice looking place to land at the end of a long day is definitely a good game plan!

When everything is still in boxes, if you at least have a spot you can see is nice and squared away, that is going to be a total win.  I know of nothing worse than walking in to my bedroom and there being a pile of laundry that needs to be put away at 8 pm.  So, dressing your bed up with 800 cozy pillows isn’t a necessity, but not having a pile of work awaiting you at the end of your day definitely is. 

Third, have a cozy spot to sit in your new home.

A nice spot to park it at the end of a long day.  A little table next to it you can sit your nightly tea on, grab a book, and fade away.  Having nowhere to relax can really make you want to head to a coffee shop rather than unwind in the place that is YOURS.  If your cozy chair is filled with your unpacked boxes, this can really rob your home of relaxation.  Keep it cozy by making sure there is at least one spot each member of the family can retreat.

Fourth, add the art that makes your heart sing.

There’s nothing that quite claims a space like a hole in the wall.  If your renting, of course they have all sorts of ways now to get around that with command hooks etc.  My point being, an empty wall just looks sad.  Don’t let your walls look sad!  Even if you’ll only be there a short period of time, small touches like wall hangings keep your place feeling inviting.  I’m not advocating for you to hang a whole gallery wall in a place you’ll only be for a month, but I am saying a few bits of personality here and there make a place feel cozy. 

Fifth, find a scent for your new home.

Do you live in a cabin?  A cottage?  A farmhouse?  A generic starter home?  A ranch style home?  An apartment?  Whatever the roof over your head may look like, know that the way it smells can change your whole perception of how great it is.  

Seriously, have you ever walked into a boutique, or home store that is just doing it right.  You feel like you want to grab a coffee, sit down, read a book, and never leave?  THAT IS CALLED MARKETING.  And guess who bought your home, you did.  So don’t stop selling it to yourself, make it enticing to every sense. 

My personal preference is to use candles, but I know people love their diffusers for this purpose as well.  Whatever your method, know that a nice smell automatically raises the spirits of all who enter it!  It makes your home YOURS.

Sixth, make your new home yours by bringing in some nature!

What kind of flowers do you like? What kind of trees do you find have beautiful greenery?  Do you have a green thumb?  Cut some of the flowers out of your flower bed or prune your shrubs and bundle it and hang it on your door.  If you love to grow things yourself then of course you can start with some house plants!

I just know having some life in the home is definitely something I consider wonderful and energizing. Even if we are still living out of boxes, if there are flowers on the table, I don’t care!

And lastly, I’ll add those cozy touches like blankets and pillows. 

Now, I’m going to be honest.  I have a dog who will literally destroy anything in her path if allowed, so my pillows sit tucked away at most times in my dining room chairs.  But let me tell you, when this pup goes to meet Jesus, by darned I will be letting the pillows rain.  She is a good girl, but boy do I miss dressing my furniture with chopped pillows! 

One day, they will return with all the cozy vengeance they can muster.  If you don’t have a destructive monster in your home, pillows and blankets can really break your new home in and make it your own. 

Whether it be personality or practicality, I believe all these things come together to make a beautiful and welcoming new home.  I hope your new home will soon start to feel like the place your family looks forward to being! Certainly, I’m an advocate for getting in there and really making it your own!  I hope these tips will help get you settled in, wherever you may be! Thanks for stopping by AR bound!