You’ve been working toward this home remodel for so long, you can’t believe it’s finally happening. In just a week or two, your contractor and their labor force will be crawling all over your home, knocking down walls and installing new cabinets to create the home of your dreams. There’s just one problem: What are you going to do with all your stuff?
Most contractors advise homeowners to remodel before they move into a property, but few homeowners have that foresight (or that cash flow). If you are about to embark on a major renovation project, you need to have a plan for handling all your belongings, especially your bigger pieces like furniture and appliances. Here’s a quick guide to help you navigate your options for creating a perfectly empty home before a remodel.
Get Rid of It
This is undeniably the most fun option — but it is also potentially the most expensive. Still, if you know that your current furniture just won’t work with the brand-new style of your home, it might give you peace of mind to start eliminating your old furniture and acquiring new pieces that fit better in your updated space. Additionally, it might be worth your money to sell all your furniture and buy new if you are updating a home that is across the country or would otherwise require high expenses to ship and store.
You don’t have to throw all your old furnishings in the trash. Instead, you can use services like Craigslist and OfferUp to sell them to other home decorators. Alternatively, if your old furniture is in excellent condition and still valuable, you might consider contacting consignment stores or used furniture stores in your area; these retailers specialize in furniture and will often provide a better price — if your furniture is worth it.
Then, you need to replace the pieces you get rid of. You can use the same services (i.e. Craigslist, OfferUp, consignment, and used furniture stores) to acquire replacements at low cost, but you might need to tinker with them to get them the exact style you want. Fortunately, it’s relatively easy to paint, attach new hardware and make other modifications to old furniture.
If you are on a budget but disinterested in searching through listings of other people’s furnishings, you might opt for flat-pack furniture, instead. Popularized by IKEA, this furniture style comes disassembled in a flat package, making it less expensive to manufacture and deliver and thus less expensive to purchase. You can put some of your savings toward hiring a Dallas furniture assembly service, which can quickly and competently put your furnishings together, as well as to customized features like fancy feet or cabinet fronts. It’s not difficult to assemble a room full of well-designed, unique furnishings if you know how and where to shop.
Keep It Elsewhere in Your Home
A smart way to remodel is to go from room to room, finishing one part of your home before you start another project somewhere else. First, this allows you to continue living in your home while the renovations take place; secondly, choosing to take your home remodel one room at a time means you can more effectively budget for your projects, so you don’t drain your savings all in one fell swoop, and thirdly, you can avoid feeling overwhelmed by a renovation project, especially if you are trying to DIY some parts of it.
However, perhaps most importantly, it means you can simply shuffle your furniture around to different parts of your home, avoiding the costs of renting storage or relocating furniture to off-site. You might want to cover your furniture in some way to prevent dust and debris from the renovation from settling on your stuff, but if you do have enough space and time to accommodate this method, it’s a good one.
Pay to Store It Off-site
There are more than a few ways to pay for storage, and each method comes with a different price tag as well as a different level of security and safety for your furnishings. Before you commit yourself to any choice regarding your furniture, you should perform plenty of research to understand the costs and the risks.
One option is to rent a storage pod, which is essentially a shipping container delivered to your home. Then, you can move your furnishings inside the pod at your leisure. Once the pod is full, you can use it as an on-site storage building, or you can have the storage company come pick it up. The latter option is better if you are going to have workers crawling around your house and need the extra exterior space. Because you will be packing your own furniture into the pod, you need to be certain to organize it in a way that keeps every piece safe from bumps and scratches. This is especially important if you are having the pod relocated since you don’t want your furniture to shift and cause damage.
Finally, you can rent a storage unit. If you have a high budget and a high concern for the safety of your existing furniture, you can pay movers to help transfer your furniture from your home to the unit; otherwise, you are tasked with finding a means of transport. Most storage facilities have plenty of security on-site to keep your stuff safe for as long as you need to keep it there — but you shouldn’t forget to pick it up, or else your unit might be featured on a show like “Storage Wars.” (which just happens to be a personal favorite of mine!)
You shouldn’t let your furniture be the last thing you think of during a home renovation. By making the right plans ahead of time, you can end up with a beautifully updated room furnished to perfection.
