Essentials for a New Home: What to Buy
A few weeks ago my family made the exciting decision to purchase a new home in Charleston, SC and I am ecstatic! After traveling to Charleston back in April, I instantly fell in love with the city. The people of Charleston were all so welcoming, the lowcountry was beautiful and there is so much to see and do in Charleston. I felt an immense pull inside of me to make this city a more permanent part of our family’s story and after taking another visit, this time with Mike, we decided to pull the trigger and purchase a home in Charleston! I cannot wait to make this house our home through decorating, sprucing and lots of love. My goal is to decorate our Charleston home in a classic, coastal style with a focus on blues, sage green and neutrals.
What to Buy for a New House
We will still be keeping our home in Maryland and splitting our time between the two locations. Therefore, I will be purchasing many home items to make this new house our second home. When we’ve moved in the past, I could simply bring our bedroom furniture, kitchen essentials, bathroom basics and living room decor from one house to the next. But, since this will be our second home, we will be starting over. It’s almost like deciding what to buy for your first house or apartment after college or purchasing essentials for a vacation home. Luckily, with a few years and a few homes under my belt, I am able to rely on my previous experiences as a homeowner to help guide me as I buy essentials for our new home. Our Charleston home has two living rooms, a dining room, a kitchen, a home office, two full bathrooms plus a powder room, and three bedrooms - the master bedroom, the boys’ bedroom (a shared kids room) and a guest room. Obviously, there will be many new items that we will need to purchase for every room in this new home and as you know, shopping is what I do best. I couldn’t wait to get started! I used many of my previous posts as guides to help create a list of essentials for our new home. These home decor and Amazon guides are the ones I found to be most helpful:
How to Decorate with Neutrals
75 Best-Selling Products on Amazon
Must-Have Basics for a New or Vacation Home
When I posed the idea of sharing what products we bought for our new home on my Instagram stories, I was flooded with positive responses encouraging me to share more. So, I figured I would put together a full blog post sharing my favorite essentials to purchase for a new home. I’ll be breaking it down room-by-room and discussing the best basics to buy for a bathroom, kitchen and bedroom. These home essentials are all items that would be wonderful whether you’re purchasing your first home, decorating a vacation home, or moving into a condo or apartment after college. They are tried and true essentials, most of which I own and love and I’m constantly recommending to others. And the great news is many of these new home essentials are affordable and can be purchased on Amazon, making for a quick delivery and free shipping!
Bathroom Essentials for a New Home
The bathroom is one of the first rooms that I tend to stock up and purchase supplies for in a new home. I do this because whether you’re decorating a new home for yourself or supplying items for a vacation home, whoever is staying in the house will certainly need bathroom supplies. There are so many bathroom basics that every home needs including toothbrushes and toothpaste, makeup remover and face wash and shower supplies. Nobody wants to be spending the night in a new home without theses essential bathroom items. The great news is that all of these bathroom essentials I purchased for our Charleston home are $20 and under! These extra soft toothbrushes and this intense stain whitening toothpaste are two of my most commonly ordered Amazon products and they also make my list of carry-on packing essentials. My favorite shower essentials include this colour refreshing shampoo (a must for blondes) and this soothing body wash for babies and kids. Since this is our second home, I am trying to keep the costs at a minimum and decided to purchase this super affordable infrared hair dryer and I’ve been blown away with the results (pun intended!) And no bathroom is complete without some facial cleansing and care essentials. This micellar makeup remover is my favorite way to remove makeup at the end of the day, followed up with these luxurious and affordable gold hydrogel eye patches. If you stock your new home or vacation home with these bathroom essentials you’re sure to be off to a great start!
Kitchen Essentials for a New Home
When it comes to kitchen essentials, I typically prefer to stick to neutrals as much as possible. If you’re also a fan of neutrals, be sure to check out my How to Decorate With Neutrals Guide where I share my favorite neutral home decor items room-by-room. Kitchen essentials for a new home include glassware, dinnerware, silverware, kitchen towels, basic appliances, pots and pans, cooking utensils and dishwashing supplies. Obviously, there are quite a few, so I immediately got started. I bought these romantic water glasses and glass tumblers because I love the vintage and classic vibes they give off and the affordable price tag! This Amazon Basics 18-Piece White Porcelain Dinnerware Set is beautiful and an excellent price. I’ll be pairing it with this stainless steel silverware and these pretty white flower-shaped bowls, which are perfect for the boys’ cereal, but also double as ramekins for baking. After a ridiculous amount of research (I’m talking over an hour), I decided on this neutral colored kitchen utensils set and I am very excited about it! These blue and white kitchen towels are one of my Top 75 Best-Selling Amazon Products, so obviously they made the checklist for kitchen essentials in our new home. If you’ve been here for awhile, you’ve probably heard me rave about the chemical-free Caraway Cookware Set and I couldn’t resist purchasing a set for our new home, plus they are currently over $100 off! Lastly, don’t forget to cross small kitchen appliances off of your kitchen essentials checklist. Some of my favorites I’ve purchased for our new home include this white and rose gold air fryer (adorable and affordable), a must-have Vitamix blender and of course our favorite coffee brewer.
Bedroom Essentials for a New Home
When planning what to buy for the bedrooms in a new home, it’s important to take into account who will be using each room. Will there be kids bedrooms? Will guests be staying in these rooms? What items will provide the most comfort in each room? As I started to make a checklist of essentials for our new home, these were the questions I asked myself in regards to bedrooms. Our Charleston home will have three bedrooms, one will be the master bedroom, another will be a shared kids room and the last will be a guest bedroom. Since a bedroom is the place where we all go to rest and relax, I put some extra thought and care into which essentials to purchase for the bedrooms in our new home. For the boys’ room, I purchased this twin over full bunk bed with a trundle underneath. It has excellent reviews and would be great for a vacation home or anyone wanting extra beds for guests to sleep in. These cooling bed pillows are everyone’s favorite in our family and will be on each bed in our new home (they also made the cut on my 75 Best-Selling Amazon Products List). These extremely soft bedsheets and this soft sage green blanket also made the essentials list for our new home. We have these Casper Sleep Element Mattresses on every bed in our current home and I also purchased multiple for our new home, which tells you just how wonderful they are! Last, but certainly not least, I purchased this neutral bed for our master bedroom and this neutral bed for our guest bedroom, both on sale!
Checklist of Essentials for a New Home
I hope this buying guide for essentials for a new home helps anyone who might have recently purchased a home, apartment or condo. My biggest recommendation when considering what to buy for a new home is to write down a list of the must-have items in each room - bathrooms, bedrooms, kitchen, and living room. What are the items that you will need the entire first week of living in your new home? Start with these items and go from there. Essentials for a new home should be the products that you must have in order to live comfortably for this amount of time. Once you’re in the home and have more time, you will be able to move on to other aspects of making your house a home, such as decorating or doing any renovations. When this time comes, here are a few additional blog posts that I highly recommend checking out:
How to Decorate With Neutrals
Best Area Rugs for Every Room and Every Budget
How to Decorate with Throw Pillows
Are there any essentials for a new home that I’m forgetting about? What are your top recommendations for things to buy for a new home? I plan to continue updating this blog post as I purchase more items for our Charleston home and I hope it serves as a helpful guide for anyone moving into a new house!