A New Home = New Habits

Welcome home!

Well, welcome to unpacking boxes, organizing and starting new habits in your new home.

Regardless, if it’s your first or eleventh time to move, moving is a challenge. According to the United State Census Bureau, the average American will move 11.7 times in their life. As a graduate student, I have moved six times and I am preparing to move a seventh time in the next few months.

It can be difficult the first few months to settle into an unfamiliar area, make new friends and most importantly start fresh habits. So, here are five tips to help you make new habits in your new home.

1.  Habit formulas are your secret weapon
   Before you moved, it might have been easy to know once I get to a specific location, I will complete a certain action. Yet now, all of the locations you used as guiding prompts for your habits could be hours or even states away. For the first few months of living in your new area, use this habit formula instead: “when I finish cleaning the kitchen, I will go workout” or “when I get off work, I will go home and change into workout clothes.” You can customize this formula to match any habit you want to begin. The base formula is “after I [insert current habit], I will [insert new habit].”

2. And Poof! The Mess is Gone    
   Moving is my least favorite thing to do. It is a long process from packing the items, loading the boxes into a vehicle, unloading the boxes into a home and then unpacking the boxes. I feel as though I live in a construction zone for several weeks even after I have moved. Yet, once all of my items find a home, the first habit I implement is never leaving a room untidy. This creates the unconscious habit of cleaning the area each day. It helps keep your home clean for those surprise guests who are anxious to visit your new place or for those friends who planned a surprise housewarming.

3. Decorating with Habits
   The best part of moving into a new home is that it is like a blank canvas. You can design the home to match your style and personality. You can also design the home to reflect your habits. If you always wanted to start the habit of taking vitamins in the morning, now is your chance. When designing your kitchen consider adding a place specifically for your vitamins in a visible location like the kitchen counter. If you place the vitamins on the kitchen counter where they are visible and easy to access, you have increased your chances of starting and completing the habit each day.

4. Goodbye, bad habits
   If you want to start new good habits, you need to make them easy and accessible. Similarly, if you want to eliminate bad habits, you need to make them more difficult to access. Maybe you love an unhealthy snack, but you always fall into the temptation of eating it. Instead of leaving the tempting snack on the counter, move it to the back of the cabinet or pantry where it takes some effort to get. This trick will reduce the amount of times you fall into the temptation of the unhealthy snack because it will require more effort to go find the snack.

5. Keeping your habit score
   Lastly, create a habit scorecard. By creating this habit scorecard, you can become aware of the habits you want to create in your new home. This will make you aware of the habits that are good and those that are not so good. It can help you reduce the bad habits and improve your good habits. For a scorecard template, head to this link.  
   
   

Moving into a new home is an exciting time. The new space is a blank canvas waiting for fresh habits be discovered. These new habits will help your new location become a home. Happy moving and habit forming!

For more information or a deeper dive into habit forming, check out this book after you have unpacked all of your boxes.

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A Side Note: Bloggers
One of the blog platforms I enjoy keeping up with is PR Weekly. This platform has a multitude of bloggers, so I am able to read a vast array of writing styles in one place. I also like reading Platform Magazine, a publication produced on UA’s campus. I enjoy this platform because it is written from a young professional’s standpoint with seasoned professionals serving as primary sources. I had the opportunity to write for Platform during my undergrad so it will always be a favorite of mine. A non-PR based blogger I enjoy reading is Gracie Valentine. She is a lifestyle, advice-based blogger. She has several books and write for several well-established organizations. Her style is unique because it reflects her voice and her life experiences.