A catalog of recommendations

Bought a new home? have too much on your plate to figure out? This blog post is dedicated to all the new home owners who are trying to make their home live-in ready! My home was a brand new construction. We bought lot of the stuff online, saving a lot of time and effort. We didn't have a car when we moved in and we preferred door delivery options. So, without further ado, here is a long list of tips, links and ideas for your new home... enjoy!

First things first,  measure your house, every single inch, height, width, length. Measure your drawers (each one of them), kitchen shelf etc., You will be buying a lot of furniture and organizers and trust me you need to know how tall your closet ceiling is :) and how deep the drawers are.

Kitchen & Pantry

1. Stock up on those OXO containers- trust me your pantry needs them. You can either buy them from Costco, Bed Bath and Beyond or even Amazon. 
2. This heat mat works really well on any kitchen top. I also got this or this to save my gas range from my clumsiness ;)
3. Recommended by another friend, these help seal the gap between your stove and kitchen top. These are perfect to save any food falling on the floor (think ants)
4. Show some love to your sink by organizing the brushes in this
5. Spice it up with these magnetic spice jars! They are cute and are convenient to stack on your fridge.
6. Invest in your kitchen drawers, buy shelf liners (I bought  "Variera" from Ikea). Measure all your drawers and find organizers for your spoons, ladles. Ikea has loads of options! I also like these from Amazon.
7. Water purifier - Both my husband and I have sensitive stomachs and cannot digest tap water as-is. We invested in an under-sink water purifying unit - link. We had no trouble installing this on our own and love the taste of the water. I got special discount for buying directly from the distributors. Ping me if you need a referral.

For your Closet

1. Our closet was provided with 2 pre-installed railings and was not enough. We re-did our entire closet with Ikea's PAX closet solution. These were a little painful to assemble due to the height, but made our closet so much more efficient! 
2. You would want to make your closet look uniform with the same hangers, so throw away those old ones and buy these! No matter how big your closet is, you will need this and this to optimize your closet space! 
3. Oh and if you are a shoe person (Who is not?), you might appreciate this shoe organizer
4. Get these moisture absorbent packs. They help keep your clothes fresh, I also have these in my pantry to keep the moisture away

Bathroom essentials

1. Water Bidet - the best thing for some of us who cannot just make do with toilet paper :)
2. Toilet cleaning kit - This one from Clorox is very easy to use
3. This drain protector is the simple and best solution to blocking hair getting into the drain. works perfectly in bath tub and shower stall
4. Get these diffusers for keeping your bathroom from smelling. I have actually found better ones in Metropolitan Market (Seattle) but you get the idea :)
5. Washable shower curtain - Hate the plastic-y looking inner curtain? I got these from Bed, Bath & beyond and love them!            

Furniture - We bought a lot of furniture online (trust me it was a gamble!). We host a lot of friends and family and were always looking for convertible furniture. These are some of my absolute favorites

1. This tri-fold foam sofa converts into a twin bed.
2. This bean bag  converts into a single bed.
3. This indoor chair does not convert into anything, but is great to just lounge and fall asleep 
   

Blinds - Well, we all know how expensive blinds are. For a new home with large windows and no blinds, we were suddenly having privacy issues! We were too lazy to go through an exhaustive list of options so we went with a friend's recommendation to Budget Blinds! Their prices were great and their installation was close to perfect! Highly recommend them if they are available in your neighborhood. They also had screens/stickers for doors and windows and we loved how our main door looked after the treatment

Miscellaneous things

1. If your home has a lot of hard wood - you definitely need this to mop the floors!
2. I don't know about you, but my house has way too many spiders. Buy this for cleaning cobwebs without getting a back ache!
3. Whether you like it or not, you will find yourself doing a lot of DIY and will need a nice ladder. We got this from Home Depot.
4. Call me obsessed, but this and this is the best investment I have made for my bed. I have always struggled to keep the bed sheet intact on my mattress and these do the job just fine!
5. We found these peg boards from Ikea super convenient - I used them to organize my sewing supplies

              

That's all for now! Hope you found this post useful. Cheers! :)