31 Days to Settle in After a Move: Don't Rush to Hang Pictures

Our first few moves were not the smoothest. Like everything, there is a learning curve to moving and settling in a new home.

Here is a lesson that I learned the hard way:

Live with a furniture arragement for a while before commiting and hanging stuff on walls.
(or hide the nails from husband until you are satisfied the furniture will not be moved)

 As soon as the furniture was in the house my husband would break out the hammer and nails and start putting things up on the walls. The movers had barely pulled out of the driveway, and already he's banging away. I mean, c'mon, that couch isn't even centered yet.
See, for him - it just wasn't home if the walls were bare.
Obviously, this resulted in tantrums on my part, a few tears and much pouting.
Because, well, I'm thinking the couch would probably look better against that wall over there. And now this picture will look ridiculous in this spot and if we move it there'll be 6 holes because we didn't get it level/centered/right the first time.

It's exhausting just typing about it!

In the end, I don't know what is worse. A wall full of holes from the constant shuffling and re-positioning of pictures, or putting up with a picture that's not quite in the right spot. I've done both.

Now we wait a bit before taking that leap. Test drive the layout. I make sure it looks right, he makes sure there's no glare hitting the TV.

And we've invested in a level.
and a measuring tape.

So see? He did "get it" eventually. Partly, I'm sure, because he got tired of dealing with the ensuing melt-downs - but also, because I have always been right. The couch does look better against that wall after all.