Tips To Make Your Senior Living Apartment Feel Like Home

How To Get Settled Into A New Community

While moving and downsizing to retirement living can feel daunting or overwhelming, you can ease the transition by making your new residence feel like home right from the start. We’re sharing a few simple ways to bring touches of your personality and home into your apartment, which will in turn help you to feel more settled and more comfortable even sooner.

Bringing Familiarity To Your New Home

1. Check community guidelines. An important first step is to look into any rules or recommendations that your new community may have regarding changes to your apartment. By knowing about any restrictions up front, you’ll be able to easily plan how to make your apartment as homey as possible.
2. Determine what furniture to use. According to your floor plan and square footage, start by measuring your furniture and deciding what pieces will best fit in your new space. You can also decide if you will want any new furniture once you move in.
3. Establish your preferred style of décor. It’s exciting to start with a blank slate but be mindful not to over clutter, especially if moving into a smaller space. You’ll most likely need to pare down decorative pieces while at the same time bringing your personal style and unique decorations. If you stick with a particular theme or design for your new apartment, you can choose corresponding décor, colors and artwork to create a calm, comfortable environment.
4. Add photos and other memories. Every home needs sentimental touches to make it special. Framed photos of your family, friends and personal experiences will not only make you smile and reminisce on fond memories but also help jumpstart conversations with your new neighbors.
5. Find opportunities for new connections. A very important part of feeling at home in your new community is getting to know the people around you. By dining in common areas with other residents, taking part in community activities and visiting with neighbors, you’ll ease your way into interacting and start to become more comfortable. Our community makes it easy because everyone is truly excited to meet new residents. You can also plan your own get-togethers or invite someone for a one-on-one chat.
6. Keep in touch. Even as you begin to meet new people at your community, you’ll want to stay connected to friends and family outside of your new home. We are often “homesick” for people, not necessarily places or things, so it helps to welcome visitors once you’re settled into your new apartment. Plus you can show them around the community as well as introduce them to your new friends and neighbors.
7. Create new memories. Once you are living it up at your new community, you’ll be making plenty of new memories and sharing experiences with friends. You may want to spruce up your apartment with some new décor in art class, make a door decoration to hang out front or add new photos to your collection. Remember: the more involved you become at your new home, the more at home you will feel.

It’s normal to feel a little homesick in a new setting, but the team at Redstone Village is always here to do whatever it takes to help you feel at ease. After you’ve put these tips into action, it will only be a matter of time before your new community feels like home.