Considering I moved on Sept. 1 and am still not completely settled... I'm in the over the month range. I'm almost there.

Sidenote: Are those hangers holding pictures in the photo. Do you have other views. I love the idea.

michelleb, we are in the same boat.. but you're paddling WAAAAAAY faster! i moved september 1st into a large studio space, with way less closet space. Was waiting to unpack until painting was finished. Well, it's done now, and the thought of diving into those boxes is so daunting! Where the hell is everything going to go?!

I unpack and settle in as quickly as possible! My goal the first night, to matter how much work needs to be done, is to have my bedroom and kitchen completely settled -- that way I can sleep soundly and start the next day with coffee and breakfast in an organized space.

Regardless of my living situation (college dorms, sharing a house with friends, living alone, etc) I've always unpacked and settled myself immediately.

Its been more than 11 years in our house. I'm still trying to get settled in. I think I need to blame myself, but I also I blame my SO, and our inability to agree of most design/renovation decisions. But after 11 years, I'm now sick of it, and I look at AT every day to get inspiration to push ourselves out of our chaos we call home. You guys amaze me!

I hate living surrounded by boxes, it makes me feel jittery and unsettled. We moved into a new house in August and I had all the boxes broken down by the end of the second day. We're 90% done with painting and decorating, but we're expecting a baby next month so I don't know if we'll get to the other 10% now or a year from now!

Well, I'm at the 2.5 year mark . . . and there are at least 15 boxes in the basement (decorative items, craft stuff, old files, skates I think, maybe some books?) and a lot else still left to do. I comfort myself that gutting a house and rebuilding it takes TIME. Being the type of person who needs to have things in their place before starting new projects, I dread unpacking because I need a place to put everything, and before I can do that I need to build some more storage!

But I don't think I would have hit the one month mark even if the house didn't need a reno. I find that settling in properly even in a small rental takes finding the right things for the space and there are always gaps for a while. So maybe . . . six months, without the reno?

I absolutely have to unpack as quickly as possible. I once worked 7 1/2 hours straight to move in, while sick.

we are at day 8, and I have every room painted, cabinets sanded down and painted, pictures hung, new furniture put together and all our things unpacked and put away. It drove the fiance nuts this past week with everything going on, but now we are relaxed and completely comfortable in our new space. I wouldn't have it any other way.

I'm the type of person when I go on vacation, I cannot do ANYTHING until all the clothes are taken out of the suitcases and put in drawers or hung up with the suitcases tucked neatly under the bed. I want to feel at home!!

I'm so that way too. Everything needs to find it's place. My boyfriend moved into a new apartment 2 weeks ago and is still unsettled. Whenever I'm over I just want to organize! When he is in the other room or steps outside I get to work!

I'm a renter a can settle much faster since paring down my possessions and giving myself permission to let items like books remain packed.

Detailed labels help me find stuff when needed, and I save the work of packing/unpacking and dusting and such. I usually devote a closet or wall or sections of wire shelving to storage and call it a day.

A day is usually enough for me to move everything in, yet I do like to live in an unadorned space for at least a few days before making decorating decisions. No matter how many pics I take or visits I make prior to move in, noise/light/temperature/whatever patterns can only be learned when on site.

Pretty fats. We've moved full houses the last couple of times (i.e. 1500 sq or so to the same and then all the books to offices) and we are generally unpacked, and settled with art hung and all in place in 4-5 days max. I need to live order, so when we move getting things out of boxes and in order is the first priority. It just works for me/us.

amazing - seriously, I toast you and your new home.

its been over a year. I can't get comfortable in my place and i don't want to unpack the major stuff if i think i'm going to move soon...

I have just moved into my boyfriend's home. I think it is in some ways taking loger than it has in the past because he is already settled, and I left my job to move here to be with him, so I don't feel ok about going out and buying a new bookcase, for example. I have boxes of art supplies, etc. that currently have boxes for homes, but at least it is all tucked neatly away under the bed. What I really haven't dealt with yet is putting up my artwork because it means moving his around and taking some down. If I could just set things up the way I wanted, it would be done, but since we're trying to make a space that reflects both of our prefernces, it is a slower process.

It all depends on if I unpack right. The last move I made sure I had the kitchen, bathroom, and about half of the bedroom complete before bed so everything is perfect the next morning. Within the next week everything else gets finished - then after adjusting things for a couple more weeks, then I'm settled. So I'd say around a month.

I love posts like these... I have to have everything put away asap. In the past, I have worked 20 hours straight to get it done. Like Yvette, I can't rest until the job is done. I also pack WAY in advance with spreadsheet, labels, etc.

Five months and counting. I bought a house for the first time. I have more space than I've ever had, and I have no idea where I want anything to go. I have barely any furniture and have no art on the walls. It could be years at this rate. :(

We moved Sept. 1, 2004. Mr. Kay in KCMO was settled in 48 hours. I still have things in boxes stacked in a corner of the bedroom, each stack ( three of 'em) being about 5' high. It's mostly books and pictures and whatnot. We have loads of windows and very little usable wall space so there's little room for shelves. I'm beginning to think I'll never feel settled until I can build a house exactly the way I need it.

It took me about a week to get settled into our new apartment. I had all of the boxes broken down within 2 days, and the painting, organizing, and decorating came last.

It was tough, but one week is possible.

Movers arrived Sept. 15; we should be done by this weekend I think. Taking longer than I thought it would but we are combining two spaces (apartment and studio) into 1 apartment and it's tricky allotting separate workspace.

I've been in my new place a month and still have a couple of boxes of odds and ends that I don't know where to put. We're renting and they're repainting the walls this week so next week I will finally get to hang up the art! The kitchen was unpacked the first night since that's my comfort zone.

I've gotten pretty good at getting set-up quickly since starting University (aka: moving into a new dorm room each September!) - two suitcases, courtesy of a cross-country move, means that I don't have much to unpack in the first place! :-)

Lisa Hunter, you sound just like me! I'm always dreaming up ways of making things work even better than they already do...
It drives my boyfriend nuts!

unfortunately, I still don't feel altogether "settled" even after moving to a new place at the end of July. It's so hot here in Dallas, that I shoved all my leftovers into the back bedroom and closed the door, waiting till the weather got cool enough (uh...last week) to lug all the boxes and trash to the compactor without melting in the process! Still tweaking, still doing projects, but planning on having a small party soon to help break things in! What I'd give to have that wood floor...I have to live with ugly tan apartment carpeting. :(

We have been in our new house 11 days. This weekend will be the final push to complete the screened porch, get the living room chairs, and freecycle what's not going in the "mother of all yard sales". I cannot stand living out of boxes!

I was like you, settling into an apartment w/in days. Then I bought a house and went from under 600 sf to over 1600 and one year later, I still have unpacking, decorating, and arranging to do. I thought it would all be done by now. Hell, I thought it would be done w/in a month, max, of moving in. But it's so much harder decorating a big house than a little apartment. Add a limited budget to it and, whoa, it's slow.

To be honest though, the slow settling process has been good for me and my house. Living here has allowed me to really understand the bones, the lighting, the space, to the point where I have a better vision for its arrangement. While I was in escrow I had a completely different idea and then I moved in and those plans went out the window. It's for the better.

I have to say, your little room looks lovely though. Nice, nice, nice work.

I hate doing things twice so for me rushing in and completely arranging my kitchen on the first night or hanging artwork in the first week is a no no. When I pack I keep a box register so I know where to find everything. Then I take about a month to get completely unpacked so I can consider where the best place is for everything and get it right the first time.

I'm one month in, and am almost done. Apt painted, but a couple of rooms have stuff sitting in heaps on the floor because they don't have anywhere to go yet. At least they're out of boxes. Decorating walls will be a much slower process though.

I wanna see more of your apartment, Meg.

My new spaces had to be deep cleaned, which took longer since all of my things were in the way. The deep cleaning continued, followed by unpacking, in order of necessity--bathroom, bedroom, and kitchen. Unpacking before cleaning would have multiplied the work and ruined my things.

I couldn't find what I was looking for and it took much longer to accomplish anything while living out of boxes, so I worked as fast as possible. I didn't even consider painting. Just unpacking and making new spaces clean, healthy, orderly, and functional took a long time.

On the up side, after finishing that stage, I enjoyed decorating my homes as a hobby. The tidying, tweaking, and negotiations with my husband continue after over two decades in our current space. A home's never "finished."

I think it totally depends on wether you own or rent. When I rented apartments, I unpacked in a matter of days. You know you have no big renovation job to do, so it's easy. I painted my first rental, so I delayed the unpacking for a week, but still, totally settled within a month.

But we bought our first house exactly a year ago. Basically, the house has the best bones with the worst everything else. We had to tear down almost everything but the floors, ceiling and a few walls. That being while I was pregnant.
I unpacked the kitchen and the bathroom, since the renovation won't begun before 2011 at least, but basically, we lived with very few things for a year. However, the boxes were in the basement, well-labeled, so we almost never saw them. Still, not very practical.

After a year, the nursery, our bedroom and the home office are finished (except for the decoration, but you can unpack without the perfect curtains). I officially have no box left !

I had no problem living with my stuff packed for as long as we were in the middle of our first wave of renovation; but as soon as it is done, I have to unpack. And I've thrown out about 10 cubic meter of stuff (half of which went to charity, being unused or out of fashion clothes). Feeling soooooo good right now !

We moved in to our (much larger, first owned) house on Sep 20th - the kitchen is done for the time being (although we will be replacing it), bathroom is done (although still working out where linen will live), the living room is mostly done, with a pile of boxes in the corner that i need to think about. Our main obstacle is our bedroom which came with zero storage.

I'm having built in wardrobes put in in the next week or so, so hopefully this will be enough space to solve the problem - but until then all my clothes and shoes are in boxes in bags. It's driving me INSANE!

Our last move was v-e-r-y slow, due to circumstance. Our family of 4 was in a one bedroom apartment temporarily while finding a house so most of our stuff went to storage. When we moved in to our house we only moved into the bedrooms due to having work done on the main floor. When the whole house was available my husband was working 100 hrs a week and I was working and going to grad school full time. We grabbed the basics and left the rest in storage. Not bringing everything in and settling helped us discover what we were missing and what we didn't even think about. While the storage is now empty, many things never came in the house.

Its been a month and a half and all I can say is, settling is still a owrk in progress. Since I like to finish a room before moving on to the next, I have paint swatches and inspiration boards lined up but they are far from being finished. It doesn't help that I am a pack rat...

The finishing touches take me way longer than a day or a week. Finding the right curtains, rugs and the right spot for old and new art work ... I noticed the floor and windows look pretty bare in this picture too :-)

LOL our stuff was delivered July 26th and there are still boxes in the basement that I have not opened. with kids, college, and vacation it has taken forever to get it all done. Who am I kidding I has always taken me 6 months to get my place the way I like it after a move. I like to get a feel for the place before I put holes in the walls and rugs in their places.

Going on 3yrs!! :0

I'm another "unpacked in less than a day" person.

I think a good portion of it depends on how much stuff you have, whether or not you start other projects immediately (painting, for example, I put off till I live in a space a bit, and get a feel for the overall geometry of the entire apartment), and you determination.

Meg, is that your actual apartment? If so, please tell me the green paint color!

If settled means unpacking boxes and getting items into the right spot, then about 2 months. If it means completely finishing all reno projects and decorating, then I'm coming up on 3 years. My bathroom has not had baseboards in 2.5 years!

oh, yikes, this post makes me feel bad about my apartment, but fellow procrastinaters in the comments made me feel much better. I'm at 14 months and I still have all my artwork on the floor waiting to be hung and no kitchen table.

Since moving out of my parents' house, I've never completely settled in. I always know I'll be moving in 1-2 years, so long-term storage type items live in plastic totes. It actually makes moving much easier, since about 1/4 of my stuff is permanently packed.

A bimodal distribution, heavily weighted to the fast unpackers.
Maybe you all could give me and KayinKCMO a hand???
Or an article on how to move renovation projects along, and get to the point where your house can feel like a home.

I'm going to guess you have no children. The last time we moved (a little over two years ago), I had a two year old and a one month old. In that situation, there is no such thing as working around the clock to get settled in. Two years later, I still have a couple of areas that have not become officially settled. And I only live in a two bedroom, one story duplex. I do remember that in the pre-kid days, I did it all quickly, too. It was all so easy then! I definitely preferred to have it done as soon as possible. I don't like the feeling of my home not quite being home "yet."

I just moved from my apartment into my first rental home, I added a some square footage in the move but its 4 days and counting and im still not totally done. My goal is to be totally done by tomorrow, heres to hoping! :)

We've been in our house since March and we're still getting settled. I absolutely hate it and can't get comfortable, but like wrtrmaus, we have so much more space than before and are having to buy things to fill it up. We have the basics, but we still need more decorative/storage furniture, art on the walls, etc. Some of the rooms still need painting - most of them had wallpaper, so that's been a pain in butt to deal with. The kitchen is pretty atrocious, in my opinion, but we won't get around to that until probably next year when we have more money to redo the countertops and flooring. I really, really hate living in the house as it is now, but we just don't have the time and money (and motivation, sometimes) to get it all done quickly. If I were still in an apartment, I would've been settled in within weeks.

I am moving at the beginning of next month, and I'm eager to see how fast I can get everything unpacked. This is my first apartment-to-apartment move. Last time it was moving out of my parent's house and into my own place, which meant I didn't have a lot of furniture I had to move. I'm also a full time student, but I'm very type-A and a bit OCD as far as having everything in its place. So we'll see! I hope to have everything hung and set up within a week!

7 Months- Boxes still piled in the living room, nothing on the walls and no window treatments. I just seem to be too busy to concern myself with getting settled but I have to admit, the chaos is beginning to get to me.

I just moved on Saturday which is one week earlier that I had planned. I was doing well with having most everything packed.Then last Thursday my husband said that we were moving on Saturday, so the rest of the packing was chaotic. I have 80% of my boxes unpacked with those items put in their place. the remaining 20% wont be touched until this Saturday (???) since I work about 11 hours a day. Also, I still need to paint this weekend too. By the looks of it, it will be a month. A long, never-ending untidy month... :(

I'm like Meg- I have 2 large dogs, 2 kids, 3 cats, a lazybones hubby, and I am totally unpacked and settled within 3 days or so. I go like mad, sleep a few hours, go like mad... then I tweak it over a month or so. You know- oh that picture would be better in the bathroom... etc. But I HATE boxes and totes hanging around- it makes me nuts. I also, in the first week, take our dogs for a walk, and put a little business card on neighbors doors- "Hi, we just moved in! Our names are Tootsie and Mocha! We are very good girls, friendly and everything, but are sometimes messy. If we make a mess at your place (gasp) here is the number to call my mom- she'll be over to deal with it!"
The neighbors seem to think it's pretty funny- and we move about every 8 months. :D
I wait for EVER to hang curtains. I like to see my new surroundings- and it usually so happens that within a week of curtains going up, BAM! Work transfer and another move. so curtains are the kiss of death for us. So unless privacy is an issue or I am MADLY in love with my drapery, they stay somewhere in a closet :)

I will be moving Oct,19 at 4am. When I get there I will be ready. I gave away almost everything, furniture included. It will be a fresh start for me and my little dog. First things: clean the bathroom, I mean scour. Then the kitchen must be clean and orderly. That is when I feel comfortable and start unpacking. I am very orderly, but I don't mark boxes, because it is like Christmas time and everything I take out is so beautiful in the new place. I am usually done as soon as walls are painted and clean for artwork. I have planned every detail already so it won't take long to make it HOME. I have done this a few times, but have always approached it the same way. It is really FUN for me, no reservations. sincerely, mary. p.s. after I rest after 1500 mile trip, then I will go and look at furniture.

I've been in my place for almost six months and still have three cardboard boxes on the floor in the bedroom!

Bless you...........