Every New Space Needs Planning & Adapting To Become Home

Adapting New Spaces To Feel At Home

Maristella Bertram
3 min readMar 6, 2024

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You know when you move into a new home and feel like everything perfectly fits (“like a glove”)? Yeah… that usually never happens. New spaces need to be adapted to you and your family so you may feel truly at home.

Start With A Blank Slate to Adapt Your New Space

Almost every new space you encounter will require certain changes to make it work best for you. And to plan these changes in a new space the best thing to do is to completely clear the space. It’s important to have a blank slate.

Instead of assessing how your stuff fits in the new space, remove everything from that room, including any additions previously installed (like shelves and furniture). Then, plan the space by looking at it empty.

Ask For Help

You might want to call a Designer, an Organizer, use an app (many apps with free levels allow you to design 3D spaces with all kinds of architectural singularities), or engage the services of stores like The Container Store, California Closets, Closet Envy to have one of their space designers come and help you with the project. This is a service most stores offer for free. And it is critical to have it right.

In this process, consider the kind of things you intend to keep in that space. Note that we say the kind of things, not the amount.

The design should drive the project when dealing with a new space, not your stuff. Your belongings should conform to the area, not the other way around. Although a functional design uses the available space more efficiently, the physical space available is set, while the contents is more easily adapted.

Time To Let Go

When the time comes to incorporate your belongings into that area, there are serious decisions to make about what to keep and what to let go. Because even though a good design will always seek to maximize the use of the available area, no design will ever work, and no space will ever look good with more than it can and should hold.

Many people experience this situation when moving. Usually, furniture, storage solutions, and belongings work and fit well in the previous home. But transferring those into a new structure rarely works the same. This leads to odd feelings of not belonging in that new house.

Do You Really Feel At Home?

When finally set in a new house, you want to feel “at home,” and you would like this to happen as soon as possible. But for this to happen, the spaces require some adaptation.

Interestingly, this adaptation process often gets ignored due to a lack of time or skill. The feeling of not belonging persists over years of living in a house where you don’t feel “at home.” But with the sacrifices we often need to make in moving, don’t you think you deserve to feel you belong in your new place?

Here’s the good news! As Organizers, we specialize in space planning. We are highly skilled at adapting, organizing, transforming, and designing your new house in every way so you feel at home as soon as possible. We want you to start your new life in your new space, loving how you feel.

If you are moving or don’t feel “at home”, call your Organizer today! The difference we can make will surprise and delight you — you’ll wonder why you never thought of us before.

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Maristella Bertram

Maristella Bertram, MBA, CPO, owner of My Space Reclaimed, LLC, is a Board-Certified Professional Organizer, Redesigner and Stager.