Tips for Taking Care of Your Home in the Winter

Owning a home comes with a lot of excitement. Having a property to call your own can be very empowering, and it usually leads to the creation of countless great memories. Wintertime, especially, is a season filled with memory-making opportunities, as the season is filled with a slew of holidays, parties, and other excuses to get together with the people you love. Being able to host these celebrations is a feeling that one simply can’t experience until they own a home, and it is a very fun benefit of being a homeowner.

While owning a home comes with a lot of great rewards, it also comes with all new levels of responsibility. When you rent a living space, your only responsibilities are paying rent, paying utilities, and keeping the place clean. You do not need to worry about maintenance, upkeep, mortgages, renovations, and other obligations. This is one of the biggest advantages of renting! However, as a homeowner, these new levels of responsibility come at you quickly, and you have no choice but to step up and embrace them.

Each season comes with its own set of responsibilities. While there are certainly homeowner responsibilities throughout the year, winter is a season that presents an especially unique set of responsibilities to homeowners…especially those who live in areas that experience a vast temperature change between seasons. This post is going to offer tips for taking care of your home in the winter, both to prevent costly damages and to reduce high heating bills.

Wintertime Home Maintenance Tips

Before diving into the specifics, it is important to note that not every tip will apply to every homeowner. If you live in Florida, for example, you likely do not need to worry about snow. If you live in upper Maine, you likely don’t need to worry as much about drastic temperature changes throughout the year. Still, this list as a whole serves as a great reference for every homeowner, regardless of geographic location.

1.    Protect Your Pipes from Freezing

Frozen pipes are a homeowner’s nightmare. While they aren’t the most catastrophic thing that can happen to a home, they are certainly costly to fix. On top of that, the damage that they can cause can be a real hassle to clean up, adding thousands of damages to your list of worries. Frozen pipes occur when water sits still in your pipes during very cold weather. Water expands when it freezes, which can cause your pipes to crack. While replacing cracked pipes isn’t a horribly hard or expensive task itself, the real damages occur as all of that water thaws. When the frozen water thaws, it leaks from the pipes and goes pretty much everywhere. Depending on the layout of your piping system, this can mean you will have anything from a damp floor to several inches of sitting water in your basement. Neither is something that you want to deal with!

The easiest way to protect your pipes from freezing is to keep your faucets slightly open. While leaving the water running would be both costly and wasteful, leaving the faucets open just enough to constantly drip is a nice way to keep the water moving, which is the most effective way to protect your pipes from freezing. When water sits still, it freezes more easily. When it moves, even if only slightly, it is significantly more resistant to freezing.

Another way to prevent frozen pipes is to keep your heat running at all times, even if you will be leaving your home for a while. Turning off the heat before leaving for a wintertime vacation is one of the most common causes of frozen pipes. If you are leaving your home for a stretch of time during the winter, it is recommended that you leave your heat running constantly in some capacity while you are gone. While you may not need to keep your house at 75 degrees while you are gone, maintaining a temperature of at least 60 degrees is a great way to prevent frozen pipes.

2.    Clean Out Your Gutters

Leaves and debris are extremely common things to have in your gutters, and for 75% of the year, they are not a major concern. While clogged gutters are never a great thing to have, there is very little risk of major damage in any season other than winter. In winter, however, clogged gutters can be a major problem, as they can lead to the formation of ice dams. An ice dam is essentially a frozen chunk of ice that is blocking the drainage flow of the gutters, and excess leaves and debris are the most common causes of ice dams in your gutters.

If an ice dam forms while there is major rainfall or snowfall, the precipitation will not be able to flow naturally out of your gutters. Instead, this precipitation backs up onto your roof, and it can be forced under your shingles and into your roofing structure itself. This can cause severe damage, including rotting and mold. You already have to replace your roof every ten to fifteen years; you want to avoid any cause that may make you need to replace it even sooner. Cleaning out your gutters is not a very difficult task, and the hour or two that it takes can save you thousands of dollars of damage.

3.     Repair Any Loose Shingles

On the topic of roofs, another thing you should do each year before winter is have a professional roofer assess your home for necessary repairs. While this is more necessary in places that are threatened by heavy snowfall, it is still something that should be considered everywhere where hard precipitation is common. Loose shingles or rotten roofing panels are especially vulnerable in the winter, as snow is very heavy. If you think shoveling snow is hard work, imagine what it would be like to hold a heavy shovel full of snow for a full day. This is what your roof does every time that there is a heavy snowfall.

Weak spots in your roof can be badly exploited by heavy snowfall, and the last thing you want to deal with during a snowstorm is a collapsing or leaky roof above your head. Having a qualified roof evaluate your roof each year before winter is a good practice, as repairs to a weak roof are much easier and cheaper than repairs to a damaged one. Avoiding the damage is much wiser than waiting for it to occur, and most roofers can evaluate your roof pretty quickly.

4.     Take Steps to Reduce Heating Costs

Owning a home can be costly. While many of the tips on this list can help you to avoid costly damages, some of the tips are simply ways that you can save money through the colder months of the year. After all, owning a home is expensive! While paying to repair damages can be a financial burden, simply paying your recurring bills can be a burden in and of itself. One of the most expensive parts of owning a home in the winter is keeping it warm. While this does not apply very much to houses in warmer climates, heating bills in states that experience cold winters can stack up very quickly.

Luckily, there are a few things that you can do to lower your heating bills year after year, and they are both pretty simple to do. Firstly, you can insulate your attic or crawlspace. Hot air rises, and it will continue to rise right out of your roof if you let it. Insulating your attic or crawlspace serves to trap the hot air within your home, which can drastically lower your heating costs. Insulation is relatively cheap, and installing it is very easy. This minor investment can pay dividends as the years go on.

The second easy thing that you can do to reduce heating costs is reverse the operation of your ceiling fans. Ceiling fans are designed to pull hot air more quickly towards the ceiling, leaving the cooler air towards the bottom and middle of your home. This is achieved by the angling of the arms of the fan. For no additional cost, you can reverse the operation of your fans so that they push the hot air downwards. Most fans have a switch somewhere that flips the direction that the fan rotates, which simply swaps the direction that the air is pushed. If your fan does not have a switch, you can manually remove and flip the arms of the fan to attain the same result.

The third thing that you can do to reduce heating costs is winterproof your doors and windows. While storm doors and storm windows can be expensive, there are less expensive ways you can winterproof the doors and windows that you already have. Heat escapes from anywhere that you let it, which is why adding insulating strips or sealers around the edges of your doors and windows can be an incredibly cost-effective upgrade to your home before winter begins.

5.     Clean Out Your Chimney

While the damages that can result from a clogged chimney are not specific to wintertime, people tend to use their chimneys and fireplaces a lot more in the winter than they do in the summer. Chimneys can get very easily clogged by soot, ash, and debris, which can restrict the natural upwards flow of smoke. While sitting around the fire can be a nice family experience, clogged chimneys can lead to a slew of problems that can damage both your health and your home.

Clogged chimneys lead to a good amount of house fires every year, as the fireplace is unable to properly breathe and expel heat. On top of that, clogged chimneys can trap carbon monoxide, which can lead to very unhealthy levels of carbon monoxide accruing in your home. This is both a fire hazard and a heath hazard, and can even lead to death. Having a chimney sweep come to make sure that your chimney is ready to operate is a wise idea that can literally save lives and protect your home and family.

6.     Prune All Trees to Avoid Falling Limbs

Just like heavy snow can cause a weak roof to cave in, heavy snow can cause weak tree limbs to snap and fall. While this is a natural occurrence, falling tree limbs can pose a serious threat to your home and other properties. For this reason, it is a good idea to make sure that there are no weak or dead limbs left on your trees in autumn each year. Properly pruning any trees close to your house drastically reduces the risks that winter presents, and can save you from thousands of dollars of damages.

7.     Make Sure Your Smoke Detectors and Carbon Monoxide Detectors Function

Houses tend to use more forms of heating in the winter, as people try to combat the cold weather that occurs outside. These heating sources pose increased fire risks, which is why it is very important to make sure that all of your smoke detectors and carbon monoxide detectors are working properly at the start of winter. We have already discussed the increased risks that fireplaces present, and heating systems can pose similar threats to your home and loves ones. Functioning smoke detectors can be the difference between a small fire and a completely destroyed home.

8.     Test Your Sump Pump

Every house is different, and therefore has different needs. In this way, some houses have a need for a sump pump, and others don’t. If your house has a sump pump, it likely means that your property is naturally prone to flooding, as the role of a sump pump is to deviate excess water away from your home’s foundation. While winter may not be the wettest season of the year, it still presents great flood risks. Even if snow falls slowly, accumulated snow often tends to melt all at once. As a result, a gradual snowfall can pose similar flooding risks to a thunderstorm. Making sure that your sump pump is functioning properly before the start of winter can protect your home’s foundation in the case of any flash flooding that occurs from snow melting.

9.     Clean Your Dryer Vents and Ducts

Dryers are one of the most fire-prone appliances in an entire house. This not is simply because they use high levels of heat as they dry your clothes…it is a combination of this heat and the lint that your dryer traps during each cycle. The lint in your dryer is extremely flammable, especially as it sits adjacent to extremely high temperatures within the dryer. While this threat exists all year, it is increased in the winter as winter clothes tend to shed high amounts of lint while they dry. To avoid home fires caused by your dryer, clean out your dryer ducts and vents each year at the start of winter. Make sure to unplug your dryer before cleaning anything, and also be sure not to forget about the shiny foil duct leading from your dryer to the wall.

10.  Store Your Patio Furniture and Outdoor Appliances

The last recommendation we have is to store your patio furniture and any other outdoor appliances before the start of winter. This is for several reasons. Firstly, you want to protect the items! There is a small chance that you will use these things during the winter, and protecting them from the elements during the winter months can add years to their lifespans. On top of that, winter storms can blow your patio furniture around, potentially causing damage to your home. Putting these things in a shed or garage at the start of winter is a wise idea all around, as it can both save you money and protect your belongings.

Thank you for reading our post with tips for taking care of your home in the winter. Owning a home comes with a lot of costs and responsibilities, but equally as many privileges and rewards. Following the advice that we provided in this post can help you to both save hundreds of dollars on heating costs and prevent thousands of dollars of damages. Nobody wants to get stuck with a collapsed roof or a flooded basement, and taking a few easy steps at the beginning of winter to weatherproof your home can go a very long way.

If you decide to visit Myrtle Beach or any other place in South Carolina and fall in love, reach out to us for help. We at The Boyd Team are always here to help you figure out whether Myrtle Beach is your next home or not, and we are committed to helping you find the right property for your needs and dreams. Any question that you have about moving to the area and finding your dream home by the beach is our pleasure to answer. Feel free to send us an email at eddie@boydteam.com or text or call us at (843) 222-8566, and we will get back to you as soon as we can. Being true natives of the Grand Strand and Horry County and with over 25 years of experience in the local real estate market, whether buying or selling, we can help you make your dreams a reality.  

No One Knows The Grand Strand Better! Trust, Knowledge, Experience, Professionalism, You Can Count On!

Things to Know About Buying a Home in a High Interest Rate Environment

Buying a house is an experience that some people love and other people hate. There is definitely excitement in home shopping, as you look around various neighborhoods and towns trying to find the perfect home. Imagining yourself or your family living in a particular house can be really special, and you can make a lot of memories in these homes before you even buy them!

While shopping for a home can be a very fun experience, there are a few factors that at least limit the fun. Geographic location, size, and price are all factors that complicate your housing search, and they largely shrink down the total number of houses that meet your criteria and budget. At times, it is even hard to find a single house that meets all of your criteria!

These struggles have been complicated by the recent mortgage interest rate hikes. In 2020, buyers could get mortgages with interest rates as low as 2.5%. In 2022, those rates have jumped substantially, now reaching levels above 6%. When interest rates go up, so do total housing costs. In this case, monthly payments on a new mortgage for an average house are likely now several hundred dollars higher than they were just two years ago.

While that may sound like a bad thing, there are truly some blessings in disguise in this whole scenario. This post is going to take a look at several things to know about buying a home with high interest rates. Some things will be advantages, some things will be disadvantages, and some things are just general knowledge that will be helpful as you enter the housing market.

Advantages of Buying a House When Interest Rates Are High

To be frank, there are not any major advantages of buying a house when interest rates are high. This is not a favorable environment for buyers, and waiting until rates go down is almost always the better choice, as long as buyers are able to wait. If they are not, there are at least a few redeeming factors that come with buying a house when interest rates are high, although these benefits do not even come close to the advantages of buying a house when interest rates are low.

There Is Less Competition When Interest Rates Are High

When interest rates go up, competition tends to go down. This is because rising interest rates make houses overall more expensive, and this prices several buyers out of the market. At the end of the day, a buyer’s budget is usually pretty fixed. Therefore, if a buyer can afford to spend $2,000 per month on their mortgage, that number does not really change when the interest rates change. As a result, when interest rates rise, and buyers’ budgets stay the same, the total value of house that buyers are able to afford is less.

The resulting effect of this market movement is that less buyers are even able to afford a house in the first place, reducing competition for the buyers who have enough financial flexibility to still afford a house. If you have the funds necessary to purchase a house, even in the high interest rate environment, odds are that you will not have to worry very much about being outbid. While nobody wants to pay more than they have to for a house, this is a welcome development for buyers who have been consistently outbid for houses over the past year!

There Is Less Risk When Interest Rates Are High

When interest rates are high, buyers also tend to shop with lower risk. When the interest rates were low, the housing market went crazy. Buyers were submitting offers well above asking price, waiving normal contingencies, and often buying houses sight unseen. If they didn’t do this, they would have never been able to buy a house in that environment. As you may be able to see, waiving these contingencies is an incredibly risky behavior that should really be avoided, if possible.

In that market, it seemed unavoidable. It was almost impossible to buy a nice house without making these concessions as a buyer. The market was undoubtedly favoring sellers, and buyers were paying the price. As the market has cooled off and interest rates have risen, there is no longer a need to make these concessions as a buyer, which is absolutely a good thing. Waiving inspections, tours, and appraisals is incredibly risky, and really should only be done in extreme circumstances. Now that the total competition has decreased, buyers do not need to bend over backwards to have their offer on a house accepted, drastically reducing the risk of buying a home.

To take that further, it is a lot harder to overspend on a house when interest rates are elevated. In a low interest rate environment, many buyers are tempted to get the biggest, grandest house that they can afford. In a high interest environment, most buyers are priced out of overspending, as the interest really lowers the total home price that they can afford. In the future, if they opt to refinance when rates decrease, they are usually left in a great financial position.

Prices Begin to Drop When Interest Rates Are High

The final main advantage of shopping for a home when interest rates are high is that home prices tend to drop. In the early part of 2022, home prices soared in what was an extreme seller’s market. Since then, thanks to the significantly higher interest rates, housing prices have begun to drop back to affordable levels. This all boils down to simple economics.

In the early part of 2022, supply was low and demand was absurdly high. There simply were not enough houses on the market for the total number of people shopping, and this made the prices soar. This is what made buyers submit offers above the asking price and waive inspections and appraisals. When the interest rates rose, the demand for houses went down, as many people could no longer afford to buy a home. This decreased demand will push the average home price down over the immediate future, which could eventually enable buyers to get a little bit more bang for their buck.

Disadvantages of Buying a House When Interest Rates Are High

High interest rates are definitely not advantageous for home buyers. Most of the disadvantages of buying a house when interest rates are high are fairly obvious, and they almost all have to do with money. The advantages listed above are almost just mitigating factors that make the interest rate sting a little bit less, while the disadvantages below are real financial disadvantages that buyers will deal with each month for the full life of the loan.

You Will Pay More in Interest When Interest Rates Are High

When interest rates are high, you will pay more in interest each month. There really isn’t anything complex about it. The interest rates have doubled or tripled over the past two years, which means that buyers will pay double or triple as much interest as they would have prior to the rate hikes. Nobody wants to pay more than they need to for a house, and the stinging thing about increased interest rates is that you are not even getting any more house for your money. You are buying the same house that you would have bought previously, potentially for the same value, but paying more per month for it.

Obviously, this is a disadvantage for any buyer. Increased interest rates drain a buyer’s budget a bit faster than typical interest rates do, and they provide no added benefit. This is the main reason that many buyers wait to buy a home until the interest rates begin to fall once again, as the wait could save tens of thousands of dollars.

You Will Be Able to Afford Less of a House When Interest Rates Are High

As we mentioned earlier in this post, increased interest rates mean that most buyers can afford less of a house than they previously could. As most peoples’ budgets are relatively fixed or firm, they cannot afford to spend more per month on their mortgage payment. As their payment needs to stay the same, but the interest rate increases, the result is that the amount of money they can spend on a house decreases. While they may have previously been able to afford a $400,000 house, they might now only be able to afford one that is closer to $350,000 while still making the same monthly payment.

This affects some people more than it affects others. Some people need a large house that is towards the higher end of their budget, while other people are perfectly happy in a smaller home that fits comfortably in their budget. For the people who are already spending towards the upper limit of their budget, the increasing interest rates are crippling. For those who have a little bit more wiggle room in their budget, the increasing interest rates are just an inconvenience. In either case, the total cost of buying a home increases, which is a major disadvantage of the rising interest rates.

Your Interest Rate Stays With You for the Full Life of the Loan

One of the biggest disadvantages of buying a home when interest rates are high is that the interest rate on your mortgage stays with you for the full life of your loan, which is usually 30 years. If someone purchased a home in 2020, they likely locked in a 2.5% interest rate for the next 30 years. If someone were to buy a home today, they would lock in a rate much closer to 7% for the same time span. While the interest rates on the market change, the interest rate is fixed once you sign on the dotted line of your mortgage.

While buyers will feel the impact of an increased mortgage rate each month, thinking about what it looks like over the life of the mortgage is very eye-opening. This doubled or tripled interest rate will likely cost tens of thousands of dollars over the life of the loan. This is an absurd realization to make, knowing that the only difference between saving those thousands of dollars and spending them was waiting a few months to buy the house.

Other Things to Know About Buying a House when Interest Rates Are High

You Can Refinance Your Mortgage Later

Despite all of the negatives that come with buying a house when interest rates are high, there is at least one positive: a mortgage does not need to be permanent. While a buyer will always need to pay off their house, they are not locked in to the high interest rate forever. When interest rates fall, buyers have the option of refinancing their mortgage to land a more attractive interest rate. This is not available to everyone, and there is no guarantee that interest rates will decrease in the near future, but it is something to consider that may have an impact down the line.

What Is Refinancing?

Refinancing is when someone takes out a new mortgage to pay off their current mortgage. This is usually something that buyers do when the market interest rates are significantly lower than what they are currently paying. If someone takes out a mortgage at 7% and the interest rate falls to 3% a few years later, they may opt to refinance. In this case, they would take out a new mortgage that is enough to pay off their current mortgage, but the new mortgage would have the new, lower interest rate.

This is not always a great idea, as there are costs and fees associated with refinancing, but it can be a great option for some buyers. This is something to discuss with your realtor or mortgage lender. One of the downsides of refinancing is that when you take out a new, refinanced mortgage, you are usually extending the total amount of time that you will need to make payments on the house. If your first mortgage was for 30 years, and you refinance 5 years later, you will likely have to pay for a total of 35 years.

It Is Usually Best to Wait to Buy a Home Until Rates Come Down

With all of this having been said, it is important to underscore it all with one key point; it is usually a better idea to wait to buy a home if interest rates are high. In most cases, the rates come back down within a few years, which can save you thousands of dollars. While this is true, not everyone can sit around waiting for several years for the interest rates to drop back down before they take out a mortgage.

While waiting for a lower interest rate is the best generic advice that can be given, it is crucial to remember that every person’s or family’s situation is different, and there is no one-size-fits-all approach. Some people will be able to wait a few years to buy a home, and others will not. At the end of the day, if you need to buy a house in the near future, waiting for a lower interest rate shouldn’t really be a part of your decision-making process. This should only be a consideration if you are in no hurry at all.

Thank you for reading our post about buying a home when interest rates are high. Shopping for a home at any time is a whirlwind of fun and stress, and adding high interest rates into the mix tends to just complicate matters further. While your overall purchasing power does decrease when interest rates are high, high rates ultimately tame the market and make housing accessible and affordable in the long run. In the meantime, there are likely going to be less buyers in the market, decreasing your chances of being outbid as long as you have the funds necessary to buy a house. While now might not be the best time for everyone to buy a house, that doesn’t have to mean that it is just a bad time for everyone!

If you decide to visit Myrtle Beach or any other place in South Carolina and fall in love, reach out to us for help. We at The Boyd Team are always here to help you figure out whether Myrtle Beach is your next home or not, and we are committed to helping you find the right property for your needs and dreams. Any question that you have about moving to the area and finding your dream home by the beach is our pleasure to answer. Feel free to send us an email at eddie@boydteam.com or text or call us at (843) 222-8566, and we will get back to you as soon as we can. Being true natives of the Grand Strand and Horry County and with over 25 years of experience in the local real estate market, whether buying or selling, we can help you make your dreams a reality.  

No One Knows The Grand Strand Better! Trust, Knowledge, Experience, Professionalism, You Can Count On!

How to Deal with Stress and Anxiety When Moving Houses

Moving is considered one of the most stressful situations people face. This is true for everyone, no matter how old they are. Whether you are excited about moving into a new place or not, you will most likely experience some form of stress and anxiety. However, there are some ways to make it easier to deal with stress and anxiety when moving house. From organizing the process to talking to a therapist, here are the best ways you can deal with the stress and anxiety of moving. 

Prepare yourself for the move

Facing and accepting the situation is much better than avoiding thinking about it. Make sure to get enough sleep and to eat healthy in the days before the move. Try to have a positive attitude and do things that bring you joy. If you have any ways you like to release stress, such as exercising or watching your favorite TV show, make sure to do it. Do whatever helps you deal with the stress and anxiety of moving house in a healthy way. Write down everything you are looking forward to once the moving process is done. This will help you become excited about the upcoming changes in your life. 

Declutter and pack your things

You can keep your mind busy by focusing on clearing out your old home before the move. Finishing this task will give you the confidence to continue preparing and help you face the moving day. Decluttering will leave you with fewer things to pack, and the number of things you have will seem smaller. This will make it easier to deal with the stress of moving house. After you’re done with decluttering and cleaning, move on to packing. Leave the essentials you will need until the moving day arrives with you. 

The stress of moving while recovering from an addiction 

When moving house, stress and anxiety can make it challenging to recover from addiction. The key to overcoming problems like these is to face and deal with them the best way you can. Experts in addiction treatment from Bright Futures Treatment Center Florida advise you to create a relapse prevention plan to stay on track during your recovery process. It can especially come in handy during times like these. It will remind you to stay on the right track toward recovery and focus on other, more essential things in your life. 

Good organization is the key 

One of the things that will help you feel calmer about the moving process is knowing that everything is planned out. Organize the packing and moving process carefully and slowly. Find out everything you need to do and see what paperwork you need to complete before you move. Create multiple checklists to stay organized during the entire moving process. Firstly, write a checklist of everything that needs to be done before the actual move. After this, create a list of everything you need to do on the day. Finally, write a list of everything you need to do after you move into your new home. With so many things that need to be done regarding the moving process, it’s easy to forget essential items along the way. By writing everything down beforehand, you ensure that there is nothing that you will forget. This will all help you minimize the anxiety levels you are feeling. 

Stress and anxiety when moving house are easier when talking to a therapist

One of the things that can help us in all life situations, including a move, is talking to a professional. Suppose you are moving while in recovery from addiction; this will help you immensely. With a therapist, you will have a safe place to share your emotions. The primary goal of psychotherapy is to help you as an individual to go through stressful stages of recovery, which can worsen the added stress of moving house. You will be heard and understood while getting solid advice in return. The truth is that talking things out makes it easier to deal with them. Talking to a psychotherapist can help you overcome stress and anxiety, no matter how low or high your levels are. 

Ask someone for help

Moving is a tricky process; you shouldn’t go through it alone. Besides asking for support, you can also ask your friends or family to help you during the move. Whether it helps organize the move or lift boxes, it will be much less stressful to do these things with someone by your side. They can motivate you to keep going when you start to feel tired. Besides this, they can be there to hear you out if you started to feel stressed out and overwhelmed. You can take breaks and do things you enjoy together to help you deal with everything more easily. It’s essential to have someone to support you during times like these for everything to go smoothly. 

Plan a housewarming party

Even though moving is stressful, it is also an exciting time. It means changing your setting, getting to meet new people, changing your lifestyle, etc. You can shift the focus from the actual move to something more fun related to it, like a housewarming party. It will be much easier to move and unpack when you have something fun to look forward to afterward. With this in mind, you will motivate yourself to go through the unpacking and organizing of your things in your new home. Another benefit of this is that, once everything is done, you will have a way to relax and spend time with your closest friends and family members. This will take away all the stress and anxiety from the move. 

To sum up

Stress and anxiety when moving house are common problems people face during their lifetime. This fact isn’t surprising because moving is one of the biggest changes we can make in our lives. It involves a lot of planning, organization, and effort. If you follow these tips and tricks, you will minimize the negative feelings you are experiencing. Not just this, but you might even begin to look forward to moving. Just remember to take good care of yourself, and don’t be afraid to reach out to someone if you need to talk. 

Meta: Experiencing stress and anxiety when moving house is a common problem most people face. These are the best ways that can help you deal with stress and anxiety easily. 

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10 Tips for Hosting Your First Thanksgiving in a New Home

Without a doubt, one of the most important aspects of homeownership is hosting. Whether you are hosting overnight guests, hosting a holiday celebration, or hosting a dinner with friends, hosting is truly one of the most rewarding parts of owning a home. Bringing people together around a unifying cause is always a treasure, and being able to do so in your own home just magnifies that experience.

With that being said, hosting an event as big as Thanksgiving can be quite stressful – especially for the first time. Many new homeowners aren’t sure where to begin when it comes to planning their Thanksgiving dinner, as there are simply so many elements to consider. From the food, to the entertainment, to the decorations and beyond, effectively planning a good Thanksgiving day takes a lot of work and preparation. This post is going to be your best friend, helping you to organize your efforts and plan a great first Thanksgiving in your new home this year. Hopefully these tips are useful as you begin zeroing in on the details of your Thanksgiving celebration!

1.    Confirm Your Guest List as Early as Possible

From immediate family to extended family and friends, deciding who to invite to Thanksgiving is a task in and of itself. Especially as you are hosting your first Thanksgiving in a new home, it can be hard to figure out how much space you really have and how many people you can accommodate. For this reason, it is important to think critically about how much space you have, determine a maximum number of guests, and go from there.

While your previous Thanksgiving celebrations may have had more or less people depending on where they were hosted, it is important that you don’t invite more guests than your home can accommodate. You only have a finite amount of space, and overfilling it is a big hosting error to avoid. Nobody want to be bumping elbows throughout all of dinner if they don’t have to, and you shouldn’t feel pressured to invite every member of your extended family if you don’t have the space. After all, whose house is Thanksgiving dinner being hosted in?

Once you determine your maximum threshold of guests, you can start determining who makes that list. Once you have sent out invitations or alerted your guests of the details of the day, it is important to follow up and get a head count as early as possible so that you can purchase the appropriate amount of food, beverage, and place settings. While it is normal for your guests list to ebb and flow until Thanksgiving, having a good estimate of the number of guests will go a long way in hosting an epic Thanksgiving.

2.    Curate Your Thanksgiving Menu Early

Thanksgiving is a huge tradition in the United States, and the foods that you serve say a lot about where you are from. People all around the country celebrate with different foods on Thanksgiving, and this is part of what makes the holiday so unique. From the mashed potatoes versus stuffing debate to the question about canned or fresh cranberry sauce, you have a lot of decisions to make when planning what you and your guests will eat. You should absolutely feel free to express your own creativity and preferences when curating your menu for Thanksgiving, too.

While it is your meal and you should certainly make your favorite foods, you should also be considerate of the guests that will be sitting around your table. When inviting them in the first place, it is a good idea to ask them if they have any dietary restrictions or strict preferences. Some people might not like mushrooms, for example! If this is the case, you will likely want to make a smaller, reserved portion of each part of the meal that normally has mushrooms, that way that guest can fully participate in the meal, too.

Curating your menu and making these dietary considerations early can help you to beat the rush at the grocery store and effectively plan your grocery shopping. Shelves tend to get a bit emptier around the holidays, and knowing exactly what you want to have can help you to get in ahead of the crowds and make sure you are able to get all of the ingredients that you need. Further, having a set menu and a rough estimate of your guest list can help you to properly plan portions and not overbuy on food.

3.    Prepare Some Foods in Advance – But Not All!

Once you have figured out what you are going to make and how much of it you will need, the next step is figuring out when you are going to make it. Cooking every part of Thanksgiving dinner on Thanksgiving Day is both impractical and unnecessary. There are aspects of the meal that can be cooked as early as days in advance, and getting as much done before Thanksgiving is a crucial way that you can help yourself before your guests arrive.

There are some dishes that you can cook a day or two in advance and simply store in the refrigerator. Many desserts, vegetables, and side dishes fall into this category. So long as the vegetables are not sitting in a wet sauce, they are normally fine to prepare a day or two in advance. Similarly, it is unlikely that a pie in the fridge for a couple of days will go bad! These foods can be prepped and fully prepared before Thursday rolls around, making your Thanksgiving Day much easier.

While there are many dishes that can be cooked in advance, there are a few categories that typically should only be cooked on the day of Thanksgiving itself. Your turkey (or other meat option), for example, should be fully cooked on Thanksgiving Day. If you cook it early, it will dry out before it ever makes its way to the dinner table. Dry turkey is not very good. Similarly, certain fresh fruits will go bad if they are cut too far in advance, and many freshly baked bread options will get stale if made any earlier than the day of dinner. While it is good to make as many dishes ahead of time as possible, it is important to make sure that those dishes won’t spoil or lose their quality once they sit in the refrigerator for a day.

4.    Decide Whether or Not You Want Paper and Plastic Products

Here, the question isn’t the old “paper or plastic” question at the grocery store, but rather you want to use both paper and plastic options at your table, or neither. When you host Thanksgiving in your home, you do have the option of using your real, nice plates and silverware. This leads to a more sophisticated experience, for sure, but comes with several drawbacks.

Firstly, you might not even have enough plates in your home. If you are inviting 10+ people over for Thanksgiving, there is a good chance that you don’t have enough plates and silverware to begin with. That is a lot to have on hand, especially if you want matching sets. Further, if you do use your good plates and silverware, you will need to wash it afterwards. This can quintuple the amount of dishes that you have to worry about, which does not need to be the case.

These drawbacks are what lead many people to purchase disposable plates, cups, and cutlery to use at their Thanksgiving dinner. While plastic forks and paper plates are not as classy as fine China, they do make cleanup a piece of cake. On top of that, many paper plates come with seasonal designs that serve to decorate your table for you with minimal effort and added cost, which is another huge advantage.

5.    Set a Budget and Stick with It.

One of the biggest restraints to hosting your first Thanksgiving in a new home is your budget. It can be tempting to want to show off your new home and spend hundreds of dollars decorating it and hundreds more on serving the best food possible. In essence, these are great ideas. You worked hard to be able to afford your new home, and you certainly deserve to show it off! However, there should be limits to everything, and you should predetermine a budget long before you start shopping for food and decorations.

After all, it all boils down to this; if you just moved into your new home, you might not fully know the expenses that will come with it. There might be a major upgrade that is needed soon that you are not yet aware of. Leaky rooves and faulty boilers can cost thousands of dollars, and you don’t want to learn of a leaky roof the day after you spent $3,000 on nice food to serve when you could have spend half of that. Basically, it is just important to be comfortable with what you have, and set a budget that won’t cause you any real financial strain.

6.    Prepare for Overnight Guests

If you are hosting any out-of-town guests, there is a chance that they might need a place to stay. While you will usually know this long before they arrive, it is still good to figure out what sleeping arrangements would be if someone winds up needing to spend the night for any reason. While you may have a guest room, you also may not. Figuring out what to do with potential overnight guests is a great consideration to make, and it can wind up going a long way if someone does indeed wind up needing to spend the night. We recently wrote a post on how to go above and beyond when hosting overnight guests that is very applicable to this situation!

7.    Consider Your Seating Options

While you will likely figure out your guest list early, it is important to think about where all of those people will sit! While folding chairs make setting the dinner table adequately fairly easy, you also need to consider how many seats you have in other areas of the house. While Thanksgiving dinner is the focal point of the day, it is likely that guests will spur off at some point to play games, watch football, or socialize in a smaller setting. Thinking about your seating options in those situations is crucial to make sure that people always have a place to sit, as the floor is not an option for some people, especially those of restricted mobility.

8.    Make Sure You Have Containers for Leftovers

While your goal should not be to prepare too much food, there is a good chance that you will. After all, preparing too much is a lot better than preparing too little! If you think that there may be leftovers, it is a good idea to get appropriate storage containers for them. Tupperware is a great option if you are planning on keeping the leftovers in your own home after Thanksgiving. If you plan on giving them out to guests to take home, it is a great idea to get disposable leftovers containers so that you will not need to worry about getting your Tupperware back from your guests.

After all, Tupperware is expensive, and if you have any out-of-town guests, you might not see those containers for a very long time! You can get disposable aluminum containers at the grocery store that function very well with Thanksgiving leftovers, and they ensure that your Tupperware stays safely and soundly in your house.

9.    Ensure You Have Adequate Beverage Options

Making sure that you have sufficient and adequate beverage options on hand is one of the most important parts of any Thanksgiving celebration. If you are serving alcoholic beverages, it is important to ensure you have enough for everyone to have their share. If you are serving soda, it is important to make sure that you have enough regular and diet options for people that will be having any. Most importantly of all, it is crucial to have enough water on hand for people to stay hydrated, especially if you will be serving alcohol. While alcohol can really enhance your Thanksgiving dinner, it is your responsibility to make sure that people are consuming it responsibly and safely. Having sufficient water on hand can help with this.

10.  Ponder Whether or Not You Want to Play Games, and Which

Finally, you should consider what kind of entertainment you will have on hand for your guests. You may opt not to have anything, and that is perfectly your prerogative! However, it is often a great idea to anticipate some ways that your guests might want to have fun, and making sure that you are prepared for this is important. Some families play football on Thanksgiving. Some families just watch it. Some families don’t include football in their celebration at all, and would rather play board games at the table. Some families simply eat dinner and leave. The vibe of every family’s Thanksgiving dinner is different, and as a host you have the privilege of determining what that vibe will be. There really isn’t a wrong answer, either, but you should be prepared to host whichever option you choose.

Thank you for reading our post with tips for hosting your first Thanksgiving in a new home. Hosting your first Thanksgiving can be very stressful and challenging, especially if you haven’t hosted a big event before. Hopefully this post helps to put you in a relaxed position where you can sit back and enjoy your company, rather than stressing out about every detail. After all, you are supposed to be a guest at your own party, too! While preparing for your first Thanksgiving can be daunting, it is important to remember the central point of Thanksgiving – fellowship – and remind yourself to enjoy the fellowship with your loved ones throughout the celebration.

If you decide to visit Myrtle Beach or any other place in South Carolina and fall in love, reach out to us for help. We at The Boyd Team are always here to help you figure out whether Myrtle Beach is your next home or not, and we are committed to helping you find the right property for your needs and dreams. Any question that you have about moving to the area and finding your dream home by the beach is our pleasure to answer. Feel free to send us an email at eddie@boydteam.com or text or call us at (843) 222-8566, and we will get back to you as soon as we can. Being true natives of the Grand Strand and Horry County and with over 25 years of experience in the local real estate market, whether buying or selling, we can help you make your dreams a reality.  

No One Knows The Grand Strand Better! Trust, Knowledge, Experience, Professionalism, You Can Count On!

If you are like the majority of homeowners in the United States, you have too much stuff and not enough space to store it in. While we recently wrote a post on the best ways to keep your garage organized, even we can admit that keeping all of your things in line can be tough. If you have kids, keeping your things organized can be even tougher! For many of us, it is hard enough to even keep the indoors, visible areas of the house organized. The thought of organizing more concealed spaces, like garages and basements, sounds like a far off dream. While it is both a blessing and a curse, we simply have too many things to adequately store in most homes. Keeping storage spaces organized is hard when you have too many things to possibly organize!

Why does organizing your storage spaces even matter? Out of sight, out of mind…right? Not so much. Simply put, prioritizing cleanliness and organization – even in spaces that are designated for storage – can pay dividends toward your mental health, energy levels, and overall happiness. Some people simply cannot part with the items that they have in storage, but these items often tax their mental health slowly as they turn into clutter. Staying ahead of this clutter by organizing can free you from stress that you do not need to feel, and ultimately make all of your knickknacks and mementos more accessible.

While many homeowners reach this conclusion, most of them get hung up on the next key question. If you have too much stuff for your home and you can’t bring yourself to get rid of any of it, where do you store it?

There are really two options for you. You can either rent a place to store it, or you can build a place to store it. In a nutshell, that means that your options are either to build a shed in your yard or to rent a storage unit at a facility somewhere nearby. There are pros and cons to both of these options, and this post is going to dive into the advantages and disadvantages of buying a shed or renting a storage unit, with the goal of making your decision a little bit clearer.

Advantages of Buying a Shed as a Homeowner

·      You own the shed

Ownership cannot be understated. One of the biggest advantages of buying a shed as a homeowner is that you own it. While buying a shed requires a bit of investment on the front end, it ultimately stays with you for as long as you want it and requires no further payments after you have paid it off. The initial price can be daunting, but that price looks a lot lower once you start to calculate the cost of renting a storage unit for several years. If you are looking for a long-term storage solution, sheds are a much better option than storage units, even despite the higher initial investment.

·      Your shed adds value to your property

When you build a shed on your property, its worth contributes to the overall value of your house and property. While the amount of value that it adds is likely less than the price that it costs to build, you still are able to earn back some of the cost of the shed when you sell your house. Even if it only adds a few hundred dollars to the selling price of your home, that is several hundred dollars that you would not have saved if you opted for a storage unit instead of a shed. Like anything, the value of a shed decreases over time and the better you take care of it, the more it will add to your home’s total worth when you are trying to sell.

·      Your shed is located right in your yard rather than a drive away

In most cases, you probably want your stored goods to be easily accessible. After all, that is why so many people use their garages and basements for storage! If this is what you are seeking, having a shed is likely the better option for you. Being located right in your yard, sheds are significantly more accessible than storage units, which typically require you to drive several minutes in order to access your things. While that may not be a major inconvenience most of the time, there may be times where you just need one thing to use for one minute and you need to drive all the way to the storage unit to get it.

·      You can make permanent alterations to your shed without the need to ask permission

This is another benefit of ownership that might be very significant, depending on your intended use of the storage space. If you plan to use standalone shelving units, this likely makes no difference to you. However, if you were hoping to install fixed shelves, racks, or other things that require mounting into the wall, a storage unit complex may not permit you to do so. As the owners of storage units are responsible for the longevity of their units, they are often hesitant to allow drilling and permanent alterations to their units. If you buy a shed, you are free to drill holes and make changes wherever and whenever you want.

Disadvantages of Buying a Shed as a Homeowner

·      You need to pay for insurance for your shed

While insurance is a social good that can protect you from tens of thousands of dollars of financial damages, there is no denying that it can be costly. While nobody that has ever had to claim on their insurance regretted having it in the first place, it is still true that insurance can be a real financial drain in the short run that makes your budget ever so slightly tighter. Buying a shed means that you will likely need to expand your homeowner’s coverage to include it, which will lead to an increase in your insurance premiums. While that increase is likely minimal, it is still an expense you are responsible for that you might not have to worry about if you rent a storage unit. Storage units do usually require insurance, but it can usually be included via the storage company for a very minimal fee.

·      Your shed will take up space in your yard

For some homeowners, this does not matter one bit. If you have a large yard, for example, plopping a shed in the corner of it probably won’t make much of a difference to you. However, if you have a small yard to begin with, odds are that a shed would take up a large portion of that space, cutting down on your other usage options, like gardens or decorative spaces.

·      Your shed is permanent

Depending on the context, this could be either an advantage or a disadvantage. If you are seeking a long-term storage option, then the permanence of a shed is likely and advantage. However, if you are looking for something that can quickly store things that you don’t have room for but haven’t really thought about a long-term plan, buying a shed might not be the right choice. Sheds take time to build, and they are usually impossible to move without destroying. For these reasons, it is important to thoroughly think through the benefits and sacrifices that come with buying a shed.

·      Your shed requires upkeep

Sheds are a really nice addition to any property…until they aren’t. Like anything, sheds experience wear and tear and they depreciate over time. As a homeowner, it is your responsibility to keep your home in good shape at all times in order to maintain your property value. Sheds often require new rooves, new siding, and extra maintenance, and none of these things are required when you rent a storage unit.

Advantages of Renting a Storage Unit as a Homeowner

·      Storage units do not take up any space in your yard

If you have a smaller yard, the thought of buying a shed may be off-putting. As your space is limited, you might not want to permanently occupy it with a shed. While the storage is nice, the shrunken yard can be limiting, especially if you have children. In this case, a storage unit might be a better option, as it enables you to leave your yard fully intact and usable.

·      Storage units can be much larger than the average shed

While your yard may limit the size of shed you can buy, there are also limits as to how large sheds are even sold. At a certain point in size, sheds become garages which are significantly more expensive. Storage units encompass the full range of sizes, from lockers to garages, giving you more flexibility regarding how much you are able to store. On top of that, you can always move from one storage unit to another in the same complex fairly easily if you need more or less space, while exchanging your shed is likely impossible.

·      Storage units are designed to be temporary

Going back to the note on the permanence of a shed, storage units are meant to be temporary solutions. While some people do opt to rent storage units for long or indefinite periods of time, they are not necessarily meant to be used this way. Storage units are fantastic temporary options that give you the ability to store things in the present without the long-term commitment that is inherently required by buying a shed.

Disadvantages of Renting a Storage Unit as a Homeowner

·      Renting a storage might require a time commitment

One of the biggest advantages of renting a storage unit, as we just saw, is that they are great temporary options with little to no time commitment. While that is true in most cases, some storage unit facilities require longer-term contracts. For example, some storage units require tenants to sign a 12-month contract, which can make renting a storage unit very costly if your intention is only to use it for a couple of months. Before you sign a contract to rent a storage unit, just be sure to check the terms and conditions to make sure that the timeline and price match up with your goals.

·      Storage units do not increase your home value

As with anything that you rent, storage units do not increase your home value or your net worth. Renting a storage unit is strictly transactional, just like buying groceries, and it will not do anything to help you in the long run. It simply solves your problems of having too much stuff and not enough space to store it all.

·      Storage units are costly over time

Renting a storage unit for a year, in some places, can cost more than buying a comparably sized shed. While the price of renting a storage unit fluctuates heavily based on geography, a 10x10 storage unit usually ranges anywhere from $100 to $300 per month. This is equal to $1,200 to $3,600 per year. At a hardware store like Home Depot or Lowes, you can purchase a 10x10 shed for $1,500 or less, depending on the degree of quality that you would like. This means that a shed is roughly the same price as renting a storage unit for between one year to 18 months, and renting a storage unit for any longer than that becomes a financial drain. If you are renting a storage unit because of a lack of space, that is one thing. However, renting a storage unit for more than a year with the goal of saving money likely will not save much money at all, if any.

Which Is Better for Homeowners: Buying a Shed or Renting a Storage Unit?

After laying out all of the advantages and disadvantages of buying a shed versus renting a storage unit, it is probably clear that there is not one option that is universally better. Buying a shed is usually cheaper in the long-run, and the autonomy of owning a shed provides more freedom for how you use it. However, sheds inherently take up space on your property and are your responsibility to maintain, which is more of a sacrifice than some homeowners are willing to make. On the flip side, storage units are a costlier, more inconveniently located option, but they do not require you to commit to permanent ownership and upkeep nor sacrifice space in your yard. The better option for you will fully depend on your situation and your intended uses for the shed or storage unit, and there is no further way to break that down.

Thank you for reading our post on buying a shed versus renting a storage unit! Hopefully this post has been helpful as you consider how to store all of the excess things laying around your house. When the garage and basement simply aren’t enough room to store your things, you will likely need to call in backup from one of these two options! Hopefully now you understand which of these two options is a better fit for your situation.

If you decide to visit Myrtle Beach or any other place in South Carolina and fall in love, reach out to us for help. We at The Boyd Team are always here to help you figure out whether Myrtle Beach is your next home or not, and we are committed to helping you find the right property for your needs and dreams. Any question that you have about moving to the area and finding your dream home by the beach is our pleasure to answer. Feel free to send us an email at eddie@boydteam.com or text or call us at (843) 222-8566, and we will get back to you as soon as we can. Being true natives of the Grand Strand and Horry County and with over 25 years of experience in the local real estate market, whether buying or selling, we can help you make your dreams a reality.  

No One Knows The Grand Strand Better! Trust, Knowledge, Experience, Professionalism, You Can Count On!

Myrtle Beach Housing Market Shifts Slightly

10 Clever Ways to Keep Your Garage Organized

When many people buy their first home, one of the biggest draws is having a garage. Garages provide many key benefits to homeowners, and most rental properties, like apartments and townhomes, do not have them. Being able to park your car safely inside your house rather than on the street or in a parking garage is a huge advantage, especially if you live in an area with property crime issues. While the most obvious use for your garage is to park your car, there are so many other ways that you can utilize it. From turning it into a playroom to using it as a workshop, the list of alternative uses for garages is long and diverse.

With that being said, there is one alternative purpose that is easily the most common of them all: using your garage as a storage space. Using your garage as a storage space is such a natural solution for your storage issues. Your car likely doesn’t take up the entire space, and lining the walls with storage equipment is one of the most efficient ways to take advantage of all of your garage’s excess room.

While many people would agree that using your excess garage space for storage is a great idea, there is one hitch; things tend to get out of hand really quickly. Most people who use their garage for storage also tend to have a very cluttered garage. It is hard to keep a garage organized when using it for storage, largely because the stuff never gets in your way. If you only use your garage for parking and for storage, it is likely that you only pass through it when you have somewhere to be, which doesn’t leave you much time to clean up the clutter! This post is going to list 10 clever ways to keep your garage organized, that way your storage space stays efficient, accessible, and optimized.

1.    Take Advantage of Vertical Shelving in Your Garage

When most people feel like they are running out of space, there is one direction that they are often failing to look: up. Taking advantage of the height of any storage space, including your garage, is one of the best ways to optimize the amount of space that you have. While your garage might only be ten feet long by ten feet wide, it is probably also ten feet tall. Houses and their corresponding spaces are often measure in terms of square footage, but it makes even more sense to measure a storage space in cubic footage, as this metric includes height and more accurately assesses how much room you have to store your things in.

Much like how a bookshelf can store a lot more books than just a pile on the ground can, utilizing vertical storage in your garage can help you to store significantly more things and in a more organized manner. Vertical storage is not optimal for all things – especially not heavy ones – but it can be a great way to store many of the smaller or categorical things that you have in your garage. If you use large shelves, you can then also use crates or bins to further organize your vertical storage. Vertical store can either come in the form of shelves that are attached to the wall or other standalone shelving units. Stacking your shelving as high as possible – even reachable only by step stool – is how you can best take advantage of the total space in your garage.

2.     Incorporate Dedicated Storage Containers in Your Garage

The best kind of storage is organized storage. While vertical shelving helps you to unlock more space in your garage, using dedicated storage containers helps you to keep your things organized within that space. What are dedicated storage containers? Really, they are just regular storage containers, but used with a more defined purpose. Designating each bin or storage container for a specific purpose rather than a general one often helps to keep things more organized.

Rather than throwing all yard games into one bin, for example, it may be better to store the yard game items that are used less in one bin and the more commonly used items in a more accessible bin. Further, rather than storing all yard tools in the same bin, it might be more prudent to store gardening tools in one bin, lawn tools in another, and seasonal tools in yet another. This separation helps your items to remain organized, as the specificity of the bins helps to keep you from quickly tossing an item in the first bin that you see.

3.    Only Use One Side of the Garage for Storage

This point heavily depends on how large your garage is and how it is laid out. However, in many instances, dedicating one side of your garage to storage and the other side of your garage to parking is one of the most efficient uses of your space. Naturally, if you have a one car garage, your car is going to take up more than half of the space. However, choosing to only line one of the walls with shelves instead of both can help you to keep things more organized. If you have space, you could even use some of the ground space in front of those shelves for storage, and just park your car further towards the other side of the garage.

How is this helpful for keeping your garage organized? Being able to see all of your stored items at once is often helpful when trying to keep things organized. If you opt into this strategy, it is best to store things on the left side of the car and park on the right side of the garage. This is so that every time you get into and out of your car, you are forced to see your stored items. Often, we do our best to avoid looking at messes that we are putting off dealing with into the future. Using only one side of the garage for storage condenses the potential mess to one side, and storing things on the left side of the garage guarantees that you need to see them each time you get into and out of your car, serving as a constant reminder.

4.    Organize the Entire Garage Several Times per Year

This tip is a bit broader in its nature, but it is necessary to include in this post. If you want to keep your garage organized, it is crucial that you tend to it more than just once per year. While the idea of a deep spring cleaning is nice, that should not be the only time that you go through the things that you have stored! Many people do not even sort through their sorted things annually, which is one of the biggest causes of accidental hoarding. Letting your things sit unattended in crates in the garage is one of the quickest ways to accidentally accrue too many things, and it is the reason there are so many garage sales. Where do you think the idea came from?

To avoid accruing too many things for your own good, simply make a point of sorting through the items in your garage every few months. While this may sound daunting or unnecessary, there is one huge upside; doing this four times per year makes each time shorter and easier, as there is never a giant mess to sort through. So, rather than devoting an entire weekend to cleaning out your garage in March or April, you can devote a couple of hours to it several times per year. Your garage will be clean, there will be no mess stressing you out, and you will have a better idea of what things you even have stored in your garage.

5.    Use Labels to Designate Areas for Items to Store in Your Garage

We talked about creating designated storage spaces, and we talked about adding a level of verticality to your garage to enhance the total amount of storage space that you have. However, we have yet to mention one of the most important parts of organizing: labeling. Labeling your storage space is one of the best things you can do to keep your garage organized, as it leaves no doubt to what items go where. Further, it makes finding the things that you are looking for exceptionally easy.

When it comes to labeling, there is no limit to what you can do. You can label large spaces categorically, with names like “lawn care,” “sports equipment,” and “tools.” You can label bins within those areas with even more detail, breaking out groups like “baseball,” “basketball,” and “golf.” You can even label the spaces where things ought to belong, like “her golf clubs” and “his golf clubs.” The possibilities are endless, and the whole idea is simply to provide structure to your storage space. Creating this structure is what keeps things from winding up all over the place.

6.    Don’t Try to Store too Much in Your Garage

This one could be considered a no-brainer, but it is so important to hear. One of the biggest reasons that garages tend to get so cluttered is simply because they are overfilled. You could follow every tip in this post and still wind up with an over-cluttered space because you are simply trying to fit too much into your garage. Your garage should house the things that are used frequently enough to remain in your house. It should not necessarily be used to store items that you use once every five years. Honestly, you might even be better off thinking about why you have things like that in the first place!

If you don’t have enough space to store your things anywhere else in your house, like in closets or in the basement, you may want to consider purchasing a shed or renting a storage unit. While these certainly cost money, they can drastically reduce the amount of clutter that winds up in your garage and leave you with a much happier, calmer space.

7.    Only Store Specific Categories of Items in Your Garage

This point plays into the previous one. If you are trying to cut down on the number of things that are stored in your garage, one of the best things to do is decide what categories of things deserve a space in your garage and what categories of things do not. For example, is your garage really the best place to store the folding chairs that you use every once in a blue moon? Is your garage the ideal home for the poker table that you have used three times in the past decade?

When you look at things on an item-by-item basis, it can be hard and time-consuming to decide what belongs in the garage. If you take a step back and say, for example, that sporting equipment belongs in the garage but party hosting equipment does not, your organizing efforts get much easier. All that’s left is finding a more suitable home for the things that don’t get stored in the garage.

8.    Be Strategic About What is Visible and Invisible in Your Garage

Another factor to consider when thinking about ways to keep your garage organized is what is visible and what is invisible. Your garage is likely large enough to where you can stack things on top of one another or place them in front of other things. This is one of the best ways to keep your garage organized, as it is a more efficient usage of your space. However, how do you decide which things should be front and center, and which things belong on the top shelves or in the back corners?

The answer to this obviously depends on your situation, but a common angle of approach is to store the most frequently used things in the front, and the less used things in the back. This helps you to not accidentally create a mess while digging through things to try and find what you are looking for. The more bins you have to take off of the shelf to reach the one that you want, the more likely they get haphazardly thrown back onto the shelf in a disorganized manner. The things that you use less frequently, like holiday decorations, probably do not need to be front and center, if they even get stored in the garage at all.

9.    Consider Storing Seasonal Objects Elsewhere

Some people are decorators, and others aren’t. Some people have new decorations to put around their house for each month, while others never change their décor at all. If you are someone who has swaths of seasonal decorations, you may find that storing them is a tall task. Christmas decorations are often the most space-consuming kind of seasonal decorations, but other things, like fall décor, tend to take up significant amounts of space, too. As these decorations literally only get used once per year, it might be best to tuck them away in a less accessible space for the majority of the year when they are not being used, as this can free up valuable accessible space in your garage.

10.  Use Your Garage for Purposeful Storage, not Clutter Relocation

Finally, stemming from the previous point, one of the best ways to keep your garage organized is to use it for purposeful storing, not just junk relocation. As humans, we often hesitate to throw away or get rid of things that we don’t really use. There is just something that stings about it. However, having a cluttered garage filled with useless object can be just as taxing, mentally!

If you want to have an organized garage, it is often best to be purposeful about what you store in it. Too much stuff can make any space feel overwhelming. Using your garage for a purpose – like storing lawn care supplies and tools – helps to keep it efficient. Turning it into a receptacle for misfit items just erodes its potential as a space and builds a large mess that you eventually need to spend a full weekend dealing with.

Thank you for reading our post on 10 clever ways to keep your garage organized! Hopefully this list has been helpful as you consider how to clean up your messy garage. Using your garage for storage is an incredibly convenient idea, but it is only worth it if you can organize your things and keep your garage in order. Chaos in a garage is nobody’s friend, and storing your things with no rhyme or reason is counterproductive in the long run.

If you decide to visit Myrtle Beach or any other place in South Carolina and fall in love, reach out to us for help. We at The Boyd Team are always here to help you figure out whether Myrtle Beach is your next home or not, and we are committed to helping you find the right property for your needs and dreams. Any question that you have about moving to the area and finding your dream home by the beach is our pleasure to answer. Feel free to send us an email at eddie@boydteam.com or text or call us at (843) 222-8566, and we will get back to you as soon as we can. Being true natives of the Grand Strand and Horry County and with over 25 years of experience in the local real estate market, whether buying or selling, we can help you make your dreams a reality.  

No One Knows The Grand Strand Better! Trust, Knowledge, Experience, Professionalism, You Can Count On!

Buying a home is a challenging and sometimes even stressful process. It can require a lot of effort, time, and patience to be a successful one. That can be even more true when it comes to first-time buying one.  Buying a house in a different state means that you will be facing a different set of rules and engagements. It also means that you will have more opportunities to find a home that is most suitable for your cause. Not every state provides the same options for first-time buyers. Depending on where you want to make your home, you might want to check out the benefits and opportunities first. Florida and South Carolina could be just the states you are looking for. This article is dedicated to Florida vs. South Carolina- which is better for first-time home buyers?

First-time home buyers

Before we dedicate ourselves to discovering which is better for first-time home buyers, Florida or South Carolina, let's take a moment to analyze some of the factors. There can be many factors contributing to this cause, but according to boydteam.com, these are the most crucial ones:

●     loan and mortgage access

●     loan and mortgage prices

●     downpayment

●     income, credit, and purchase requirements

●     property requirements

●     other

Depending on the state, this can vary greatly and can often lead to misconceptions and dilemmas. Therefore it is a sound strategy to carefully study your options before buying your first home. Since it will require a lot of your time and money, you must be sure you want to choose a specific option. Not being hasty and going all in can save you headaches in the long run.

Look for loan and mortgage prices when deciding which is better as a first-time house buyer.

Florida for first-time home buyers

Before we discuss Florida options for first-time buyers, note that this state has fixed-rate mortgages and all housing loan programs are on 30 years.

Loans

There are two loan options: federally-backed loans and HFA conventional loan programs. People who opt-in for traditional loan programs will enjoy lower mortgage insurance costs than the federal ones. The good part is that you can combine your loans with a down payment and closing cost assistance. There are a set of loan options for military personnel or retiree. Active members or veterans can apply for Salute Our Soldiers loan, which has many incredible benefits. It has lower rates than Florida's First program, but the good part is that you do not have to be a first-time home buyer to get one. On top of that, they are not mutually exclusive; thus, you can apply for both. According to experts at 247logisticservices.com, your primary residence must be located within Florida to enjoy any of these benefits.

Military personnel has access to good loan and mortgage programs for veterans in Florida.

Downpayment

When it comes to downpayment options and assistance, there are a couple of options you can go for. Whichever you choose, all of these programs work with a Florida Housing loan program. One is Florida Assist's second mortgage program. With FL Assist, one can apply for up to $7,500 at zero percent interest on a second mortgage to use toward a down payment on a conventional loan. That can increase to $10,000 if you are military personnel and apply for FHA, VA, or USDA loans. HFA-preferred grants can provide qualified borrowers with 3, 4, or 5 percent of the home’s purchase price for the down payment and closing costs. That is for five years. Homeownership Loan Program or FL HLP assists with a second mortgage with $10,000 at a 3% rate.

Moving from Florida to South Carolina

Moving can be a challenging process that involves a lot of your time and money. It also requires a lot of patience and can be stressful, especially when moving interstate. That is why it can be an excellent strategy to hire help. You can count on an experienced team to handle everything, from packing to unpacking. Your interstate move from Florida to South Carolina can become a breeze with them. Not only that, but you will save money and, more importantly, time, which you can devote to other matters.

South Carolina for first-time home buyers

Buying a home with assistance differs from when buying one in Florida. Let's see what you can expect in South Carolina.

Loans

SC Housing Homebuyer Program can be an excellent start for any young first-time home buyer. This program includes 30-year conventional and  FHA, VA, and USDA loans with competitive fixed interest rates. If you have not owned a home in the past three years, you will count as a first-time buyer and can apply for this option. Another pro of this option is that people with disabilities, veterans, and single parents can use it. But there are some requirements that you will need to meet. For example, you need a 640 minimum credit score for a conventional, VA, and USDA loan and a 620 minimum credit score for an FHA loan. There are also some property requirements, such as Sc purchasing price limit and the property in South Carolina, amongst others. There is also an SC Housing Palmetto Home Advantage program that offers competitive interest rates and down payment assistance of up to 4 percent of the loan amount. They offer a reduced insurance rate, as well.

 South Carolina has excellent programs for first-time home buyers.

Downpayment

SC Housing Down Payment Assistance program offers $7,000 to spend on a downpayment if you finish a homebuyer education course. These second mortgages come with no interest and no monthly payments. They can also be forgiven in 10 to 20 years, depending on your income. 

In conclusion

When discussing Florida vs. South Carolina- which is better for first-time home buyers, you have to check out these factors. Different states are providing various offers for first-time home buyers that can be very attractive. Informing yourself before committing to one solution can be in your best interest. Most experts would call this a tie, but it is up to you to decide which of these is the better option for you.

10 Ways to Utilize a Spare Bedroom in Your Home

Whether you have been living in the same place for a while and are shuffling things around or you are moving into a new home, figuring out what to do with the spaces that you have is often a very challenging goal. While some rooms are pretty straightforward – like the kitchen and bathrooms – the purposes of many other spaces in your home are widely up to you to figure out. Does a four-bedroom house really need to have four bedrooms? Do you really need two living rooms? Do you need a second walk-in closet for clothing, or can this be used in a different way? Figuring out what to do with the spaces in your home is often a fun challenge, but is nevertheless tricky and time-consuming.

One of the most adaptable rooms is the spare bedroom. While you may have a clear use for a set number of bedrooms in your home, often you don’t have an immediate need to use them all. This leads to an empty space to which you can do whatever you please. This post is going to outline some of the best ways to utilize a spare bedroom in your home, as space without a designated usage is a waste of valuable square footage!

1.    Use Your Spare Bedroom as a Guest Room

The first way to utilize a spare bedroom in your home is probably the most obvious – use it as a guest room. Guest rooms are invaluable to homeowners that host, as creating a dedicated guest space takes much of the stress out of hosting. Without a dedicated guest room, homeowners are often left juggling spaces and arrangements around whenever they offer to host guests in their home. With a dedicated guest room, the space is perpetually set up to host and takes very little effort to prepare.

If you’ve read our post on the best ways to go above and beyond as a host, you likely remember that having a dedicated guest room makes the list, as it gives guests their own space that is uniquely theirs throughout their stay with you. Knowing that the drawers, closets, and baskets are theirs to utilize during their stay often helps guests to get more comfortable in your home for the duration of their stay. While you may not use a guest room every day, it is one of the most straightforward uses for a spare bedroom in your home, and it is also one of the easiest to get set up!

2.    Use Your Spare Bedroom as a Workout Room

As the cost of living seems to continue to rise, finding ways to minimize monthly expenditures is more valuable than ever. If you are someone who goes to the gym, this gym membership is likely costing you an arm and a leg each month. The second way to utilize a spare bedroom in your home is by turning it into a gym or other workout space, where you can perform your favorite types of workouts without the need to drive to the gym or commit to a gym membership in the first place.

Yes, creating a workout space in your spare bedroom can be a bit expensive and the space is probably much smaller than a gym you would leave and go to. However, being able to roll out of bed and be at the gym within just a couple of minutes can save you a significant amount of time each day, and the equipment does eventually pay for itself. If you are intimidated by the costs or effort of creating a full gym in your spare bedroom, consider making a sort of aerobic and yoga studio, where you can at least complete all of your aerobic exercises and stretches in addition to yoga if you are a practicing yogi!

3.    Use Your Spare Bedroom as a Home Office

The third option on this list of the best ways to utilize a spare bedroom is to use it as a home office. While this point would have been relevant several years ago, it is even more relevant now. Remote work is at an all-time high, and many corporate careers have now shifted to be fully remote in nature. If you desire a full-time remote position, or a position that allows you to work in a hybrid role with some days at home and some in the office, using your spare bedroom as a home office is one of the best possible uses.

Working from home can be distracting, especially if you have little ones or animals running around. Having any roommate at all can even be a distraction! For these reasons, creating a room within your house where you can simply shut the door and focus on work is paramount to building success. This will help you to both do a better job with your work and also climb the ladder of success in your role. If you have your own business, one could argue that a home office is even more important, as you likely work long and odd hours solving the problems that face your business.

4.    Use Your Spare Bedroom as a Dedicated Reading Room or Library

We live in a world where there is constant stimulation coming in from every direction. It is often hard to find a space that is nice and quiet, even within our own homes. From the sounds of TV’s and phones to the barking dogs and playing kids, finding a quiet space to open up a book and really focus on its words can be a real challenge. These reasons are why the fourth way to use your spare bedroom is as a library or dedicated reading room.

Setting up a dedicated reading room, or library, within your home is one of the best ways to guarantee that you can always find this space to dive into a book. Not only is it helpful for your reading, but building a library can also be a very practical way of storing and displaying your book collection. While books could clutter up a bookshelf or table in your living room or bedroom, organizing them into a library in your spare bedroom is both aesthetically pleasing and practical. Further, seeing all of your books collected into one place is a great way to remember what you still have to read, and it can encourage you to make progress in your current book so that you can move onto the next one.

5.    Use Your Spare Bedroom as a Playroom

Normally, we don’t encourage messes. After all, if you want to preserve the value of your home, it is usually best to keep it as nice and neat as possible! However, the fifth way to use your spare bedroom is as a playroom for your children, if you have any. Creating a playroom offers many tangible benefits to parents, and it also gives children a sense of privacy and autonomy that they might not have elsewhere within the house.

Now, why is building a playroom advantageous for parents? Simply put, it limits the messes to one area. While kids will likely make messes in more than just the playroom, limiting the clutter of toys to just one room can make cleanup time much easier and straightforward. When their toys are scattered all around the house, cleaning them up can be an absolute nightmare. When you have a playroom and are in a pinch, you can always just close the door and address the mess later. As your children get older, you can teach them that the playroom is their own responsibility, and you can use the room as a way to show them how to organize their items. Long story short, having a playroom gives your kids a space that is truly theirs while also helping to keep your own spaces truly yours.

6.    Use Your Spare Bedroom as a Massive Walk-in Closet and Dressing Room

Who ever said there was such a thing as too much space for your clothing? While many homes come with walk-in closets, not every home does. For this reason, using your spare bedroom as a large walk-in closet and dressing room is a great option! This provides you with ample room to store your wardrobe, and you can also add properly angled mirrors to provide the best lighting when getting dressed. This gets excess clothing out of your bedroom and frees up any closets that you do have for storage of less aesthetically pleasing things.

Now, how would you go about turning a spare bedroom into a walk-in closet and dressing room? It’s actually not as hard as you might think. You can start by mounting rodding and shelves around part of the perimeter of the room, so that you can hang all clothes easily. Then, you can mount mirrors in positions that reflect light in the most flattering way based off of window and lighting positions. After that, you can take to a source like Pinterest to figure out how to decorate your new closet with style!

7.    Use Your Spare Bedroom as a Game Room

The seventh way to utilize your spare bedroom is by turning it into a game room. Turning your spare room into a game room provides you with a space that is always set up for fun and relaxation, leading to good memories and easy icebreakers any time you host. Much like having a playroom for your children keeps their toys all in one place, having a game room can help to consolidate your favorite entertainment pieces into one room.

While you could always play board games at a dining room table, setting up a game room enables you to have larger games, like ping pong or a pool table, and allows you to leave things set up consistently. Having a game room makes hosting easier, as you do not need to clear the dining room table to play games after dinner, and you can also use that space for appetizers and cocktails while you get dinner ready.

8.    Use Your Spare Bedroom as a Pet Room

Having pets can be an absolute joy. They say that dogs are a man’s best friend, and we would argue that all pets fall into that category! If you love your pets and treat them like a part of the family, doesn’t it make sense to give them their own space? While not everyone can do this, and it certainly isn’t up at the top of this list, providing your pets with their own room is a creative way to contain their messes to one space while giving them their own territory to enjoy.

Dogs, especially, are very territorial creatures, and giving them their own space to enjoy and own can be great for their temperament. In addition to that, containing the majority of their toys and shedding into one area can make cleaning easier for you, and it can also make putting them away easier when guests come over. If all of that weren’t enough, it contains the majority of their allergens into one space, which is a huge advantage if you have family or friends with dog allergies.

9.    Use Your Spare Bedroom as a Bar Room

If you do not like the idea of a game room but want an additional space to host guests, using your spare room as a bar room or lounge is one of the best possible ideas. Setting up a bar is not too difficult, and keeping it stocked with your favorite drinks is beneficial to both you and your guests! This space can be decorated with class, and it can also serve many purposes when you don’t have guests. This room can also function as your library or reading room, and you can have a glass of wine within reach while you read your book!

If you enjoy sports, this can also be a great type of room to put a big TV in. Imagine having your own sports bar at home! A leather chair, a nice TV, and your favorite drinks all in one place, without the need to pay restaurant prices for food and drinks while you turn on the game. When it comes to hosting, you can throw a virtual fireplace on the TV, mix up some of your favorite drinks for your guests, and use this space to entertain guests while the kitchen and dining room are used to prepare dinner.

10. Use Your Spare Bedroom as a Prayer or Meditation Room

The last, but certainly not least important way to use your spare room is to turn it into a prayer or meditation room. Much like how we mentioned it can be hard to find a quiet place to open up your favorite book if you do not have a dedicated library, it can also be hard to find a place to center yourself spiritually or religiously if you don’t have a dedicated reflection space. Having a place that is, in essence, you own temple, you can always guarantee an escape to your own type of serenity.

If you are religious, this space can be decorated with religious devotions and reminders from whatever religion you practice. If you are not religious, it can simply be filled with items and things that provide you peace and tranquility. Whether you decorate your room with candles and incense or motivational quotes, having a space that you can enter for the sole purpose of centering yourself is certainly a great idea, and a fantastic use of your spare room.

Thank you for reading our post on 10 ways to utilize a spare bedroom in your home! Hopefully these points have inspired you with ideas for your extra space. Whether you choose to turn it into a guest room, a game room, a bar, or something else, we hope that these points have at least opened your mind to the vast array of possibilities that exist for you in your own space. While this list is certainly not exhaustive, it should at least get your creative gears turning!

If you decide to visit Myrtle Beach or any other place in South Carolina and fall in love, reach out to us for help. We at The Boyd Team are always here to help you figure out whether Myrtle Beach is your next home or not, and we are committed to helping you find the right property for your needs and dreams. Any question that you have about moving to the area and finding your dream home by the beach is our pleasure to answer. Feel free to send us an email at eddie@boydteam.com or text or call us at (843) 222-8566, and we will get back to you as soon as we can. Being true natives of the Grand Strand and Horry County and with over 25 years of experience in the local real estate market, whether buying or selling, we can help you make your dreams a reality.  

No One Knows The Grand Strand Better! Trust, Knowledge, Experience, Professionalism, You Can Count On!

Benefits of Buying a Home with a Big Backyard

Caption: In this article, we will tell you all about  the benefits of buying a home with a big backyard 

Alt text: A backyard during sunset

There are a few essential features that an average person considers when buying a house. Number one is size. Depending on how many people are to live in that house/apartment (is it a bachelor pad or a place to have kids and start a family), you will choose one bedroom, two-bedroom property, or more. The next important thing to consider is the budget. It would be best if you focused on properties in your price range. People also really care about the location of their future homes. Some want to be in the city center; others wish to be somewhere more private and quieter. But there is one feature that undeservedly gets overlooked. And that is a backyard. Specifically, a big backyard. People often don’t consider it when choosing their possible home. Sometimes it’s because they think it will overwhelm their budget; sometimes, they don’t believe it’s useful or necessary. But we are here to prove them wrong. To do so, we will tell you about the benefits of buying a home with a big backyard. So, if you are looking to buy a new home soon and are not even considering a property with a backyard, try and read this article with an open mind. Who knows, maybe a nice big backyard is exactly what you need!

Some of the benefits of buying a home with a big backyard

• Great for hosting

• Good for kids

• You will make your pets happy

• You can expand

• Good for health

Caption: If you can afford it, you should invest in a nice patio in your backyard, so you can have a nice place for hosting 

Alt text: A patio set in a backyard. One of the main benefits of buying a home with a big backyard is being able to be a great host

You can host your friends and family

One of the benefits of buying a home with a big backyard is it gives you the ability to be a great host. When you have family and friends over, you need a space for hosting and entertaining. And it’s much nicer being able to go outside than always being stuck in a dining room. And oftentimes, you don’t have enough space inside the house; a backyard allows you to entertain bigger groups of people. Just imagine being able to go and have dinner outside during those hot summer days. You can buy dining tables and chairs and host fun family dinners. Or, if you can afford it, you can invest in a lovely patio or a big outdoor grill. According to experts at professionalmover.ca, big backyards are one of the most in-demand features on the real estate market precisely because people want to be able to host many guests in their homes. This is a great way to create long-lasting memories for you, your family, and your friends.

Caption: This will be a great investment in your kids' childhood 

Alt text: Kids hugging in a circle

It will be great for your kids

If you have kids or are planning to have them, you have to consider the impact of a big backyard on them. It will make their childhood so much better if they can go outside, play and run free. Your kids will appreciate not having to spend their time cooped up in an apartment constantly. Just think about all the time you will save not having to drive them to parks and playgrounds. This way, they will be right in front of your house so you can see them and check up on them whenever you like. You will have your playground at your doorstep. Also, they can invite their friends for playdates outside and have birthday parties.

Caption: A big backyard will make your pets really happy 

Alt text: Two golden retrievers

Your pets will appreciate it

This is something that will make your pets really happy. Yes, many pets live in apartments with no backyard but wouldn’t it be great if they had the opportunity to go and play whenever they like?

And it’s not just good for dogs; this will make your life easier as well. Home many times did you rush home or leave the party early because you have to walk your dog or take him out to pee? This way, he can do everything he needs in your backyard. You won’t have to go to the park whenever you want to play catch with him or let him run around. This is especially great for those hyperactive dogs who need a lot of daily physical activity.

Gives you the ability to expand

Having that extra space can be a lifesaver in certain situations. Imagine you want to have another baby, but you don’t have enough room, or your parents are getting older and want to move in with you. What will you do then? Instead of moving to a bigger house and going through that tiring process, you can utilize your backyard. When you have extra land like that, you can add an extension to your home and have space for everyone. You can add a spare bedroom or a small apartment detached from your house. This can also be good for your finances. You can start renting that extra room or apartment and make a good profit. It can also be a guest room for your friends and family when they come over. Or you can use it as storage space for everything you don’t have room for in your home. Also, if you ever decide to sell, a lovely spacious backyard can raise your price.

It’s good for your health

Having a backyard gives you a space to relax and enjoy the fresh air and beautiful nature. Just imagine being able to wake up in the morning and have a cup of coffee in your own garden. Life can get hectic and sometimes tiring, especially in big cities, so having somewhere to unwind like this is incredibly important. And it has been scientifically proven that having a backyard can be really good for your physical and mental health. 

Final thoughts

These were just a few benefits of buying a home with a big backyard, but there are a lot more. You must know that buying a house with a backyard is not just a good financial decision but an investment in your family’s future. This is a space where you will be able to create long-lasting memories with your friends and family. You will be able to watch your children grow up happily playing and running around. Hopefully, we managed to change your mind about the importance of backyards.

Meta Description: Not sure what kind of property you want to buy for you and your family? Check out our article about the benefits of buying a home with a big backyard!

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