Best Tips for Nesting at Home

Written by: Nestiny Realty

Sometimes, due to weather incidents, sickness or other uncontrollable events it's simply best to nestle in and stay at home. We know this can be hard but we've compiled some tips that can make your time at home feel like an impromptu stay-cation.😉🍹

No Boredom Allowed

• Start (and finish) that book you bought last month.

• Get artsy — grab some pencils and paper and let your imagination go wild, try your hand at a watercolor painting or color a soothing picture in a grown-up coloring book.

• Dot-to-dots aren't just for kids!

• Sharpen your pencils and play a few rounds of Sudoku 🔢 or challenge yourself to a good ole crossword puzzle (bonus: they can be found in many newspapers and magazines).

• Break out your board games.

• Get crafty — make some cute vinyl designs with your Cricut or try out jewelry making. It's also never too late to learn how to knit, especially a cute blanket for your friend's new baby.

• Bake some delicious cookies 🍪 or muffins or try out a new recipe for dinner.

• Make s'mores over your wood-burning fireplace. 🔥

• Attempt homemade pizza and pair it with a classic movie.

• Turn your house into a spa — take a relaxing bath with fuzzing bath bombs 🛀, give yourself an at-home manicure and pedicure complete with a fun new color 💅 and apply a face mask. For extra relaxation, sip on your beverage of choice.

• Find a new show on Netflix (or favorite streaming service) and binge-watch all of the seasons.

• Revamp all of your social media profiles.

• Find your new favorite comedian. 😂

• Create a vision board with old magazines.

• Try a new podcast.

• Dust off those puzzles.

• Tour these 500+ museums from the comfort of your couch.

Get productive!

• Roll up your sleeves and start decluttering your nest (for inspiration check out 32 Ways to Instantly Declutter Your Home and 7 Modern Apps to Organize and Declutter Your Home).

• Try out meal planning and decide on your menu for the next month.

• Get a jump start on Christmas gift ideas and maybe even do some online shopping for deals. 🎄✅

• Reorganize your nest with Nestiny's Feng Shui Guide for a Harmonious Home.

• Do a deep clean and pay extra attention to spaces in your home that you usually skip.

• Go through all of the pictures on your smart device and organize/print them.

• Take the time to boost your home's curb appeal to prepare your house to sell.

Take it Outdoors

• Paint your front door a new color.

• Start an herb garden. 🌱

• Plant some seasonal flowers.

• Give your mailbox a facelift with fresh paint and numbers. 📫

• Liven up your porch with some new decor (thanks, Amazon).

• Set up a picnic in your backyard.

Nest Turned Workplace

In the case of an event that keeps you from physically going into the office, it's a great option to be able to work from home. Here are five tips for when your nest becomes your workplace. 🏠

1. Dedicate a "space" that you will be doing the majority of your work. This could be a desk in your office, a kitchen table or even your back patio in nice weather — basically wherever you will be the most productive.

2. Be proactive and set up your space with everything you will need to do your job (laptop, cell phone, planner, pens/pencils, etc.)

3. A perk from working at home is that it can be done in your PJ's BUT grab a cup of coffee and be ready to start your day before signing on. ☕️

4. While multitasking on things around the house and working may seem like a good idea it can majorly decrease your productivity. Instead, decide when your lunch hour will be and save the laundry for then.

5. Make sure to take a few breaks throughout the day to reset and refocus just like you would do when at the office. May we suggest a five-minute power nap on your sofa 😴 or a short walk to get some air? 👏

It's hard not to go stir crazy when you have to spend extended periods of time at home. But as you can see there are many fun, creative and productive things to keep you busy as a bee — even when you're homebound. So grab a yummy drink, settle into your nest and try something new!

Want more advice about all things home — including home buying or selling advice? Nestiny is a great place for homebuyer education and to help you gauge how ready you are to buy a home. Journey Homeward allows you to enter all your wants and needs while the True Affordability Tool will break down your budget, showing what you can comfortably afford. You will also receive a Ready Report that will give you a vital head start in the home buying journey, saving you valuable time and money.

Working from Home: PJs Aside, Some Helpful Tips

“”

Nothin's gonna break my stride, nothing's gonna slow me down...

Working from home is not for the weak. I have to do it on a daily basis and it takes structure and discipline to manage your time effectively. I know some of you are thrilled to be working at home during this time but are you prepared to be distracted? To sit for long periods of time? To eat everything in the house?? Start with a plan. Here is an example of some helpful tips.

1. SPACE. Whether it’s your home office or on the patio, find an area with the least amount of distractions and by NO MEANS do it where there is a television present. You will get sucked into a “Love is Blind” abyss. I tend to do a one hour show during my lunch break, right now being a rotation of This is Us, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Good Girls, and Outlander (don’t judge).

2. GET UP. This is the hardest challenge I have daily. Once I get in the zone, I will unwittingly sit for hours on end. So I decided to implement a new routine. Every hour, I get up, and do a ten to fifteen minute workout or I get more coffee or I do a chore.

3. GET DRESSED. I know it sounds dumb since you finally get to test out the durability of your pajama pants, but getting dressed puts you in the mindset that you are going to get something accomplished today, at least put pants on!

4. FRIENDS DON’T LET FRIENDS get off track. I do this. I like to text on my computer, which in all fairness is part of my job, but when the MEMES begin, the work ends. Isn’t it nice to finally get to catch up with friends without having to be on the clock. I get it, I miss them too, but keep it to a minimum and no matter if they have golf clubs or Prosecco on hand, just say, “Let’s see where I’m at in a few hours.”

5. SCHEDULE APPROPRIATELY. We always have to be aware that during this time, things will come up and we can’t always stay on task. Allow yourself a reasonable schedule for all the things you have to get done during the work day. I have a tendency to say, “Ok, from 10-noon I’ll be working on this.” What usually happens is I’m working on it for six hours. Keep track of your time.

6. CHECK IN. Even though I’m an independent contractor, I really enjoy checking in with my co-workers, just to talk about what everyone is up to and to keep morale going. It keeps your head in the game. Take this time to connect with your clients. You have time to see how they are doing or to touch base to see if they need anything. This is a grand use of this time.

7. GO OUTSIDE. Take yourself outside for a few minutes. Fresh air refreshes you and so does direct sunlight. You’ll tend to get cabin fever if your only solo time is in a room with four walls.

8. CHILDREN. I don’t have this issue, but a lot of you do especially right now with everything being shut down. Make sure you have that conversation with your kids. A neat trick I learned was to make a door hanger for when and when they shouldn’t disturb you. Here’s a better idea — get THEM to make it for you! Crafts, check. No Molestar, check. Do make time for them though. How wonderful that family time isn’t cramped into just at the end of the day.

9. SNACK. I will say, working from home, makes you eat more. Be smart and healthy about your snacking during the day. Pre-make some little snack packs and get the fam create their own “delivery service”.

10. GO SOMEWHERE. Go on a walk, go to the store, go to the bank, doesn’t matter. It’ll give you a chance to let your mind rest and a short time of decompressing before getting back to it.

---

LADY J’S HOME OFFICE WORKOUT PLAN

So here’s some added bonus I wanted to share with you. I do two things to help pass along my day of working from home. Sometimes, I set an alarm to every hour, to make me get up and do:

• 100 Jumping Jacks

• 15 Pushups (I’m getting there people)

• 25 Crunches

It’s a great simple thing you can do to get your heart pumping and out of your chair. The second thing I’m going to start implementing is 52 Card Work Out.

Get a deck of Cards. Divide them into five piles with one pile obviously will have 12 cards instead. Add the jokers for additional fun. Every hour take one pile and begin by flipping the first one. Whatever that card is, is a set of exercise. For instance, 2 of Hearts I will dedicate to push ups (cause I hate doing them!), the next card is 7 of Spades, I’ll now do 7 burpees. I’m sure this is on the internet as well. You can also divide up your exercises by suit as well, ie. Spades = squats. Remember Jacks, Queens, Kings, and Aces = 10. Good luck and have fun! When the CV is gone, you’ll be thanking the gym membership fee I just saved you, oh and you’re welcome for the toned abs.

Broken Hearts and Opened Doors

You’ve lived in this home for over 20 years. Now you and your partner have decided to split ways. Maybe with children, maybe with the now joint-custodied pet, but definitely a situation that can be incredibly emotional and stressful, add selling a home and you’re dealing with a “more than I can handle” situation.

According to the VDH, in 2018 there were over 20,000 divorces in Virginia. We all want that happily ever after and we all want the house it came in! The last thing you want to deal with while splitting up is splitting property. Unless you are fighting for a prime piece of real estate, most couples will sell their home. In Virginia, courts are not required to split real estate 50/50 between both parties. Instead, Virginia divides assets equitably and fairly, depending on who acquired the assets and how much each spouse put in. Judges can rule depending on how each party contributed to the house’s worth or they can rule to transfer the property to the spouse who maintained and improved the property primarily. Yes, I know Mickey did all the landscaping but she bought all the appliances! Not fun. So, to sell it is!

Now comes the hard part. The one where you weep as you pack up your belongings or see an old photo album. The one where you are arguing over who actually owns the signed copy of Prince’s Purple Rain album or you’re both in the kitchen reminiscing about a wooden spoon tale involving their mom and your tail. While all of these things are taking place in your home, you will soon have to publicize it to the world with a For Sale sign. Don’t worry, this too shall pass.

When you decide to choose an agent to sell your home during this time, there are some things to consider. First and foremost, you want an agent who is going to listen to you, whether you are eye-bloated from tears or red with rage or exhausted from the drain of it all, to have a realtor go above and beyond during this time would make a world of difference. Sounds silly right? What do you care if your realtor is there to hold your hand or not? I dunno, I mean I go spill everything to my acupuncturist when I’m feeling overwhelmed, or the nearest bartender. The point being, empathy is not dismissed in real estate.

I recently had a client who had to sell her home because she was going through a sudden divorce. She had to sell it quickly with no fuss. There were good days and bad days for her and all I could do was to communicate with her frequently, give her solid and cost-effective suggestions, and be understanding with her adamant price choice. I had to watch her go through the “death” of her relationship, and as an agent I wanted her to get the best value out of her house and push where I need to, but as her empathizer I wanted to dig the thorn out and sell it as quickly as possible so she could move on.

That’s the thing about agents, we see it all. We see the collected dust on shelves, we see the family photos we ask you to remove, we feel the tension with couples trying to figure it out, and we understand having to give up what will soon be an artifact in your history together. It’s personal. It’s intimate. Our relationship. So although we are watching you close this chapter of your life, we are also trying to help you, well…close, with the potential for a whole new chapter.

My advice is, when you are going through something this life changing, make sure you choose someone who is not only going to give you the truth about what it will take to get you sold, but to also remind you that this is a transition, and you can provide a lighter touch. And yes, I will bring you pizza or a six pack to help you get through it all. You may have built memories there, but you can take this and file it away and move on to that low maintenance condo in the city or that Cape Cod you’ve always wanted. No one wants to be in this place, but sometimes we have to go through it to get to a better one.

Working with a Contractor? Here's some good advice...

10 Pieces of Advice for Working with a Contractor

As realtors, working with contractors is quite common, but as clients finding the right one who will fit our needs can be difficult. We have 10 good pieces of advice when hiring a contractor that will help you on your home project journey.