Five Tips for Moving to a New City

BreakingModern — Moving to a new city isn’t easy. It’s pretty much the equivalent of starting over. While it takes time to settle in, here are some ways to make the transition a smoother process to finding your way around.

moving

Join Groups

There are tons of groups to join that can help you to connect with people who share similar interests. Websites like Meetup and Eventbrite are the perfect way to meet people and attend local events. It’s a great way to start exploring your new city while figuring out where your place is in it. Plus it can also help you land a job.

House Hunting

When it comes to moving to a new city, the most important criteria is finding a place to call home. Some people are able to find permanent or even temporary housing before they even move. It’s perfectly fine if you haven’t crossed that off your agenda since there are so many options today like hotels and Airbnb. Finding the right apartment or house can take time and it’s important to check out all the neighborhoods before committing yourself to a place.

Here are two ways to find housing.:

  • Craigslist — This website doesn’t have the best track record for being safe and often has many scammers searching for their latest victim. It’s not to say that you can’t find a job or an apartment on here though. It just means that you will have to use your best judgment and discretion to filter out if something is too good to be true.
  • Rooms & Roommates closed Facebook pages — There are a number of pages on Facebook dedicated to people looking for a roommate, a room to rent or a semi-permanent place to live. These group pages tend to be closed. But once you’re in, you can find a surplus of options to suit your needs. Look for wording like “Rooms,” “Roommates” or “Sublet” followed by the name of the city you’re moving to. Some of the cities that have this Facebook page include New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Miami, Chicago, Boston, Atlanta and Houston.

moving

Mingle With Locals

There’s no better way to meet new people than by going out. Mingle with neighbors and people as much as you can. It may seem like a cliché but using the line “I’m new here” actually works a lot! Most people are willing to help you learn about the new area and provide insight into important survival tips. As you slowly meet people, there will be those that you will instantly connect with. Stay in touch with them. You never know. They might become your new BFFs.

Go With the Flow

This is probably the most important advice to adhere to when moving to a new city. It’s no secret the first year will be a bit hectic, so being able to handle anything out of the ordinary will make things much easier to deal with. Chances are you will find that your new city will have a few differences compared to your previous city. Embrace the differences and take note of them. Learn to accept each city and the culture for what it is. Say yes if people invite you to events.

Use Apps

There’s an app for just about everything you may need (like Uber/Lyft to travel in a new city if you don’t have a car). Learning the different areas in each city can take a long time since many people will have different opinions about the bad neighborhoods and the good ones. There are a number of apps out there to make life easier to estimate the commute time and when it comes to getting transportation. For instance, the Citymapper app is able to provide the commute time for all transportation methods such as driving, taking public transportation, walking, biking and calling Uber.

For BMod, I’m Alicia Chinatomby.

All Screenshots: Bmod Staff

Alicia Chinatomby

Author: Alicia Chinatomby

Based in New York City, Alicia Chinatomby covers trends and personalities for BreakingModern. Follow her at @AliciaC_7 on Twitter.

Share This Post On

Submit a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <strike> <strong>