Just close escrow on a newly-built home? Let’s look at ways to make your move easier as well as examine some great ways to settle in and get to know your new home neighborhood. Your journey as a new homeowner is about to begin.

As the very first occupants of a newly built house in a brand new neighborhood, your experience will be a bit different than the one you’d have if you’d purchased an older home in an established community. No one understands you plight better than your neighbors -- who are either still unpacking boxes or have the recent memory of having done so.

When you have a question whose answer can be gleaned from recent neighbor experience, it shouldn’t feel quite as awkward to ring their doorbell as it would in an older area. These comrades-in-arms may even be able to give you insight as to how you can improve on their own experience of settled now that hindsight has come into 20/20 focus.

On a side note, you don’t have to do this all alone if you’re willing to budget for some help. If you’ve watched reality TV shows dealing with un-cluttering, staging or decorating, you know that professional organizers now have a flourishing cottage industry going throughout the country. To find one, go to the web site for the National Association of Professional Organizers (napo.net) for a list of organizers near you.

Now down to business. Even though the builder usually brings in a cleaner to detail the house just before close of escrow, you still may want to perform some mild once-over cleaning jobs to countertops, sweep or mop floors, vacuum new carpets and dust out cabinets, since new paint and drywall can sometimes leave a fine film wherever it settles.

Run water through new pipes for a while, flushing them and giving the system time to ramp up in preparation for the washer and dryer hook-ups, toilets being used and hot showers being taken by bone-weary helpers within the next day or so.

Make up a move-in schedule, giving a copy to each family member, friend or relative who will be participating. The schedule should set priorities for the first few days, keeping everyone moving at a steady pace instead of standing around, chatting with one another when they should be working, or nagging you about what they should do next. If you really want to have a good laugh (or a good cry), have a friend video your moving day-- to be played back on a computer or TV screen during a thank-you pizza party that night or a week or so later. The early photos and videos you take when your house is brand new serve as a reminder of your beginnings -- after trees grow tall, little ones grow into big ones who go off to college, and your tastes have changed in furniture and decorating.

Once the moving van arrives, it won’t be long before you are surrounded with all your “stuff.” The first favor you’ll need to do for yourself is to set a realistic time frame to get the most important things in place. Try to take a little extra time off work or use vacation time for the task at hand. Send young children to Grandma’s or fly her in for a few days to help with childcare while you focus on making an organized move. An organized move means that your primary goal is to make room for cars in the garage before several months have gone by.

Setting up the beds and placing large pieces of furniture should be the first order of business. Even if you’re not a good artist, you can draw a rough diagram of each room and label where each major piece will be placed. Place smaller items like lamps, framed art, smaller boxes and unboxed items out of the way – in closets of the rooms in which they will be eventually be used -- or left in the garage. Most moving experts agree that closets should not be a focus on moving day. And if your plan is to install built-in shelving and storage for some of your new closets within a week or so, it may be best not to set things up at this point anyway, leaving items in labeled boxes.

If you want to tackle the kitchen next, take out some essential plates, glasses, coffee cups and a few pots and pans and run them through the short cycle in your new dishwasher, especially if they were wrapped in newsprint. While that’s being done, plan where logic dictates items should be in this newly uncharted area. For example, a coffeemaker requires the use of water, so placing it not far from the sink would be wise. Everyday-use items should be the most accessible (immediately within view when opening a cabinet door), while items used more infrequently or just for entertaining can go into more out-of-the way cabinets.

If you have a pantry, arrange items with labels facing forward and place larger items in the back, graduating them by size until the smallest are in front so that you can see them at glance. Tiered carousel storage and stair-step organizers are great too. Some new homes also come with adjustable shelving and built-in lazy Susans in less accessible cabinets.

Moving gurus recommend that you make the goal of finishing up one room before moving on to the next one, since you can become easily distracted, especially by family members wishing for things to be done in short order. Preparing other helpers for how things will be done ahead of time may save you from some of the stomach acid produced on moving day. If your plan for the first day is to just get the basics done in the kitchen while tending to only the most immediate needs – like unpacking towels, toilet paper, soaps and shower curtains for bathrooms and making up beds for the first night -- don’t beat yourself up for not doing more.

Garages are the most neglected areas during and after a move-in. As you use each box, break it down and place it in stacks or against walls by size, either to save for the future, recycle or give away to some lucky soul. A great place to sell or give away boxes is on Craigslist.org. – a growing online flea market of sorts. Investing in some garage organizers, shelving or bins is money well-spent at this point. Get hooks for hanging up off-season bicycles and lesser-used but bulky toys, ski or other sports equipment and gardening tools so that they are not taking up valuable floor space.

Neighbors love to show off what they’ve already accomplished – and who can blame them now that you’re now in the throes of the same upheaval they had to go through? If they invite you to take a look at what they’ve done inside the garage and you love it, ask if you can take a digital photo to refer back to when you get around to making permanent locations for items in your garage. A handy item for the distance-challenged among us are heavy rubber floor “bumps” – used for detecting when the nose of your car is sufficiently forward to clear closing the garage door. This may save you the embarrassment and frustration of leaving a dent in your garage freezer or brand new storage cabinets.

If you have more than two family members using garage door openers, you can buy more from your local big-box hardware store and program them to the same frequency as the ones your builder provided.

Some details to look into after your move-in may include a visit to the community’s post office to get keys for the communal mailbox – something newer neighborhoods can have in common. You may have to call the gas company to revisit your house to turn on the gas service – ask your builder about having to anticipate this task before you move in.

Be sure to keep all the manufacturer’s booklets for your appliances and systems handy for when questions arise. Oh -- and one other off-the-wall suggestion! Don’t throw out your original builder brochure. This may sound strange to hear when we’re talking about your recent move-in, but think of it this way: this will come in extremely handy if and when you decide to sell this lovely home. It can serve to remind both you and your future Realtor of all the features both the builder and you have added to the house as well as provide a floor plan to use in a marketing brochure. It’s also another memory-maker, permitting you to look back and think about what it took to get you to this place in your life.

Now is the time to review your new home warranty if you haven’t’ done so. If you want to keep your house in tip-top shape, examine the tasks you’ll need to do within the first year of your occupancy and schedule them into your calendar. Begin making a punch-list of things the builder will need to attend to from the very first week you’re there, including anything left over from your walk-through orientation that has not been resolved. And if the builder doesn’t automatically call you for your 30-day warranty appointment, take the bull by the horns. Alluding to a line out of a movie – help them help you. It will make everything a lot less stressful and remove the confrontational aspects associated with demanding that imperfections to be corrected.

Relocating is a stressful business, but feeling at home is just as much about people as it is about shelter. Getting settled may take extra effort on your part if it’s not your custom to circulate socially in a new setting.

Once the memories of boxes, crumpled newspaper and the smell of fresh paint begin to fade, you can make the task of getting to know your new community easy by getting out of the house for a period of time you set each day – walking the dog or going to a nearby park and seeking out new friends. Or, you can make it a difficult and slow process by staying cooped up during your time at home. As we mentioned in the first chapter, getting to know your neighbors is usually easier by far in new home communities than in older home areas because of the de facto situation you’re thrown into.

If your homebuilder is still selling homes in your neighborhood, it may hold neighborhood gatherings or coffee klatches geared towards getting new neighbors together, encouraging them to bring other friends or family members along. If yours is a builder who cares that much about its homeowners, you are indeed lucky and should not pass up the opportunity to introduce yourself to your new neighbors.

Community service and volunteerism may be one of the best ways to forge new ties. Local community centers, churches or schools offer lot of opportunities to give without any expectation of receiving – one of the best ways to feel good about what does finally come around. In new areas, you maybe able to get in on the ground floor of groups and chapters just beginning to form.

But most of all, give yourself time. Just as it will take time for your new trees to grow and your lawn to take root, it will take time for you to make this house into a home. You’ve come a long way since the days of driving around new home areas, assessing the lay of the land, choosing a builder and agonizing over your choices at the design center. You’ve just crossed a new frontier, participating in what many people refer to as the American Dream.

You have every right to pat yourself on the back and say “bravo” as you sit in your new family room with your feet up, soothing music playing, and a cup of something deliciously warm in your hands.

It’s beautiful, its new and best of all, it’s yours.