Whether it's your first time down the aisle, or you're celebrating a second chance for lasting love, midlife matrimony brings major lifestyle changes. One of the biggest is moving into a new home where you both share the space, the chores and the joy of domestic bliss. The logistics of moving household goods and belongings from two individual homes into one can be as challenging as planning the wedding ceremony itself. To reduce the stress, make decisions about furniture and decorating early – and together. Organize what to keep, what to store and what to discard before you call the moving company to transport belongings from both of your houses.

Design Themes to Inspire Move It -vs- Don't Move It Decisions

One of the things that inspired you to marry in midlife might be your shared sense of style. If you and your soon-to-be spouse have the same taste in decor, duplicating the design theme in your new home is an easy task. You only need to figure out what pieces actually fit in each room. But what if you have sleek, contemporary furniture and your partner's design style favors antiques and overstuffed chairs? Or maybe one person's furniture features natural wood finishes and the other has all black bookcases, bedroom sets and other furnishings? You have options, including:

Alternating room styles. Use one partner's furnishings in the new home's public areas such as the living room and dining room. Use the other partner's furniture in the bedrooms, family room and other living spaces. This design choice is efficient and functional, and that may be sufficient until after you've lived together longer and develop a sense of style as a couple.

Transitional design style. This style, known for its complementary blend of classic and contemporary furniture and accessories, is a delightful way to incorporate items that you've acquired by the time you've reached midlife into one attractive theme for the new place. Transitional style works best when you start with neutral colors for the walls, drapery and floor coverings – so you might have to plan on painting walls and buying new curtains and area rugs to make the look really pop.

On a floor plan drawing of your new home, sketch in the placement of the sofas, chairs, tables, beds and other major items you selected from each of your homes as "keepers" to fit your new design theme. Make two lists, one for each of your households, of what you'll be keeping from each household. These lists make it easy to mark items before the movers arrive so they'll know what to take and what to leave behind.

Arrangements for Unused Furniture and Household Good

Setting up your new home is a wonderful excuse to discard unnecessary things from your life. And by middle age you may have accumulated more than you imagined when you started organizing this move. You only want to move the items that are necessary to furnish and enrich your blended home. For everything else, consider these possibilities:

• Gifts. Give your children, friends and family members items that have sentimental value for them. Your kids might also appreciate your extras to help furnish their own homes.
• Storage. If you plan to eventually move to a larger home or buy a vacation property, use of your moving company's storage options for extra furniture that's in good condition
• Donations. Contact local charitable organizations to take the remaining items for their fundraising efforts or to use in furnishing shelters and homes for those in need.

Conquered a big challenge like blending your household goods into one comfy, cozy, happy home can give you the confidence that everything else about midlife matrimony is do-able with gracious compromise and a will to make a good life for yourselves together. For more information, contact a business such as Bell Moving & Storage.