9 Ways to Meet New People when you’ve Just Moved

Moving is a new beginning for your life in all kinds of ways. However, it can be hard to move away from all the familiar faces, friends, family, and maybe even pets. In order not to feel completely lost at your new location, we've collected some tips to help you meet new people.

Download an app

So-called dating apps don't necessarily need to mean that you're looking for someone to date. There are plenty of apps designed to meet new people around your neighborhood. A lot of expats or exchange students use these apps to meet people to hang out with. You can do this too! As long as you are clear about your intentions (e.g., stating "Looking for friends since I'm new in the area"), there will be plenty of people happy to get to know you and show you around the city/area.

Join a local Facebook group

Nowadays, almost every town has its own Facebook group. Some even have one group per location in this town. Just join a group and start a conversation, telling something about yourself and why you've moved here. While there may be more elderly than younger people in this group, you can still meet some impressive figures and perhaps even befriend them. Friendship has no age-limits.

Join a club

This is especially easy when you’re a student. Every university or college has some form of clubs in which you can join like-minded people and participate in group activities. When you’re not a student, there will still be events or classes around your area in which everyone is allowed to participate. Think of dancing classes, cooking classes, or just a weekly/monthly meetup at a bar. In most of these classes, you'll end up working in pairs or in small groups, which is a great way to start some small talk and get to know the people you're working with.

Meet-up

Speaking of meetups, the website meetup.com offers a lot of group activities in your city or nearby. In most cases, participation is free, and some groups are even designed for newcomers to meet new people. If you're an expat, there are also a lot of classes offering to show you around, teach you a new language (when applicable) and meet up with some locals to create new friendships.

You can enter a search term for one of your hobbies and select a location nearby to look for similar events nearby. If you don't have any specific hobbies, but want to meet like-minded people, there are also a lot of groups for particular genders, LGBT+ people and people from a certain profession to meet up and hang out.

Exercise

It might seem like an odd suggestion, but exercising is a great way to learn the map of your neighborhood and to meet new people as well. If you go jogging, you'll be out in nature, meet some neighbors, and you can explore your surroundings. If you go to the gym, there will be plenty of people to help you learn the ropes. Maybe you will even find a gym/jogging-buddy to go with you every few days. You'll get fit and friends in no time!

Volunteer

Volunteering is a great way to meet new people and to stay busy at the same time. Moving can be lonely, especially when you have absolutely no-one you know around. Volunteering at an animal shelter, salvation army, soup kitchen, or other establishments will help you meet new people, create meaningful connections, and do something good in the process. You could also visit a home for the elderly and have conversations with them. Most elderly people in such a home are lonely and have quite some good stories to tell from the past. Buy them a cup of tea and spend a lovely afternoon together.

You can also choose to volunteer around your neighborhood. Help people clean their lawn, rake up leaves, or shovel the snow out of other peoples’ driveway.

Host a potluck

What's a better way to bond than bonding over food? Using Facebook, Meetup, or another social media platform, you can advertise your event and ask people to join and bring their own food. Turn your living room into a cozy place and have an evening full of storytelling, games, and, of course, delicious food to taste. If you have specific dietary wishes/restrictions, be sure to mention them in your post, or you might have some unfortunate dishes.

If you don't feel like your place is big enough, or if you feel uncomfortable having strangers over, you can also look for potluck/dinner events nearby. You can still join, you can even cook, but you won't have the stress of hosting it in your own home.

Explore your local communities

Each city has at least a few events each year, and some even have weekly events. Find out what kind of events your town hosts and apply to participate. Some libraries also have weekly activities to join in on. The best thing is, most of these activities are entirely free. This allows you to socialize on a smaller budget without missing out on anything.

Host a housewarming

This last time is probably one of the most obvious ways to get to know new people when you've just moved to a new area. However, since we're all entirely on our own nowadays, housewarming parties are less common. Only invite your neighbors over for some snacks and a drink and get to know each other. If you get along fine, you may even find yourself building a beautiful friendship with them, which may help you for any future events as well.

The first step of meeting new people is usually the hardest: doing it. There is nothing wrong with feeling nervous or insecure. The above tips will help you get started. Do remember that not everyone is looking for new friends, but everyone likes meeting new people. Just be yourself, ask questions, and enjoy yourself. The rest will follow suit.