How White House Gets Prepared for New First Family?

As the Bidens move into the White House, the place had already underwent a huge work by dozens of its staff to get it prepared and ready for its new occupants.

The process usually starts straight after the election, but this time, it started weeks late as Donald Trump refused to accept the results.

Even in the best of times, the logistics of a transition are daunting, involving the transfer of knowledge and employees on a massive scale.

Desks have been cleared out, rooms scrubbed clean as the president's aides will be replaced by a new team of political appointees. Stephen Miller is just one of 4,000 political appointees hired by the Trump administration who will lose their job and be replaced by inpiduals hired by Mr. Joe Biden. This is part of the massive transformation that a new presidency brings to the heart of government.

[caption id="attachment_204440" align="aligncenter" width="362"] Workers loading boxes into a truck outside the White House last week.[/caption]

Four years of policy papers, briefing books and artefacts relating to the president's work were carted off to the National Archives where they will be kept secret for 12 years, unless the president himself decides that portions may be released early.

Furniture in the White House, such as the Resolute Desk in the Oval Office, most of the artwork, china and other objects, belong to the government and remained on the premises.

But other items, like photos of the president that hang in the hallway, will be taken down as the White House is transformed for its new occupants.

Staffers are already moving some items out of the building. One White House staffer, a woman was lugging several images of First Lady Melania Trump out of the East Wing. The pictures are known as "jumbos" because of their extra-large size, she says, and they will be taken to the National Archives.

The Trumps' personal belongings, such as clothes, jewelry, and other items were moved to their new residence, most likely at Mar-a-Lago in Florida.

According to New York Times, it’s the awkward pas de deux performed every four or eight years when one family moves in and another moves out, an undertaking carried out by the 90-person White House residence staff in about five hours.

"A complicated, highly choreographed process is done on a tight schedule that often requires boxing up whatever has been left unpacked — some outgoing presidents are more prepared to leave the executive mansion than others," the newspaper wrote.

This year, people involved in the process said, moving day also involves additional cleaning and safety precautions because of the coronavirus.

Everything from handrails to elevator buttons to restroom fixtures will be wiped and sanitised.

On another hand, the incoming first families usually do some redecoration. Within days of arriving at the White House, Mr Trump had chosen a portrait of populist president Andrew Jackson for the Oval Office. He also replaced the drapes, couches and a rug in the office with ones that were gold-coloured.

On their part, the Bidens had no plans to immediately bring in an interior decorator or begin personalizing the space.

Betty Monkman, a White House curator for more than three decades who helped supervise the 2001 changeover from Bill Clinton to George W. Bush. “Sometimes beds have to be brought in, sitting rooms are converted into bedrooms.”

The Carters, for instance, moved into the White House with very little of their own furniture, relying mostly on pieces from the permanent collection.