One of the best ways to prepare for a move is to free your mind of distractions so that you can focus solely on getting yourself packed up and relocated. Ridding yourself of distractions can be mentally and physically demanding. Mentally, it means checking things off your list as you’re preparing to move. Physically, it means all of the things you own or physically care for in your life. The number one physical distraction when preparing your home for a move is clutter. Getting rid of clutter will go a long way to help your move become an easier process, and will make the packing part of your move easier as well!
Reasons To Declutter
Simplifying Your Move
Stress is pretty difficult to avoid when you’re trying to prepare yourself for a move. Just thinking of all the boxes you’ll need to load up in your home can be overwhelming. Organizing your belongings into moving boxes would be a much easier process if you decide initially to get rid of the things you no longer want or need.
The best way to do this is by setting aside an area and a few boxes in each room just for the things you don’t want to take with you on your move. Just the simple process of separating out what isn’t going with you can help you wrap your mind around all the items that are left.
Reducing Waste
If you move to a new place with things you don’t need or want, you’re wasting; wasting time and wasting space. Who wants to spend extra time packing up boxes of unwanted items only to have to unpack them and find a spot for them in your new home?
It may seem like a hassle to separate clutter and other unwanted items while you’re preparing to move, but you’ll save yourself valuable hours and moving materials by leaving the undesirables behind. Once you get on a roll getting rid of clutter, you may find you can actually rent a smaller truck for your move than you thought. Often, we don’t realize what we really don’t need until we get started with the process.
Saving Money
Perhaps one of the most valuable reasons to declutter your home before making any other moving preparations is the sheer amount of money you’ll save by doing so. The less you have to move or store yourself, the less you’ll pay in movers fees and packing supplies. If you’re doing the entire move yourself, then good news. You may be able to rent a truck that is significantly smaller, resulting in some bigger savings for yourself.
Helping Others
You can help others in a few ways by decluttering before you move. Most of the things you’ll choose to get rid of still are quite functional. It may be that you have extra kitchenware that’s perfectly nice that’s no longer needed. Or perhaps, you have one too many dressers for your new home. Maybe you plan on buying a new patio set when you reach your final destination.
There are plenty of charity organizations that will come to your home and pick up all of your unwanted items, even furniture. Relatives are also a good source, especially if you want to keep certain items in the family. If there are younger relatives just starting out, they may really appreciate putting all of your unwanted items to good use.
Making Money
And, of course, there are plenty of opportunities to sell your unwanted items if you think they’ll fetch a decent price. Online sites like Facebook Marketplace or Craigslist are good places to start to advertise your items. Often you can arrange pickup of the items at your house, so there’s minimal work to be done on your part.
Or, if you’re more traditional, you can hold a yard sale. If you’re organized enough, you can even join a community yard sale far enough in advance of your move – if that’s something popular in your area.
Time To Get Started
First things first. Make a plan. Decide whether you’ll be giving it all away, or if you’d like to sell some things too. Once you choose where your things will go, make sure to know what items your charity of choice will and won’t accept. Once you have that determined you can open your calendar and set aside a day or two for each room you plan to declutter months ahead of your move. This will give you a way to declutter with as little stress as possible.
Now it’s time to start with your first room. Make it an easy one so you aren’t completely overwhelmed at first. Try starting with the guest room or family room and working your way up to the basement or garage. It may be hard at first to declutter, but stay strong. Parting with items you thought were near and dear to you becomes easier as you go.
There are general rules for deciding what to take and what to keep. Usually, if you haven’t used it in over two years you can lose it. There are exceptions to the rule, however. If you’re an outdoor enthusiast who is dying to move away from the suburbs to get back to the mountains, then you may want to hold onto that one-man tent you haven’t used in ages.
There will be some obvious things you can part with pretty easily. Clothes that are too small or out of fashion, kid’s clothes, old sporting equipment, duplicates of household items you already own, extra sheets, blankets, pillows, old keepsakes that are withering away from age and neglect, etc.
Once it’s all said and done, you may find you’ve cleared out nearly a third of all of your possessions. You may surprise yourself by the discovery that you own so much, especially given the fact that things seem to accumulate in our homes right under our noses the longer we live there. Decluttering is not just about getting rid of all those unwanted or unneeded items. It’s about simplifying your life, saving time, saving space, and saving money. Give yourself plenty of time to prepare, and you’ll be thanking yourself for it.
