Pro Tips: Decluttering BEFORE You Move
Welcome to PART 2 in my series about all things moving (featuring our own personal experiences).
Packing your home to move is the perfect time to declutter because you are already going through all your belongings to put them in boxes AND you don’t want to spend time and money to move items that you no longer need or want. Why deal with the extra boxes later, when you can clear out the clutter now?!
While I went through all my spaces and decluttered prior to putting our house on the market (read the previous blog post to find out why), as I packed up our home, I gave thought to everything I was packing. Would we use this in our new home? Would I buy this again if given the option? Have we used this in the past year? Do we NEED it? There was a surprising amount of items that I had skipped over in my first decluttering, but was ready to give away this second time around. Decluttering can be an ongoing process for most people. I also took this opportunity to assess our furniture, because why move heavy furniture to a new house that we won’t even want to use. We knew we wanted a new couch and living room furniture (a different look), plus we weren’t certain the sectional would even fit in the new house (it wouldn’t have). We sold it, along with our media console, coffee table, kitchen table, dining room table, and accent chairs. In hindsight, none of these pieces would have fit well in our new home, so we are glad we did not pay to store them the past several months. The family that bought our house asked to buy our dresser, armoire, patio furniture, and entryway setup, so while I did like those pieces and they would have worked in our new home, we saved money on moving and storage by not storing those and can start fresh in our new home.
Things that you can quickly declutter prior to moving:
Clothes that don’t fit
Out of style clothing and accessories you won’t use
Kids clothes for a different season that they will outgrown by the next year anyways
Kitchen appliances you never use
Kitchen gadgets you don’t use
Decor items that won’t work in your new space
Decor items you don’t like (why keep items just because?)
Things taking up space in the garage that no one ever remembers to use
Duplicate kitchen items
Duplicate toys
Duplicate tools
Toys your kids never play with or have outgrown
Need help decluttering and packing? Give me a call or fill out my inquiry form here!
