A Guide To Decluttering Your Home When Moving

A new move can be thought of as a lengthy and dreaded process or present itself as a perfect opportunity to sort through belongings and filter through everything, discarding old and unused items. Give yourself and your family the fresh start you deserve in your new home by planning ahead and removing any useless clutter before your move.

Follow this simple guide to prepare for your move and quickly and efficiently declutter your home.

How to Declutter Before Moving Day

Preparation: Use a notebook as a moving journal to plan out and organize your moving strategy. This notebook can hold everything from To Do Lists to receipts, moving schedules, and budget breakdowns. Remember to jot reminders about where certain things are packed or where they need to go for the move. Set deadlines for each phase of your moving process so you can stick to a schedule.

Purchase the Following:

some color coded moving labels
bubble wrap, old newspapers or packing paperwork
sturdy boxes or bins
packing tape
bin liners

Tips for Low Stress Decluttering

Decluttering before a move can make any moving process easier and give you a little extra space in your new home. Even if you consider yourself a hoarder these quick and simple tips can really make a difference.

Start Right Away!

Give yourself plenty of time to dispose of clutter in every room. Moving junk drawers and closets full of stuff you never wear doesn’t make sense. Somehow we’ve all been guilty of doing it. It becomes so easy stuffing a bunch of junk in a box that we often don’t think twice about it when moving. This is the reason why it is so important to start early, and be mindful when going through each room. Who knows you could end up finding a few items you’ve been searching for or a tonne of stuff you can sell.

Declutter One Area at a Time

Decluttering one area at a time will help you stay organized and focused. It is important to take your time when going through your belongings in order to not end up with a very full storage or keep box.

Use the Four Boxes Method

Find 4 boxes and label them with the 4 categories:

Bin It:

Anything not worth donating or selling that you do not want or need.

Give Away/Sell/Recycle It:

Give Away some of your belongings. Think about all the items just taking up space you no longer use that someone could really benefit from. You could be generous and donate some of your old belongings. According to UK Government statistics, there are approximately 2.4 billion pieces of unworn clothing lying in the nation’s wardrobes.

Sell some of your items and make a little extra cash. Enjoy the financial perks of selling some of the items you barely use to sites like Amazon, Ebay, or Facebook. This can be especially helpful when you think of all the added moving expenses.

Recycle all of the items you can. When sorting through your home, if you find old electronics collecting dust and want to be eco-friendly you can conveniently sell ipads, smartphones, and game consoles to online tech recycling sites that will pay you cash for your items, you can even sell your silverware online. If you’re unsure of your recycling options, check your council website for all the local options. Usually, there is a free bulk collection service available for larger household items.

Store It:

Items you cannot part with, but do not have room for, hardly use, or are not in season are placed in the storage box. Just make sure you take inventory of the items as you pack them in the box. This is a perfect opportunity to store out of season clothing to help clean out those cluttered closet spaces.

Keep It:

These are the items you need or use on a daily or weekly basis. In theory this box should be the smallest.

Here are a few more pointers!

Set aside time each day to declutter and pack 3 – 4 boxes.
Pack up everything that is non essential to your everyday life (examples: books, collections, toys, holiday decor, and special occasion kitchenware).
Continue to cross off items on your to do lists and keep yourself organized on what you have done and what is still left to do.
It helps to stack up boxes in a secure spot in your home once you are finished with them.
Try to pack by category, and not by room. Many don’t realize this until they start unpacking and see how helpful it is to have all their books, or toys in one place.
When making labels have the room it belongs to and the items in the box (example: Kitchen (room) mixer, bowls, plates, baking dishes (items)) this will help whoever is moving the boxes to know where to place them quickly in your new home.
Keeping the essential cleaning supplies close by comes in handy.
Declutterring and packing are mentally and physically draining. Avoid spending too many hours at a time packing. Try to give yourself enough time to do a few hours each day. Around two to five hours is a good amount of time to spend each day.

If you are like most, you can agree the best part about decluttering before a move is having less to unpack when you’re in your new home! Hopefully this simple guide has given you a few helpful ideas to make moving a little less stressful and a little more enjoyable!