Decluttering Before You Move

If there is no other organizing thing you do you must declutter before you move.

I say that so boldly because I’ve just moved, in a fairly organized manner I think I can say, and the one area where I failed miserably is in the decluttering department.

Decluttering  can save so much in the headache arena that you surely do not want to miss the opportunity when it’s your time to move.

I’m into week 3 living in my new home after a hefty move and I did not heed my own advice.

Why not? What’s my excuse?

Well I got so disgusted at the endless house hunting I felt that we would never move and so I gave up. I gave up and didn’t resume packing until we had signed on the house.

Now 3 weeks and 10 pounds later (yes I lost weight) I know my own folly and if I ever move again (probably will) I will hurl, toss, giveaway and sell with the best of them!

Decluttering is one of the best things about moving (because there are so many bad things).  It is the ideal time to streamline your home.

De-cluttering before you pack is that it let’s you weed through your belongings and find out what you’ll have room for, and what you won’t in your new home.

Moving is one of the best times to do a proper de-clutter – in fact sometimes, its the only ‘spring cleaning’ that some people do. And while its always good to hang onto things of sentimental value, do you really need that newspaper from 1985 with an article about something that you needed to follow up within a week of the printing?

So here are some tips for decluttering.

• Get rid of any papers that you don’t need (though keep all important documentation).
• Consider donating any magazines, and books to your library.
• You can donate old toys or clothes in good condition to a local charity.
• Or you can make some moving cash and sell some excess items on Ebay.

It helps, if you’re having trouble letting go of some items, to know that these donations and sales will go to someone who needs and will use them.

So do yourself a favor. If you know you’ll be moving in the next year or so get started now and start decluttering a step at a time.

What am I doing since I didn’t declutter effectively? Well we put all the boxes in the garage and while the essentials have all been gone through, weeded out, and place in the home I know have a daily goal of going through one box in the garage. I should be done sometime this winter.