4 Best Tips to De-Cluttering for a Move

In the last 10 years or so, I think Iâve probably moved 4 times. In my last move, I decided that I wasnât going to be lugging everything from my past 3 lives (and moves) with me. I decided that I was only going to move my clothes, and things that were irreplaceable; photos, a blanket that my mom crocheted for me, etc. That meant somehow getting rid of EVERYTHING ELSE, including a huge, thick, glass dining room table that I vowed that Iâd be buried with, I loved it that much (still do).
I told my kids many times that âin my next move, Iâm not renting a damn truck. Iâm so sick of seeing the word âU-Haulâ that I think I might puke. Whatever doesnât fit into the car, isnât coming with meâ. And I meant it.
I also refused to put a damned thing in storage. Storage is (in my humble opinion) forever. Storage is like having an off-site attic, where you put anything and everything that you never plan on using or even seeing again. The âcatchâ is that you have to pay for storageâŠin perpetuity. AgainâŠstorage is forever.
De-cluttering for this move was a task of enormous proportions. Thinking about it before actually doing it literally gave me anxiety. On the one hand, I couldnât imagine parting with everything that I had, but on the other hand, you get to a point in life where you see âeverything that you haveâ not as assets, but as liabilities. Itâs all just âstuffâ that you have to move at some point, and the thought is daunting because you donât realize how much stuff you really have until you have to move it.
My first 3 moves were a BITCH. Think about moving a 5 bedroom, 3 story house, with all the belongings of 4 peopleâŠthree times!
Never, ever again.
That said, I hope that these 4 Tips to De-cluttering for a Move serve you well;
- Itâs a Mental Thing
Come to terms with the fact that the things that youâve been holding on to for the past God knows how many years are actually right now just âweightsâ that you need to physically move from one location to another. De-cluttering is more mental than anything else. You have to mentally divorce yourself from âthingsâ, in order to start the purging process, especially if youâre moving into a smaller space from a larger one (as was the case in my last move).
2. Theyâre just things
Thatâs it. Itâs all just âstuffâ. I had two rules in my move; the first was âif I canât replace it, it comes with meâ.
So the things that were impossible to replace, like photos of the kids, personal items that someone else had given me, I moved those things with me. Anything else was given away, thrown away or sold. Period.
3. Make 4 Piles; Give It Away, Sell It, Toss It or Move it
There is nothing else. Youâre going to decide what the parameters are for each category; what qualifies as âgive awayâ as opposed to âsell itâ or âtoss itâ. Thatâs up to you. But everything lands in one of those piles.
Give it away;
There are things that youâre going to give away. Deciding how youâre going to do that isnât as easy as it sounds.
If you have grown up âchildrenâ who live relatively close, call them to come over and get anything that they may have left in the house that you donât have any personal use for. You have to be a bit of a hard ass because sometimes they think âif I donât go get it, mom/dad will just move it with them. They canât part with itâŠâ, but theyâd be wrong.
Donât you dare move it with you.
The things that you donât give away to family and friends, you can give to a goodwill center, thrift store or donate to a good cause. A word of caution; there are some âcharitiesâ that donât take a lot of things. One charity that I called didnât want to take a nearly new desk, I think she said it was because they âhad too manyâ.
Sell it;
The things that you decide to sell, you can list on sites like Craigslist or Facebook Marketplace. Honestly, I hate Craigslisting stuff. Iâve never been a fan of having strangers in my house, let alone for the purpose of haggling over the price of the item that was listed in the Craigslist post. If you decide to list your stuff on Craigslist, be prepared to take much less than you actually want for your items. Everyoneâs looking for a âdealâ on Craigslist. If youâre in an âI donât care, I just want it goneâ position, then by all means, go nuts. But if your couch is nearly new, and you paid prime dough for it, Craigslist isnât the first place that Iâd suggest you try unloading it.
Facebook Marketplace is another way to sell things that you no longer want or need. And this vehicle has the added bonus of selling to friends, or friends of friends. So you wonât feel like youâre selling to a complete stranger, and friends donât tend to want to verbally âbeat you downâ in order to get a better price on something that youâre selling.
Toss it;
Suffice it to say that there are going to be more than a few things that donât fall into the above piles. This is where the work gets the hardest. These are the things that youâll load up into a pickup truck, and haul to the dump. Throw it all away. Donât look back. Donât say goodbye. Just turf it. Drive away, thankful in the knowledge that you donât have to move all the stuff that you just got rid of to a new place, only to have it take up space there. Youâd likely have to throw it away eventually. Why put off the inevitable?
And last, but definitely not leastâŠ
4. Donât put ANYTHING in Storage. Period.
Nothing. Nada. I forbid it.
As I said before, âstorage is foreverâ. So if youâre not fond of the fact that once you put something in storage, youâll be paying for it until the day you die (at which point, your stuff will probably end up on âStorage Warsâ), bypass the temptation to rent a storage unit. Regardless of how small it is, that fee that you pay for that space that only âstores a few thingsâ add upâŠand theyâre for life!
I hope these 4 Tips to De-cluttering for a Move are of some help to you.
Peace.