Decluttering Before a Move: What To Keep and What To Toss
Moving is no longer seen as a once-in-a-lifetime event. Unlike in the 18th and early 19th centuries, when people often stayed in one place for their entire lives, modern individuals frequently relocate and adapt to constant changes in their surroundings.
A common practice throughout history and across cultures is decluttering before a move. This involves prioritizing items, selling belongings, and discarding broken pieces to facilitate a smoother moving experience. Our Daffodil Storage blog will provide you with essential tips for decluttering your home and organizing your belongings before moving!
How To Declutter for a Move in Four Simple Steps
To effectively declutter your home, consider following these four practical steps:
- Start planning early on to avoid last-minute stress and facilitate a smooth transition into your new home.
- Focus on one room or type of item at a time, like beginning with the garage or offseason decorations.
- Adopt the Keep, Donate, Sell, or Toss method to pare down on clutter and unused items.
- Determine early on which items you use most often and which have sentimental value to make sure they are packed last or moved to a secure self storage unit.
Decluttering for a Move: What it Means To Keep, Donate, Sell, or Toss
The keep, donate, sell, or toss rule may seem straightforward, but let’s break it down further to aid in quick decisions:
- Items to keep. These types of belongings usually hold sentimental value, as well as practical or daily-use items like toiletries, dishware, and clothing.
- Items to donate. Donatable objects are still usable, but perhaps they no longer fit your lifestyle. Take clothes you’ve outgrown, artwork, and other decoration pieces to your local Goodwill, Savers, and other thrift stores nearby.
- Items to sell. If you have designer jeans you no longer wear or a valuable pair of sneakers that don’t get any use, you can earn some extra cash by selling these items on platforms like Etsy, Depop, and Poshmark.
- Items to toss or recycle. Any broken, expired, or unusable items can be thrown away, while old newspapers, flyers, and damaged cardboard boxes can be recycled.
How To Organize Items Before Moving
When planning your move, taking the time to research moving checklists can make a significant difference. A personalized checklist helps you streamline your moving process while making sure nothing is overlooked!
As you prepare to pack your items, we have some organizational methods to help you further simplify your move. We recommend grouping your belongings by room type, such as bathroom and bedroom, or purpose, like clothing and kitchenware. Keeping these categories sorted into clearly labeled bins or boxes will make the unpacking process much faster.
Tips for Decluttering Specific Areas of Your Home
Moving can be a whirlwind of chaos, and decluttering may feel like just another item on your to-do list. To help you confidently tackle this essential step, here are some targeted decluttering tips for different areas of your home!
The Closets
Some closets are temporary storage spaces for frequently used items like shoes and jackets, while other closets serve as long-term homes for clothes, both seasonal and nonseasonal, umbrellas, and reusable bags.
When you decide to declutter your closets, approach it systematically—start with the hanging items and then move to the shelves. Breaking the task down into smaller steps makes the process more manageable.
When you’re decluttering, follow the one-year rule. This guideline suggests donating or selling any clothing, shoes, and seasonal outerwear you haven’t worn in the past year. If these items have been sitting untouched, it’s likely that you won’t reach for them again.
The Kitchen
Decluttering your kitchen may seem like a challenging task, but if you start small, it can go much smoother than expected. Begin with your pantry—go through your nonperishable foods, like soup cans and dried pasta, and get rid of anything past its expiration date. If you come across items you won’t use soon, consider donating them.
Moving on to your cabinets, go ahead and empty them, sorting the items into frequently used and rarely used categories. You can donate duplicates and unused kitchen supplies or hold a garage sale!
The Living Areas
Living rooms and common areas usually feature sturdier furniture to accommodate guests and places for you to relax during your free time. Try to determine which pieces, like bookshelves, sofas, and coffee tables, will fit in your new space.
If you’re downsizing to a smaller space, you might not have enough room for the couch, the loveseat, two armchairs, and a coffee table. You may have to do some trickier decision-making, but the more practical you can be during your move, the easier the transition will be to your new home.
The Garage or Attic
The attic—a space often viewed from below with wonder and a hint of wariness—and the garage, which serves as a catch-all, are both storage heavyweights. These areas function as long-term storage spaces for items we typically don’t have room for elsewhere, often gathering dust over time.
Begin by removing and discarding any broken or damaged items. This is one of the simplest ways to create space for organization and decluttering. Next, sort your belongings by their purposes to decide what to keep, donate, or sell.
If you find items you haven’t used in a long time, consider selling or donating them. For belongings you’re sentimentally attached to but don’t have an immediate need for, consider storing them in a personal storage unit until you can find space in your new home.
Streamline the Decluttering and Moving Processes With Daffodil Storage
When you decide to move, start planning and preparing as soon as possible. Being well-prepared and organized can help ease your transition and reduce stress.
Decluttering before your move allows you to have less to manage on the day of the move, while relocating delicate or nonessential items to a self storage unit can create the space needed for better organization until you’re ready for them.
Are you about to move? Find a Daffodil Storage facility near you or your new home today, and quickly rent or reserve your perfect storage unit online! Browse our storage unit size guide to help you find the right size for your needs, or explore our blog or FAQ page for helpful storage tricks.