Moving to a new house is an exciting adventure, but we understand that decluttering before moving isn’t. That’s why we’ve written a guide to help you get through decluttering and downsizing before moving as efficiently as possible.
In this guide, we’ll explain why minimising your belongings before moving house is important, offer our top tips, and suggest the best places to start. Downsizing before moving can also be a great opportunity to get rid of old or unwanted items and donate them to a local store or church.
Why Downsizing And Decluttering Is Essential Before Moving
Less mess is less stress. The fewer items you have, the easier it is to pack, ensuring a smoother transition to your new home. However, not only does it make it easier to pack, but it can also save you resources and money. Fewer items require fewer boxes, and it’ll also cost less to get it all moved.
How To Downsize And Declutter Before A Move
Minimise paper clutter
Go digital where possible for your books and paper. Paper clutter can add up over time, and a move might be the final sign you need to start transferring all your files to your computer or the cloud. You can scan through any old documents, bills, or receipts to your computer and recycle anything you don’t need. If your books are taking up too much space, it might be the perfect excuse to jump to eBooks with a Kindle to save space.
Room by room
Sort through your items room by room. It can be easy to get distracted, especially during a move. That’s why it’s important to set up a system to stay organised.
Inventory your belongings
Take inventory of all your belongings and label everything. Recording all of your belongings might help you decide what you want to keep and what needs to go.
Unwanted Items
Creating a plan to get rid of any unwanted items is a great idea for downsizing before moving. There are a few different options: donate, recycle, rent a skip bin, or even throw a garage sale if you want to make a quick buck.
Go easy on yourself
Don’t be too hard on yourself, and give yourself time. Decluttering and minimising the number of items you own is a huge task, and you probably won’t get it done in a day, and that’s okay. Even just getting started is a huge achievement, and we’re proud of you when you do. Decluttering can also be an emotional journey as well as a physical one, so make sure to take time out for yourself and plenty of breaks, too.
Easy Places To Start Decluttering
Decluttering can be a great way to sell old items, donate unused clothes, and finally get that New Year’s cleaning resolution done that you’ve been planning forever.
The best way to start decluttering is to start small. The last thing you want to do is to take on too much and just give up. That’s why we advise you to start small—drawers and cupboards—then slowly move on to the bigger spaces. Here is a list of some easy places to start:
Pantry items
Moving is a great opportunity to clean out the pantry. Toss out anything that’s expired, nearing its expiry date, or too big to comfortably move to your next place.
Fridge/freezer
Similarly to the pantry, decluttering is a good time to finally clean out your fridge and defrost that freezer. Throw out any expired goods, and only keep the essentials.
Old books or magazines
Old books and magazines can quickly take up so much space in a room or on a shelf. They’re also heavy and can be annoying to pack/organise. You can always recycle or donate them.
Junk drawers
Decluttering is a great excuse to finally sort through your junk drawers and throw away those random screws, old batteries, and janky rubber bands.
Cords/cables
An easy place to start minimising what you have is with your spare cords/cables. Have a dozen spare HDMI cables or USB-C chargers? Maybe it could be a good time to give some to friends or family.
Old devices
Let’s be honest: you probably won’t reuse any of those old phones or laptops you’ve been hoarding. Decluttering is a great opportunity to finally get rid of them, and you can also ensure that they’re safely disposed of and recycled at a tech store.
Your wardrobe
Once you’ve taken care of the smaller spaces, like your drawers, wardrobes are the perfect step up. Decluttering can be a good opportunity to organise your clothes and decide what you like and want to wear going forward in your new home and life.
Additional Tips For Downsizing Before Moving
You should prepare for your emotional reaction to items of sentimental value. Downsizing on its own is a hard enough job, but emotions can make it even harder. The best way to deal with items with sentimental value is to enforce hard rules on what objects you can keep. For example, only keeping sentimental items that also have a practical use.
Another thing to consider when choosing which items to part with when decluttering is, ‘Will this have room or use in my new home?’ This question is practical and can be a great way to weed out items that may be outdated or won’t fit in your new living space.
Moving Made Easy With Ready Movers
Are you planning on moving houses? Whether you’re relocating a few suburbs over, interstate to another city, or even internationally, the team here at Ready Movers can help. Contact us today for a quote on our packing and removalist services.
We can help make your move even easier beyond just our guide to decluttering your home. Downsizing is only one part of the moving process; our team can help you through the rest, from logistics to pre-packing services, professional removalist services, and even unpacking and furniture assembly.
When it comes to moving houses, packing is one of the most critical tasks to consider. Our team will ensure that it is done carefully, efficiently, and on time. We understand the challenges that come with fragile or bulky items.
If you want to save yourself from headaches, our team here at Ready Movers offers home removalist services and professional packing services.
