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Your Guide To Declutter Your House Before Moving

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declutter houseAre you getting ready to move to a new house? Relocating to a new home can be a difficult job for you, especially when you are moving for the first time. You need to organize your belongings properly, pack your possessions and hire the best moving company to handle your move.

The most annoying and monotonous task for you would be to shuffle through your items before you consider packing them. While doing this you may identify a few items that you won't need any more or items that should undoubtedly go to your dustbin. This makes decluttering your house before you move a complete necessity. Here we will guide you on how to go ahead with the junk removal process.

Benefits of decluttering your house

If you declutter your belongings first, rather than packing them directly into the moving boxes, your unpacking process would be less stressful and will consume less time.

  • Low moving costs- Moving companies will charge you based on the total weight of the items you are moving. Hence, the smaller number of items you move, the more cost you are going to save.
  • Low packing supply expenses- The more items you have, the higher would be your expenses in buying packing supplies like moving blankets, bubble wraps, and moving boxes among a few others.
  • Good for the environment- With fewer packing materials you will have less waste to dump while you unpack the boxes, reducing the risk of landfills. Moreover, if you have fewer items to load into the moving truck, your fuel consumption would also be reduced.
  • Reduced packing time- If you get rid of the unwanted items, you will have fewer items to pack. This will also reduce your packing time, which you can invest in other useful purposes.
  • Earn extra cash- You may get the opportunity to earn some cash by selling items that you may not want to take with you to the new house.
  • Spacious home- If you have less storage space and closet in your new home, getting rid of the unwanted items will ensure space for your necessities.

How to declutter your house?

To begin with, the decluttering process is the toughest part. Before you label the moving boxes or pack the storage containers, it would be important for you to decide which items will be useful or fit in your new house. Mostly you can identify the clutter easily, however, there are a few such times that you need to look over carefully before finally packing your boxes. For example, items like cleaning supplies or appliances, or other daily essentials get outdated and need to be replaced.

If you can’t decide which items you need to discard and which items you can keep, we suggest you ask yourself the following questions:

  • Can your new house accommodate the item?
  • Have you used the item in recent years?
  • Do you have that item in more than one quantity?
  • Will it be expensive for you to move that item?
  • Is there a need for you to repair that item?

In short, you should give yourself sufficient time to declutter, pack and prepare your belongings. It would be a worthwhile idea to create a moving checklist and bring only those items that you would enjoy having at your new house.

declutter before moveInspect all items for junk removal before your move

To find out the total number of items in your house, you must inspect the whole house. Here’s what you need to do:

  • Make sure you inspect each room and area of your house and prepare a list of items you have. With this, you can calculate how much packing materials you will need, what your moving cost will be, and how difficult your move will be.
  • We suggest you look through your cabinets and closets first and sort out your belongings. For each room, you can organize two piles, discard and keep, however, don’t throw away any item currently.
  • You can gather all the items you want to throw in one room, like in the basement or garage, and further decide which items you would like to throw, sell, or donate. You will also identify which of your belongings are old, unused, or can be replaced. This will make you ready for the packing, cleaning, decluttering as well as downsizing process.

Tips to declutter your kitchen

It would be a good idea to get rid of items in your kitchen that are either mismatched or broken. You may even consider discarding those items that you have in more than one quantity, or you don’t use them anymore. A few such items include the following:

  • Kitchen tools and utensils
  • Small appliances
  • Sauce packets
  • Expired food
  • Cookware
  • Water bottles and coffee mugs
  • Old cookbooks
  • Plastic containers with covers.

Tip: You can donate any old kitchen appliances you have by cleaning them thoroughly if they are in a working condition.

Declutter your food cabinet on time

A common moving mistake most people make is forgetting the food they might have kept in their freezer or cabinet. Of course, the movers won’t move the food for you, we suggest you carefully look through the storage space in your house and empty all the stock before you move to your new house. A fantastic idea would be to donate any canned food you have, however, ensure it hasn’t expired.

Create a plan for your toiletries

While you pack your toiletries, make sure you sort out items you must throw, keep, or those items that will go to your essential bag. Here are a few tips to declutter your bathroom items:

  • You should consider throwing away all half-open bottles, however, you can use them until the moving day.
  • Make you get rid of items that you have purchased but haven't ever used them. Still, if you want you can open and use them until the moving day.
  • Check your old cologne, perfumes as well as cosmetics and throw them if they have expired or if you're not using them at all.

Tips to declutter your living room

You should carefully investigate your family room or living room and sort out any outdated items you or your family must-have. Here’s how you can purge your living room smoothly:

  • Simply, you can donate books that you don’t read to a local school or library. Alternatively, you can keep those books that hold sentimental value for you. Moreover, you can grab the electronic copy of books you commonly read and donate the hard copies.
  • With the advent of Netflix, Pandora, and Spotify, there isn't any need to maintain a huge physical collection of music and movies. You can consider donating your collection to a thrift store or library.
  • You must have a vast collection of toys at your home if you have kids. We suggest you donate toys that your kids don’t play with anymore.

Check your documents

Organizing the documents is one of the most important things that you must consider doing before you relocate. You may have several documents, but not have the time to check if they are currently useful for you or not. However, with the moving day around the corner, we recommend you consider reviewing all your documents. Here’s what you need to do:

  • You can create three categories, "vital documents," “recent bills” and “shred.”
  • There are multiple documents that you can’t obtain again, make sure you keep them in the vital documents pile. This may include your passport, birth certificate, mortgage and house papers, ID cards, diplomas, paid credit certificate, testament, social security cards, and trust funds.
  • You may have a few documents that you must get rid of before you relocate. Here’s a list of some of these documents:
    • Old recipes
    • Outdated contracts
    • Coupons
    • Instruction manuals
    • Old projects and artworks made in school.

Throw away the expired medications

  • Go through all your medicines properly and separate those medications which have expired. Also, there might be a few medications that you aren't using anymore, you should toss them too.
  • Keep all the necessary medications in your essential bag as you must carry them with you.
  • Consider sorting out your vitamins and supplements and keep only those which you are using currently. Moreover, if you have two opened boxes of the same vitamins, you can keep them in one bottle.

Now that you have decluttered all the rooms of your house, you should double-check each of them. Perhaps, this will give you confidence that you don’t need these items anymore and you can finally throw them away.

Checklist of items you can sell

Here are a few items of a higher value that you can put in a garage sale:

  • Unused tools
  • Comics
  • Kitchen appliances
  • Paintings
  • Plants
  • Hair appliances
  • Electronic devices
  • Furniture
  • Crystal and glassware you don’t use anymore.
  • Clothes in good condition.

How to declutter old furniture?

If you can’t sell your old furniture through a garage sale, we suggest you try selling them through E-bay. Moreover, if you have old-style wooden furniture, each of its pieces will hold immense value, especially for those who know how to exploit them. You may find many craftsmen who are good at restoring furniture and wood. Another good idea would be to refurbish your old furniture on your own and get modern furniture for your new house.

Why carry unnecessary weights when you don’t need them anymore? However, if you can’t sell or donate your belongings, you can hire a junk removal service and get rid of the unwanted items. You can consider this guide to organize and declutter your items before relocating. While cleaning your closet and sorting out your belongings, you can consider the following places:

  • Amazon.com to sell mass goods.
  • E-Bay to find bidders for your possessions.
  • Craigslist to sell your belongings.
  • Habitat for Humanity Restores to donate your possessions.

 

Staff Writer  Posted by Staff Writer on May 23, 2022

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