My family is moving in January 2017.
Man, as organized as I am, there is still so much work when trying to sell a house and buy another and prepare for a move.
Here is one thing I’m learning…you have to keep at it with the end goal in mind. Too many days off will leave you with a frantic demeanour the closer you get to “key-day”.
The trick is to start early, like really early…like you are going to look at houses, or you have decided it’s time to sell your home.
What I mean by this is, start purging right away. The longer you live somewhere, the more stuff you accumulate…it’s like a universal law or something…we become magnetic “stuff” attractors.
Start with your closets, garage, dishes, pantry – everywhere. Break it down by picking 1 spot per day.
So we are in the selling our home stage…we have purchased and there is a move date in the books. Because we are SOOOO excited for our new home, the motivation is ever-present – which is good because day in and day out of organizing, packing, purging, repeat, takes a lot of energy and you need that boost to keep you going.
I have gone through my kids books and clothes. I’ve gone through my clothes and urged my husband to go through his (especially his LARGE pile of work clothes – by work, I mean around the house – who needs that many grubby clothes?). Anyways, I digress.
I’ve gone through blankets, pillows, bathroom articles (we all accumulate hotel stuff, shampoos we don’t like, you know…all that stuff).
It all has to be MOVED so if you don’t USE it NOW, why waste time packing, moving and unpacking?!? What makes you think you’ll use it later? You are not changing, your patterns most likely will stay the same so be honest with yourself.
And start packing away your excess. Because of staging and showing a house, I’ve packed away all decor, family pictures and they are in moving boxes, labelled, ready to go. (I can’t stress labelling – especially if you are getting an early start – all moving boxes look the same after a while).
I’ve gone through my kids small toys and sorted them into plastic mini-totes
(shoebox type sizes). It keeps them together (birds of a feather) and clean and EASY TO MOVE! 🙂 And it’s easier to dish out 1 bin of toys at time when you have a home showing coming up.
Here’s another idea why starting early is a good thing – if you have things you don’t use and you’ve finally gotten honest with yourself about the stuff you are needlessly holding onto, you have time to sell the valuable stuff and donate the other stuff.
Hint: maybe even having a garage sale – yes it takes time, but it also gives you some extra cash in your pocket while you offload stuff from your moving task.
It pays to get help at this point, if you cannot do it yourself. Getting a Professional Organizer to help you purge is a very freeing experience.
I’ll be adding other posts, move tips, and organizing a new home…lots of ideas for my new home I can’t wait to share with you!
