Ridding yourself of clutter when moving to a smaller home
Whether your kids have left the nest, or you have found the home of your dreams, albeit considerably smaller, many of our clients at Local and Interstate Removals are downsizing and ask our advice on how to best manage the process. This is particularly important if you are making the move interstate where things can become costly if you don’t follow a process. We suggest you talk to our team about our packing services or backloading services to ensure we find a solution that fits your needs.
At Local and Interstate Removals, we find solutions that fit. Our advice is, don’t move anything you no longer need or want. It’s always easier and cheaper to rid yourself of the belongings you no longer wish to possess before you move.
Assess your new home and the space it will provide you in comparison to what you’re in now – view floorplans if possible and measure your desired bigger furniture to plan room by room. From here, move on to sorting your things and pack as you go.
Sorting is easier if you do it room by room. We recommend taking everything out of the drawers, cupboards etc in each room and place it all the centre of the room – visualising everything together like this in the centre of the room will help you understand how much you need to part with.
Working through the central pile of belongings, create 4 piles to sort into:
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The keep pile: This pile will include what you want to take to the new home with you. Anything that you have used in the last 12 months is safe to keep. Clothes have their own rule however and we say you should have worn them at least twice in 12 months to warrant keeping them.
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The donate pile: Giving to charity and people in need is a fantastic way of giving back so anything that you no longer use and don’t want to sell but is still in good condition and useful to others should go into this pile for donation.
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The sell pile – we all have things that we don’t use but can imagine other people using because they’re hardly used or still in great condition, that’s where these items go for resale. You can sell things online (Facebook, Ebay, Gumtree) or at a garage sale.
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Throw/recycle – anything that has served its purpose and isn’t in good enough condition to sell or donate will go into this pile for appropriate recycling or disposal.
Once finished going through all your items, we suggest you go through your keep pile and do the same thing again, if you’re not still feeling that strong attachment/requirement – re-pile it to suit. We’ve listed some things to consider when clearing to help if you’re struggling to detach from your possessions.
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Multiple items – throw away any items that you have double of
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Broken items – anything that has needed repairing that you haven’t gotten to within 6 months isn’t necessary, otherwise you would have fixed it right away.
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Pantry and bathroom cupboards – removing expired products can save space – kitchen pantries are an obvious one for this – but don’t forget your bathroom products too! Check dates and throw away anything that has passed its use by date. Anything unopened and not yet used that won’t be used can be added to the donate or sell piles.
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Paperwork, magazines + books – our taxation office advises to keep hold of 7 years’ worth of receipts, statements etc. Anything older, dispose of safely removing any personal information (i.e. shredding). Magazines and books can take up unnecessary space too – if you’ve read it, re-home it. Want to keep an article or document? Scan or take a photo of it.
Don’t think that once it’s in your new space it must stay either, as you’re unpacking follow the same procedure of sorting into the four piles – you’d be surprise what can change in a small space of time. Ready to talk to our team at Local and Interstate Removals about packing services or your move? Call us on 1300 705 705
