Decluttering is a part of the essential things to do before moving house. Ideally, when you move to a new place, you must be ready to start your life with a clean slate. Even if you don’t, it is proven that decluttering periodically is effective in improving your well-being, both physically and mentally.
So in this post, we’re going to share some tips for decluttering before moving house. When should you start decluttering when you’re ready to move to a new place? What are you supposed to do with the stuff you no longer use?
The Ultimate Tips for Decluttering Before You Move to the New House
A few years ago, Tidying Up with Mary Kondo went viral with the famous tagline to only keep the items that “spark joy” to encourage people to declutter once in a while. All things considered, when you’re planning to move to a new house, decluttering is sometimes more of a necessity for many reasons.
Moving house is a significant life change. It’s the start of your new life altogether, and sometimes the best way to do it is to start from scratch. Decluttering is necessary when you move to a new house, not only because it marks a new stage of your life, but also because downsizing your items will save you money and energy during your moving process.
In this section, we’ll showcase some essential tips for decluttering before moving house for you.
Why do you need to declutter before moving house?
Whether you want to do DIY packing or hire a house removal company when you move to a new house, decluttering can benefit you in the long run.
If you decide to pack everything on your own, decluttering will save you time and energy as you won’t have too many things to pack and unpack. Even better if you decide to use a professional service for your moving process, as the service won’t be costly if you don’t have too many items to move to your new place.
Moving can be time-consuming and expensive. However, if you use the right decluttering strategy, it can minimise your packing effort, while also potentially bringing you some extra cash to use if you manage to resell it before you move.
When do you need to start decluttering before moving house?
The sooner you can declutter, the better it will be for your moving plans. More often than not, you never realise how many stuff you have until you start reorganising your things and decluttering.
Starting your decluttering early will give you time to consider which ones of your belongings need to be downsized and which others you need to keep and reuse at your new home. After all, sometimes what stops you from getting rid of your things is anything more to do with their emotional value than anything else.
It is also better to declutter early to give you time and a chance to repurpose the items. Whether you want to sell it to make some extra cash to add to your moving funds or to make sure they go to the right person before you move out.
How to Declutter Before Moving House
Sorting out the items that you need to get rid of isn’t an easy task to do. Sometimes you’re unsure where to start, and it’s a hard decision to get rid of some of your favourite items. So, what are the easiest things to declutter before moving house?
Visualise how your new house will be like
One of the advantages of decluttering when you move to a new house is that it will be easier for you to organise your new place with fewer items to decorate.
The easiest way to start decluttering is to imagine how you want to decorate your new house and start by looking into your belongings to start sorting them out. Will the item go well with the style you want to have in your new home? Or is it the thing that will be forgettable once you unpack it at your new place?
Once you have the answer, you know whether it is wise to get rid of them or keep them to repurpose them at your new home.
Decide what you want to do with the things you declutter
Now that you’ve got a big box of items you want to get rid of, it’s time to decide what you want to do with them. So, what’s next? Will it be possible to resell it? Will it be easier to find a new home for them? Or will it be wiser to dispose of it for good?
If you have time to sell them, you can use a few methods to make a small profit from your decluttered stuff. These include:
- Arrange a garage sale and invite the community in your neighbourhood to check out the items.
- Utilise Facebook marketplace or local groups to post the items and offer them for sale.
- Find a thrift store near you and offer them for a small price. They usually calculate the potential profit they can make from selling the item, so you won’t make much by doing this method. However, this method might be the fastest option to sell your items.
Even if you don’t have time to sell, remember that one man’s trash is another man’s treasure. You can also put them for donation so that you can get rid of them faster, while at the same time, you also get a chance to give back to the community.
Rent storage to buy you some time to sort things out
Maybe your moving date is closer than you thought it would be, and you don’t have time to declutter before moving to your new house.
Alternatively, you can also rent storage to keep your old items without having to bring them to the new home. Which Removals offers more than just packing and moving services. If you need to store some of the things you’ve gotten rid of, you can also use our secure storage services.
You can get free estimates of storage solutions here if you need ballpark pricing for renting storage to buy you some time before deciding what to do after you declutter your old keepsakes.