Moving into a house, what to throw away or donate when clearing out clutter before the packing stage? Moving tips?
If you haven’t used it in a year, get rid of it. This worked for me.
Paper,fabric, kitchen are always in need of decluttering start there.(fabric clothes you don’t wear,linens you don’t need towels that have seen better days
The last time I moved, I went room by room and packed stuff that wasn’t essential between then and moving day. I also went through things as I packed them. If it was something I had forgotten that I had, hadn’t used or didn’t want, it got donated.
I also found the best thing to do is pack your boxes, label them on multiple sides and stack them against the wall. When moving day comes, move all of the big furniture first. Move your couches, beds, tables etc, that way you can get that stuff in and arranged before there are a million boxes in the way.
We moved all of our big stuff first, and then when moving boxes, they were taken straight to the room they belonged in, so that there wasn’t a bunch of clutter in the livingroom and/or kitchen.
I learned this from First Lady Barbara Bush. Get a pk or two of multi-colored (nickle/dime) sized stickers. Every box from/for the kitchen gets a blue dot. Every box for the bathroom gets a green dot. Bedroom? Yellow dot. You get the idea. Good luck.
My general rule is to look at the last time it was used and go from there. There’s no “but I may use that” you don’t…
If you haven’t used it in at least 90 days get rid of it. if it’s broke/stained, doesn’t fit or missing pieces get rid of it.
As for packing take one room at a time and label each box with room it goes to, a basic list of items and importance of order to unpack. Put all your immediate need items into one box and leave it upfront/on top of everything else or even better keep it untaped and in personal vehicle so it goes in immediately.
Anything your hubby says isn’t junk but is junk
I created a moving binder. Every room was assigned a number Living Room - 100, Kitchen - 200, Master Bedroom - 300 and so on. Every box just had a number on it on bright pink card stock 100, 101, 102, 103, 200, 201 etc… then in the binder each room had a section. I wright out what was in each box in the binder. Then on a drawn out floor plan I numbered the rooms. I hung the floor plan outside the door so the movers knew what boxes went in what room. I also hung signs with the corresponding room number outside rooms to make it easier. It was a big help to the movers. The binder made it easy to find anything and everything needed as we unpacked. I still have the binder to denote what is in the ‘storage’ boxes and totes in the basement to still keep track of what is where.
I did pack non essential stuff first but made sure they were placed on the moving truck last so they would be the first in the house as to not bury the more essential boxes.