Decluttering Your House In Preparation- Guest Post

Stuff. If you’re preparing to move and all you see around your house is, well, stuff, it can be incredibly overwhelming. Where do you start? How will you organize? Before you get too overwhelmed, take a deep breath, and start working on a plan to chip away at it bit by bit. Here are some decluttering tips to get you started. 

Start early
Top real estate agents across the country say that the market is hot and favors sellers. If you’ve thought about selling your home and making a move, now is definitely the time to do it. 

Do yourself a favor and begin the decluttering and organizing process as soon as you know you’re going to make a move. Better still, make decluttering and organizing a practice long before you plan to move! Moving is stressful and saving this task until it’s time to move is a sure way to create even more chaos. 

Make a list
Whether you’re a list-maker or not, you’ll want to create a checklist for organization and moving tasks. Your decluttering checklist is a visual cue for what needs to be accomplished. It keeps you on track. It can also help you feel that you’re making progress each time you cross something off. 

Divide and conquer
For those of you struggling to begin, start with the obvious. You know that unopened box you’ve had since your last move? Do you really want to shift it to your new home? What about that electric wok you got years ago...and have never used? That chair you’ve meant to fix but haven’t gotten around to doing it; the fantastic shoes you bought for an event that you’ve only worn them once; the books you’ve read and know you won’t read again – you get the idea. Now is not the time to be sentimental; you need to be discriminating as you go through your home. When all else fails, a little eeny, meeny, miny, moe can help with decision-making if you’re on the fence.

When you’re really struggling to know where to begin, take the room by room approach and start with your bathroom. Starting your purge in the smallest room of the house is an excellent warm-up for the bigger project. And if you want to feel accomplished really quickly, begin by tossing out expired products from your medicine cabinet.

If you’re inclined to hold onto items that are no longer useful to you in your daily life, think about decluttering in terms of boxes that must be moved. Not only are those items taking up valuable space on the moving truck, but they also constitute additional boxes that must be packed – do you really want to make more work for yourself? 

Be efficient and organized
As you go room by room or space by space, make things easier by using the three-box method used on many home tv shows. Use one box for items you’ll keep, one for items to sell, and a box for items to donate or trash. Each time you fill a box of things to keep, label it, and seal it – you’re getting the packing done while you work! This works incredibly well if you begin with your spare rooms or storage areas first so that you’re not missing items in the months or weeks before your move.

The great thing about these tips is that they’re applicable even when you’re not planning a move. Be it spring cleaning or an effort to go minimalist, having a plan, and a checklist to guide you through is essential. And if you’re feeling especially adventurous, try using the KonMari method to guide you through your home organization.

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