Moving to another state can be (and almost always is) a costly endeavor. You will want to reduce the weight of your shipment as much as you possibly can. In order to do so, you have no better option than decluttering. In order to declutter before moving across states, you will need to properly prepare and organize. Other than that, you may want to look into affordable moving companies Los Angeles if you want to save even more money. All in all, there is some work for you to do and we are going to walk you through it.
How to prepare to declutter before moving?
Here are the main things that you need to concern with:
- Set a date and a deadline
- Create a checklist
- Declutter room by room before moving
- Organize a garage sale and give away some items
- Declutter before moving – Donate!
- Rent a storage unit!
Set a date and a deadline
The first thing you want to do is to set a final date (deadline) when you absolutely have to be done with decluttering. In case you did not know deadlines really matter. You may also want to segment your efforts into multiple dates in order to keep things under control. Decluttering is a tricky process that may take quite a bit of time. You will need to involve everyone in your household. It is always easier to organize everyone if you give them a date that they need to be present at. Pay attention to everyone’s needs and schedules when creating a timeline, however. This will make sure that there is the least amount of grudging from other members of your household.
Setting a date gives gravitas to the whole thing. If you don’t have a set date on which you want to declutter you may end up delaying it over and over again. This is something that you really should not do, as decluttering can save (or earn) you quite a bit of money.
Create a checklist
The next thing that you want to do, after setting a date, is to create a checklist of sorts. This checklist will contain all of the tasks that you need to perform. Give yourself some time to create a proper checklist. However, you don’t really need to fret over it a lot as you can simply add tasks later on. The important thing is that you have a document that will remind you of everything that you need to do. Our memories are often fleeting and you may forget an important task otherwise. Creating a checklist is actually really easy. Once you don’t have any more tasks to add, go ask the people in your household if they have something to add.
For start, simply write everything everyone says. You can refine the checklist later on. It need not be ideal but it needs to be there. The checklist will make your decluttering efforts a lot easier.
Declutter room by room before moving
The best way to declutter is by doing room by room. This will prevent you from feeling overwhelmed. It will also provide you with a tangible, short-term, goal. Start with the rooms that you are using the least and make your way from there. There will be a lot of items that you will simply not know what to do straight away. That is fine. Create a “maybe” pile where you will place those items. You don’t want to be spending too much time pondering if your old rubber duck collection is worth taking or not. You will come back to these items at a later date.
Doing this will make it a lot easier (and cheaper) to hire cleaning services Los Angeles, as there will be far less clutter inside those rooms. You may end up with a large “maybe” pile and that is alright. You will have time to sort through it at a later date.
Organize a garage sale and give away some items
When you, more or less, finish with your decluttering, you may have a lot of items that are still worth something. You can organize a garage sale to try and earn some money back from these items. Depending on the items that you have, this may very well be quite lucrative. If you really have a lot of items that you wish to sell, consider investing a bit of your money into marketing. As everyone who has ever sold something will tell you, marketing is the key to success. The more time, effort, and money you invest into it, the more people will come and check out your sale.
But for the most part, you don’t really need to do that. Usually, you will not want to create a big deal out of your garage sale. You can consider it a party of sorts, where you will get to interact and share a laugh with neighbors and friends. And since movers charge by weight most of the time, decluttering will help to cut on your moving costs significantly!
Declutter before moving – Donate!
Or you can simply donate most of your unwanted stuff. If you are not really strapped for money and can cover the costs of relocation easily, consider donating your items to someone that really needs them but can’t afford them. This is the most humane thing to do. Remember, one man’s junk may very well be another’s treasure. What you consider as “nice to have”, someone might consider essential. However, do not try to offload items that are in poor condition. Charity organizations are not junk depots and they will actually not accept any items that are in really shoddy condition.
But for the most part, they will be grateful for your patronage. Simply go by common sense logic and donate everything that you believe is good for someone else to use comfortably.
Rent a storage unit!
Finally, if neither of these options strikes your fancy, or if you still have a lot of items that will simply not fit into your new home but you really want to keep, a storage unit is the perfect solution. It will allow you to keep all those items that are dear to you without cluttering your new home.