Just moved house - need help with not feeling overwhelmed with unpacking

[sincitylover]

Moved two weeks ago and have quite alot of stuff however in new house not much storage so at a loss to know what to do with stuff.

We're up and functioning and I am slowly unpacking boxes throwing stuff out and being quite ruthless about it.

But I feel completely overwhelmed by it and stuck really. The kitchen is alot smaller although we have more space overall. My car is not working either so everything has to be chucked via the normal refuse collection.

How did anyone else do it. I am also worried that should the owner come round they will be horrified to still see all the boxes.

Do it a room at a time and unpack each thing straight to its final destination. If you don't yet have one for it, put stuff aside. Put big things on freecycle to give away. That should get rid of anything that isn't actual rubbish.

Maybe if you feel overwhelmed, put a system in place such as unpacking for three hours each day, and then spending the rest of the day with DC. Or if you work, just do one box a night after work, then stop and chill. That way you don't feel guilty if you stop.
Do a couple of runs to local charity shops each week. And don't feel bad. Rome wasn't built in a day.

My theory is that you can get very hung up on putting everything in its eventual destination, which means that every time you unpack a new thing, you have to decide the perfect place for it to go. I think that it's less overwhelming just to get everything out of boxes and into somewhere that seems reasonably okay (e.g. books out of boxes and onto shelves, even if it isn't actually the right set of shelves). Then, once you've got rid of all the boxes and can see everything, you can gradually work on putting them on the most appropriate long-term places. There seems to be something psychologically liberating about getting rid of the boxes.

I definitely agree with doing a room at a time, and doing little and often.

Do you know about Freecycle? If you give things away via Freecycle, people will come and pick them up.