Run out of time to declutter before moving

[Littlebittiredoflife]

Half our stuff is in boxes already and we are moving next week. Does anyone have any tips with what to do when we get there? Our current home is extremely cluttered. We should easily fit in the new house as we are getting an extra bedroom and a garage, but family seem to be offloading furniture and knickers knacks onto us since the move date was set and I don't want to keep things for the sake of it.

Don’t accept anything from other people. Only box up stuff you love and use. Label the boxes. Don’t take random crap / things you don’t like or use to the new house. Charity shop or tip (if no-one wants it, it is just taking up room in your house until it goes to the tip; if someone might /will want it, give it to charity). Selling stuff will never happen if you have a lot of stuff and a busy life. Good luck x

Oh and furniture is clutter.

That was the plan (only take what we love and use) but between work and kids we have run out of time to go through are stuff so thoroughly and to get to the charity shop or the tip. I'm just wondering what we can do to help at the other end of it all when we will have what feels like unlimited space compared to what we had before (which of course I know isn't unlimited at all and will be full fairly quickly). Definitely agree on the not trying to sell things, everything goes to charity.

Get a skip, order for either side of the move

YY to skip now and skip on arrival.

If time allows gather things together now - put all the towels in one room, all the electrical wires, bulbs and spares in another. Then when you unpack by room you have things gathered together so it's easier to see what you have.

With older clutter try to think in terms of "what in this drawer do I need to keep?" rather than "what can I get rid of?"

Use your local tip as much as you can. Clothing bank there for fabrics - bags of good quality resellable stuff and separate bags marked rags for the rest. Ours has a book bank. Don't stress too much about toys going into landfill - they get broken, scratched, gummed, there is only so much market for second hand toys.

Don't buy storage yet and say no to family offers. You might need to buy more storage but you will have plenty of storage receptacles - boxes everywhere - so you can make do with moving boxes to start with until you figure out if you really need to buy more storage furniture.

Lastly the more stuff you have the harder it is to strip rooms out for redecoration. If you are planning to decorate soon, consider leaving one room empty to start with and tackle it immediately. It sounds like extra work but it is much less work in the long run than carefully unpacking and having to pack it all up again to decorate.

Super stressed about the idea of throwing anything away. It seems so wasteful and no good reason for it not to go to charity. Good point re decorating but the house we are buying literally has the number of rooms that we need in it. I don't think we'll decorate for three years or so anyway. Yes we are trying really hard not to buy anything until we are in and unpacked. Good idea to pack like things together. Even if I can't get rid now it will make it easier to do the other end.

I'd just box everything up now and move it to the extra bedroom in your new home. Then be VERY selective as to what is unboxed once you move. So long as you know where the kettle, cutlery, clothes and cleaning things are, you'll find you don't need to unbox much else and can sift through it or give deep consideration to whether you do actually need, use, want it when it's been sat in an unopened box for a few months.

Work on the mindset for hanging on to stuff 'just in case' - think of it as rehoming (to charity) or recycling so it can live a more purposeful life.

None of it needs to be done right now, all in one go and all at once.

Extra bedroom is being filled by a child who was sharing a bedroom. I think I will have to wait until we move now to declutter. I just don't have the time or space to sort it now and as I unpack I can be selective about what gets to come out. Not going to shove anything in the loft yet- except Christmas decorations as I'm not sorting them until Christmas!

Declutter as you unbox. Regarding the cost of things you get rid of, try thinking of the cost to you of keeping items 'just in case' - lack of space, build up of clutter, mental load. Release it all.

When I moved, I put loads of stuff on ebay for 1p with collection only. There's always someone who will buy at that price and they come and take it away for you, it needs very little effort on your part.