Help...I'm moving overseas & need to clear my house!

[DelGirl]

I am finally moving to Italy in 12 weeks time. I have 40 years of clutter in a 4 bedroom house.

What are your top tips.

I am moving with just suitcases and a few extra's that I can fit in my car. My furniture and essentials will be staying in the house for the tenant to use though I will be storing stuff in one of the bedrooms.

I don't know where to start but I must get on with it NOW.

Help me with a plan. I am thinking rubbish/tip, charity shop & sell (though I don't know when I will have time). I need that woman of that programme!!

tia

try free cycle!!

forgot about that, thanks.

car boot sales. start doing one job a week. clean oven, bathrooms so when you need to leave job is smaller

Break it down into 4 stages

1. Sort out the things you want to take and then pack them in suitcases or sealed cardboard boxes.

1. Rutlessly throw out anything that is broken, take everyting you have not used for a year to a charity shop.

1. Store anything valuable in the bedroom you want to keep but cannot take.

1. Tidy everything else that is left and tel the tenant he/she can use or throw away as they wish.

Having moved about 15 times in 28 years, me and DW are quite ruthless about throwing things away. We have never regretted it. We threw all our clothes away and culled the childrens' toys about 18 months ago just before we moved house. Moving again next year overseas and will do it again.

Thank you for those tips. The problem I have, as anyone would, is that the things I am taking, I will be using for the next 12 weeks, so I can't pack them. Same goes for cleaning oven etc. Am I missing something. I just keep staring into the rooms and seeing obstacles. Argggh. It's a huge task. It would have been even worse had I have been letting this place unfurnished cos everything would need to go.

I just don't know where to start. Can you hire people to do it??

well i've managed to list and sell a wendy house since I last posted

Well done on getting started!

Why not just try one room- maybe start with the spare room where you are going to store stuff as that needs to be empty.

Go in with several bags/ boxes and for every single thing decide

1. throw away -general rubbish
2. throw away -recycling bin
3. Freecycle
4. Ebay
5. Keep and take to Italy
6. Keep and store

Once a bag is full take it straight downstairs and into bin or back of car and after an hour take a break and reassess/ list of Freecycle or ebay or drive to charity shop
That way it wont build up to much.

thanks. Have a about 4 bags for charity so far and bags of rubbish. The tip is a few miles from here so will stack that up I think. I might see if there is clothes recycling bin somewhere as I can't take the bags to the charity shops cos they don't like them hanging around. Once you make a start it seems a bit easier but I have been jumping from room to room.

Can't store stuff yet as its going in dd's room.