The internet is full of moving tips and checklists to help the experience go smoothly. Those are helpful, but I believe that the most important tip is often overlooked. Here's the only moving tip you need.
If you search Pinterest or Google, you are going to find lots of awesome posts with tips to help you pack and move into your next home. In fact, I was planning on compiling a list on these myself, as well as sharing other posts from fellow bloggers.
But the more I thought about it, the more I realized that there is only one big tip that you need.
Sure, you can pack things in colored tissue paper. Getting boxes off of Freecycle, facebook swap pages, or from grocery stores is great. Starting the packing process early (when you are staging to sell) and often (a few boxes every night) is awesome.
But the best tip I can give you after experiencing our current move?
HAVE LESS STUFF.
In fact, I can keep going. 🙂
GET RID OF AS MUCH STUFF AS YOU CAN.
or maybe this might help?
NO, YOU DON'T NEED THAT.
or this?
IF YOU'RE JUST THROWING CRAP IN A BOX BECAUSE YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT TO DO WITH IT, STOP THAT.
oh I'm totally guilty of this one:
DON'T KEEP THOSE CRAFT SUPPLIES FOR PROJECTS YOU NEVER MADE.
and finally, my favorite:
YOU ARE NOT A STORE AND DO NOT NEED TO SAVE STUFF "JUST IN CASE".
Ahhh, you guys totally hate me by now. 😉
I am a person who purges regularly. I do it spur of the moment, and I do it once a year (or more) during our 40 Bags in 40 Days Challenge.
Before packing, my husband assured me that "Ann, we really don't have that much stuff."
But guess what? We still have too much stuff. And there's still ditching to be done. It's a constant process and just as we donate stuff, we acquire stuff. We acquire non-stuff stuff. Kids grow and out of clothes (and we grow or shrink ourselves, haha!). We make crafts and get papers home for school and don't know what to do with them. The toys threaten to take over.
That's life. You can aspire to live a minimal or simple lifestyle, clean house regularly, buy less, and it's still an issue. Ahem. At least that's what I like to tell myself.
The best thing you can do before moving is stop getting sentimental and start ditching the stuff that gets in the way. Go through it once, twice, another time, and then another time.
Do this before you put your house on the market, do it continually.
Then, by the time you go to move you will be all like:
"HEY, THIS IS SO EASY!"
This is what my living room currently looks like and has looked like for the last week. Spot the sleeping kid.
You know I'm kidding, right? You'll probably still be freaking out. 😉
But deep down you know you have lightened the burden and things won't be as crazy as they would have been.
Today is Monday. We close on our new house Wednesday, move on Saturday, and then close on our current house on Monday. I have a feeling things will be a bit crazy around here, and I'm going to tell myself to stay off the computer as much as possible. In the meantime, pray for us. And pray for my poor kids who are probably eating frozen pizza and having lots of movie time. 🙂
Catherine Withrow
you are so right.....I've been going back and forth with the husband about purging and downsizing as we prepare for our 1000 mile move across country to a smaller home in a completely different climate. He insists on keeping 'everything' because he thinks it will be expensive to 'replace' it. We're losing a full basement, a barn and a huge machine shed plus 500 square feet of living space....where am I going to put all this stuff?
Good luck to you and your family - I hope everything goes smoothly and quickly.
Ann Marie Heasley
Good luck to you and your husband! I wrote this back when we moved to a larger house (the one we are in now), and currently we are downsizing. It's so much tougher!!
A big declutter helps. However, as I pack I've gotten rid of about 15 bags worth in only a few days. I'll likely donate more once we get there and realize what we've been okay living without. It's definitely a process!
Nancy Brown
Thanks for the great moving tips! You're being very helpful!
Tom Shrill
Having less stuff is definitely the easiest way to move. Throw out everything you don't want/need. Admit it, there is a lot of stuff in your guys' houses that you don't need!
Jodi
I love this post SO MUCH! As a Navy wife, I often hear people describe moving every few years as one of their least favorite parts of military life. I completely disagree. I LOVE sort and getting rid of the junk that creeps in every few years and couldn't imagine my life any other way! This post truly IS the best moving tip ever!
Jill
I plan on moving in 1-2 years and am already on a "have less stuff" rampage! lol Right now I'm really focusing on using up consumables (like all those sample bottles of shampoo that you're saving for...never, that body lotion you bought with good intent, and then bought a different one) and reducing my craft stash! I have so much fabric that was given to me and I don't sew much, and would never use the types of fabric given to me! Time to get rid of it now! Getting rid of STUFF is great to do as much in advance as possible because it helps to stage your home too - people dont love your stuff like you do, so the less you have, the better!
Berry k hill
I adore you for the real photo of the living room!
We purged about a third of what we had last time we moved. We started with a garage sale on Tuesday and kept adding to the sale stuff as we packed. Would we rather have some cash or unpack it again one day? We have moved 7 or so times in 5 years and I want to do this every time now! It was so much easier.
Right now we live with my MIL and have 2 bedrooms with 90% of our stuff in a storage building. I love the bin rotation idea and will probably try it. I have bins of mixed toys right now but after reading your post I realize my son, 2, likes types of toys for a couple days and moves on so this will be perfect for him! THANK YOU. I lived as a pack rat most of my life and my hubby did, too, so we really are just learning how to do this right for the sake of our children not growing up that way. Sincerely, thank you.
Berry k hill
P. s. Everything that didn't sell, except a small box of valuables went straight to charity! Literally felt the load lighten!
Kayla Danelle
Right there with ya! We're closing on our new house tomorrow!!! I'll say a prayer for you and your kids, and you can say one for me and mine. 😉
Marilou (your moma)
I wish I could go through all the stuff you give away...lol
Erin
So, so true! As someone who is currently in the unpacking stage of a downsize move, I agree completely. I confess though I have a hard time letting go of things I think I can sell (garage sell, Craisglist) but never get around to it.
Jenn
I've been purging this week (and had 40 bags 40 days on my mind CONSTANTLY) and this sums up my thoughts EXACTLY!! Why do I think I need SO MUCH stuff!!!? Happy moving!
Cameron
We moved 3 times this last year and most of our stuff lived in boxes. Now that I am unpacking I am trying to be very deliberate about putting stuff away and keeping things. We will be moving in 18 months, so that is in the back of my mind as well. It's the "away" places that accumulate so much stuff!!
Charin Adams
I'm in contract on a house right now (I think i said that on my last comment to your blog. Lol) so I'm taking this to heart! 😉 We'll be moving next month but I just started packing last night. I was JUST telling my husband how I don't want us to pack junk that we'll just be shuffling around and not knowing what to do with it at the next house. 😉
Thanks for the tips, and happy moving! 🙂
Marti Middleton
You got this. Just don't try to do anything ELSE for these next couple of weeks. Your new house will easily look like home well before Thanksgiving. You can do it!
Sabrina
After being the "primary" person to clean out my in-laws' house after 48 years' worth of accumulation, it gave me a whole new perspective on what I needed to keep myself. My MIL was an only child, and she had brought back a lot of stuff from when HER parents passed away. My FIL was a college professor and had stacks and stacks of students' papers. We donated more than 7,000 books to the local library... and we stopped counting. I would take stuff to the curb, only to find my hubby hauling it back into the garage (he is his parents' child)! We have now lived in our current house 20 years... and with four kids, I'm still amazed at how much we still need to go through and purge. It has now been five years since they passed away, and now I've finally been given permission to go through the stuff my hubby brought back and stored in our basement and garage. It HAS to be an almost constant process or you cannot stay on top of it! And I still have my own parents' house to consider, but it won't be nearly as much, but it will be a lot unless I can convince them to downsize in the meantime.