Decluttering help

[Mrs Tiggywinkle]

So in June, we will be moving from a 2300 square foot house to a 1500 square foot house. The nice thing is that the new house has both basement and attic storage, which I do not have in this big house.  It also has a pantry and closets, which I don’t have here either.   

But still, I need to declutter and streamline for this move.  We’ll be going from a four bedroom, 1.5 bath to a three bedroom, one bath.  We live in a 150 year old farmhouse and will be moving to a newer ranch home in the country.  I’m starting now because I am having rotator cuff surgery the end of April and it would be nice to have a head start.

But where do I even begin??  Help!!

[*Jessica*]

Start by listing the things you know you have to take with you, then go through the rest brutally and get rid of as much as you can!  

The whole KonMari method is actually pretty helpful in this type of situation, even when I don’t use that method otherwise.  When we moved here 4 years ago I made a list of what had to come with, then piled everything else of each category in the middle of the room and decided whether I loved it or not.  If not, it filled a bag that went immediately to my car.  As soon as my car was filled I took a trip to the donation center.  Rinse and repeat for each category.  I found it much easier with my probable-ADHD-brain to focus on one category at a time.  

[Carol in Cal.]

As many times as  you think of it, grab a bag and box and move through your house.

In the bag goes anything you can or should toss.  

In the box goes anything you want to donate.

Stop after 15 minutes or when one is full.  

Repeat later in the day or the next day.  

If you do this often, you will gradually reduce what you have to move or organize.  You'll find yourself putting things into better categories to stage them.  You will become away of all your possessions in  way that you might not be now.  Call it curating and it feels better than decluttering.  🙂

[*Jessica*]

And don’t bother trying to have a yard sale or sell stuff on FB Marketplace or anything.  It’s too much on top of all of the work involved in moving!  Bless somebody else with your donations and feel good about it.

[Carrie12345]

I think everyone has a different “best” starting point. Generally, start with the easiest thing, but not all of us agree on what that is, lol.

Stuff that takes up the most space?
Stuff that’s purely ours? (Clothes, trinkets, etc.). 
Stuff that’s the most visually obvious?  
Stuff that’s hiding in spaces you haven’t touched in years?  
Stuff in places you touch every day? (Kitchen drawers/cabinets). 
Stuff you can pack up now and leave until you move? (Seasonal)

[HS Mom in NC]

We did that 3 years ago in a cross country move downsizing from a 4,000sq. ft. to 2,000sq. ft from a family of 5 to a family of 3 at home.

For furniture we measured each room in the new house and we measured every piece of furniture we owned.  We drew out the rooms (with windows and doorways noted)  and the footprints of the furniture on graph paper.  We cut out the furniture footprints and arranged the furniture in the new house rooms on the graph paper.  We got rid of the furniture that didn't fit and lived with just that furniture in our old house until we moved into the new one. We were 2.5 months between buying the new house and moving out of the old house.   We sold all of it and many other unneeded items and donated the rest to people we knew and Goodwill.

As to the rest of your household inventory, everyone is different. 

Some people start with selecting the things they know they're going to keep, and packing those things first.  Other people start by getting rid of things they know they won't use anymore and selling, donating, and throwing away those first. So it's top down or bottom up.

Some people start by asking what stage of life they're in now and keeping those things that are used in that stage, then asking what stage they'll be in in the future and addressing those items.  Others start by asking themselves what stages of their lives are done and they get rid of those items used only in that stage. Like when my dad decided he wasn't going to do anymore camping for physical reasons, he donated his camping supplies to campers he knew first then the left overs went to Goodwill.

Some people create different zones of keep, donate, sell, and throw away and go through items that way. They can set up whatever criteria they want, like if they haven't worn it in a certain space of time and if it doesn't fit properly now and if it doesn't make them feel good when they wear it.

Some people ask themselves by what fraction or percentage they want to reduce their stuff.  If it's 50% then for every item they keep, they get rid of one item. If it's 1/3 for every 2 items they keep they get rid of one.

Some people use physical containment space to decide.  In a standard closet that would be something like thinking about how much space a typical item takes up,  measuring the hanging bar,  and dividing by how ever many hangers fit in that closet. Let's say it worked out to 30 hangers.  They keep 30 hangers and decide which 30 hanging items they most want and donate the rest. This can be done with drawer space too.

All of these approaches can include a "quarantine space" for items you're not sure about.  If you're pretty sure you're not going to use it again but you aren't confident, then having a bin out of the way to put it in for a certain amount of time to trial run life without it is an option.  If you haven't needed to retrieve it, the quarantine bin is now the donation bin.

Edited March 30, 2021 by Homeschool Mom in AZ

[HS Mom in NC]

This might help. Dawn's a Minimalist, but there are some principles here for speeding up the decluttering process that might be help people who aren't minimalists.

 

[WildflowerMom]

We downsized 5 years ago.   Here's my advice.   Go thru each room, one by one.  Get rid of (donate, trash, give to friends, whatever) what you don't want or need.   Go through drawers, cabinets, under bed, closet, whatever is in that room, go thru it.   Then move on to the next room, and so on.   *Then* ( 👈🏼 Most important) do it AGAIN. Before you ever move, before you box up, do it again.  On the 2nd trip thru the rooms, be more ruthless.  My mistake was decluttering ONCE.  I have continuously had to declutter this house since we moved here because I didn't go through a second time at the old house.  If I had a nickel for every time I saw something and thought, 'why the heck didn't I throw that OUT??', I'd give Bezos a run for his money.  

[Acadie]

25 minutes ago, Homeschool Mom in AZ said:

This might help. Dawn's a Minimalist, but there are some principles here for speeding up the decluttering process that might be help people who aren't minimalists.

 

I think you're the one who introduced me to Dawn! Sometimes I watch a couple of her videos to get in a good frame of mind for decluttering. I like her energy and the way she talks about making space for the people and things you love. At a certain point I've had enough of the chattiness and then I'm ready to get something done 😂

[Lecka]

We made a big move while my youngest kids were 7.  I ruthlessly got rid of many items they had outgrown.  I ruthlessly went through books.  

This was the biggest difference for us and worked out because of their age being a good age to do that.  

We did not go down as much in sq ft, though.  Our kitchen did not get any smaller, either -- we actually gained storage in the kitchen.  

 

[Lecka]

We always have to get rid of some furniture that turns out not to work, and sometimes we need to buy 1-2 items of furniture to fit rooms.  

If you know your floor plan ahead of time, you can figure that out ahead of time!  

 

[HS Mom in NC]

13 minutes ago, Acadie said:

I think you're the one who introduced me to Dawn! Sometimes I watch a couple of her videos to get in a good frame of mind for decluttering. I like her energy and the way she talks about making space for the people and things you love. At a certain point I've had enough of the chattiness and then I'm ready to get something done 😂

Yeah, she's really too chatty for my tastes too, so I skip through her videos as needed.

[prairiewindmomma]

My advice is to pack up kid stuff first...particularly things that get scattered throughout the house. We left our kids with one small (large shoebox) of personal items each for each move. Their stuff had to go in there each night, fully put away. Trash or donate broken and outgrown items as you go along. Toys, books, clothes, etc. 

These will likely all be lighter items that should be easier now for you—but are also things you will have input on. It will also make your shoulder recovery easier because they can’t trash the house as thoroughly.

[Katy]

Black trash bags so no one (including you) feels compelled to re-evaluate the decision to get rid of something. Use old Amazon or grocery boxes to donate items if you can (so the decisions are made once and not again when you take it to donate. If you have to trash something because no one will take it at the curb or a donation center, don’t feel guilty!  Just trash it!

[fairfarmhand]

I find clothing a great place to start because I will get rid of unwanted clothes in a heartbeat. And that helps me get started.

Straighten your linen closets and be ruthless with anything that is tattered or hasn't been used in a long time. 

Clean out your medicine cabinet, cosmetics, and health and beauty items. 

Also, don't keep anything that you wouldn't buy again. 

[fairfarmhand]

3 hours ago, StillJessica said:

And don’t bother trying to have a yard sale or sell stuff on FB Marketplace or anything.  It’s too much on top of all of the work involved in moving!  Bless somebody else with your donations and feel good about it.

THIS! SO MUCH THIS!

[regentrude]

You could start from the oopposite end: if (heaven forbid) your house burned down, which things would you not bother replacing? Which would you repurchase? Take those, get rid of the rest.

Edited March 30, 2021 by regentrude

[Carol in Cal.]

Do you have lots of seasonal decor or pots and pans or dishes?  Like, a Thanksgiving platter and a cornucopia or any Valentines Day stuff?

Those can be packed right now, and well labelled.  You can sort as you pack.  They can go straight into your new storage, and if they are well labelled it will be easy to find them at the right time.

Also, camping stuff could be sorted and packed right now.  

Ditto things like vases that are not used much but that you want to keep.  (Of course, if they are not used much this would be a great time to donate some to the local thrift store.)  

Also, start one little box with the stuff you will need *the first night*.  That means, one pot, maybe some paper plates and cups and plastic utensils, boxed mac n cheese, napkins, sheets, blankets, and towels.  That box should be marked in neon.  That box is the one that saves  you from rooting through a million boxes looking for just a few essentials before you have really started to unpack.

[Sherry in OH]

I also find clothing the easiest to purge, especially children's clothing.  Anything the youngest has outgrown can go.  Any winter items the youngest will have outgrown before next winter can go.  Any stored spring/summer items too small for child or in styles child won't wear, can go.  If you save items from your older children for your youngest, think about how many of those items actually get used.   If the answer is little, be ruthless about purging your older children's outgrown clothing as well.

Do you have furniture you know you don't want to take to the new house?  If so, get rid of it sooner rather than later.  This is especially true if you are relying on someone else to come and get it.  

Go through storage areas with an eye for what can leave.  Empty every box and tote.  Anything you cannot remember (that doesn't obviously belong to another family member) can go.  If you put the item into storage because you hated it, it can go.   Put broken items in the trash.  Shred unwanted papers.  Repack just the items you know you want take.  Clearly label the boxes indicating the contents and the designed location in the new home.   

The benefits of sorting through storage areas early are 1) if the storage areas are hard to reach, you don't forget about them; 2) you don't run out of steam and decide to move all stored items without examining them, leading you to wonder several months (years) later why you thought a box full of old business cards and trade show bling was worth moving (twice); 3) if you live with pack rats, they have likely forgotten about the stored items and if you can get the items out of the house without said family members seeing the items they will never the items, and 4) if the storage areas are easy to access, you now have space to store other packed items.  

Set aside a few hours a week to go through paper files.  Toss user manuals for appliances you no longer own. Shred any other documents you do not need to keep.  If unsure - there are plenty of online guides outlining what to keep.   Put warranties, manuals, and other documents that the next owner of your current house might want/need in a single location.  Clearly label the file so others know not to pack it.  (I have always left the file in a kitchen drawer along with spare keys.)    

Go through craft and hobby materials early.  Get rid of anything your children have outgrown.  Also get rid of anything relating to hobbies you tried and didn't like.  Be realistic about what you will and won't use in the future.  If it is inexpensive and easy to replace, let it go.  

[kbutton]

4 hours ago, Homeschool Mom in AZ said:

All of these approaches can include a "quarantine space" for items you're not sure about.  If you're pretty sure you're not going to use it again but you aren't confident, then having a bin out of the way to put it in for a certain amount of time to trial run life without it is an option.  If you haven't needed to retrieve it, the quarantine bin is now the donation bin.

This. We don't use our quarantine quite the same way. For us, it's more about space, so things we might or might not need get contained in a box, and it has to fit. Then we prioritize from there. The whole box never really disappears. Things move in and things move out (are used, are not used and disposed of, are repurposed or donated, etc.). We sometimes have multiples of these boxes--like maybe one per person or for a specific area of the house. They are especially good for things you need but can pile up. We have a "disposable container" box that is great for grabbing a container to take someone a meal or to store small parts inside a larger box, etc. But we don't need a basement full of containers that might be useful someday.

I do think doing things by category is easier because you know exactly what you have when you assess.

I agree about starting with something is easy for you to make decisions about, so much so that I suggest you make sure you to leave a somewhat easy task to begin your next purging session whenever possible. I find I procrastinate far more if the very first thing I need to do is something on the harder side.

[Danae]

1 hour ago, Carol in Cal. said:

 

Also, start one little box with the stuff you will need *the first night*.  That means, one pot, maybe some paper plates and cups and plastic utensils, boxed mac n cheese, napkins, sheets, blankets, and towels.  That box should be marked in neon.  That box is the one that saves  you from rooting through a million boxes looking for just a few essentials before you have really started to unpack.

Our last two moves DH kept his favorite coffee maker with him in the cab of the moving van. If he'd had a chain, I think it would have been chained around his neck.

[Carol in Cal.]

6 minutes ago, Danae said:

Our last two moves DH kept his favorite coffee maker with him in the cab of the moving van. If he'd had a chain, I think it would have been chained around his neck.

This is a VERY excellent point.

[Carol in Cal.]

Another thing you can do right now is plan your use of your newfound storage. 

I had an attic in our previous house that had a solid stairway up into and was as big as two rooms--just not with regulation ceiling heights, but plenty tall for me.  

After I had lived there for a little while, I realized that I would be way better organized if I had some stuff up there on shelves, and I bought several inexpensive wooden bookshelves that fit under the (abnormally low) eaves in one of the 'room' areas.  I put most of my books out on those, and it was great--no visual book clutter in the main house but everything organized where I could find it easily.  Across the wall from these was my overflow large kitchen stuff (kitchen was tiny with minimal storage.)  Things like cake pans, roasting pans, etc. that I didn't use often went there.  Then on the other side of the stairwell, the other 'room', I put my old toys so that visiting kids would have a play room out of sight and ready for pretending.  I kept them for my kids 'someday' but wanted them out to be able to be enjoyed in the meantime.

I had a quarter basement and kept larder type stuff there.

It would have been a very different home without this storage.  We moved into a bigger home a few years later that has a quarter basement but no attic and no laundry room, and I really miss those even though the house is bigger.  You might be surprised at how much easier it is to live in a smaller space if it has good storage.  It's worth planning that out now because then if you have, for instance, bookshelves or cabinets that you might otherwise not move, you can consider whether to use them in your storage areas, and if so, for what, and then pack your boxes accordingly.

 

[Starr]

6 hours ago, Homeschool Mom in AZ said:

This might help. Dawn's a Minimalist, but there are some principles here for speeding up the decluttering process that might be help people who aren't minimalists.

 

She's easy to watch and has some encouraging thoughts without making me crazy.

[KungFuPanda]

Don't keep anything just because you "might use it again someday." Real estate is too valuable.  It's better to get rid of 300 things and free up that space EVEN IF you have to repurchase one or two items a decade down the road.  Do not be afraid to purge something that might come in handy maybe never.  It's very freeing to accept this and just expect to replace a few items out of a whole roomful. 
 

[73349]

One option for things you find yourself waffling about is to calculate the price per square foot of your new home that an object takes up plus the price per pound (or cubic foot of moving truck) to move it there.

Now, if you didn't own this object, would you spend that much money or more to buy it today? If not, it's not worth keeping. This can be really helpful for things you were only keeping because they'd be a hassle to re-home, such as little-used furniture.

[regentrude]

16 hours ago, KungFuPanda said:

Don't keep anything just because you "might use it again someday." Real estate is too valuable.  It's better to get rid of 300 things and free up that space EVEN IF you have to repurchase one or two items a decade down the road.  Do not be afraid to purge something that might come in handy maybe never.  It's very freeing to accept this and just expect to replace a few items out of a whole roomful. 
 

My friend has this saying: "There is a place where they're storing all items under $20 for us. It's called Walmart".

[Ema]

Joining in for these ideas. We, too, are anticipating a move by the end of the summer due to DH’s job, though we do not know the when or where yet. We have moved 4 times in the past 12 years and it hasn’t really gotten easier. Though adding a kid for each move didn’t help (that trend better not keep up!). When we do get the when settled, the first thing I will do is start packing up books and ruthlessly going through toys and closets, ditching almost all of the craft stuff and old rags that are too scuzzy to use for packing. I also have already started a list of the big ticket items in the house and garage, listing what it is, if we are taking it, and if not, where it will go. I don’t want to have to be thinking about all that when I am packing up the smaller stuff, and as soon as I can get those out of the house and garage, the better. I am already talking to the kids about it, as well. Every time they clean their rooms I remind them to think about what they have and if they want to pack it, move it who knows how far, then unpack it and find a spot for it. They are *starting* to maybe get the idea. Good Luck to you!

[Carrie12345]

I just spent most of the day going through my boys’ room with them. Being the youngest two, they’ve spent more of their lives understanding decluttering than the older kids. They did a great job (minus a few odds and ends that I can’t wrap my mind around  anyone keeping), and I had to conceal MY sentimentality as they tossed some things, lol.

So I guess another tip is to work with a brutal family member or two! 😆 

[Carol in Cal.]

I find that I have times when for whatever reason I am more willing to let stuff go than other times.

If I'm decluttering and I find myself starting to question each and every 'get rid of this' decision, that's when I stop for a while.  Grinding on at that point usually results in keeping things that I should not have.

[elegantlion]

Paperwork always seems to end up on the back burner when I move. You may keep more things digitally, but I tend to accumulate a lot of paperwork. things to shred or recycle: 

• taxes no longer needed
• appliance guides
• schoolwork
• holiday cards

Also, if you tend to keep boxes for small appliances, electronics, purge or repurpose the boxes for things you no longer own or won't move in the box. I find shoes boxes can be good to pack small items which can then be packed in a larger box. 

 

 

[Mrs Tiggywinkle]

Thank you all! My husband has a dump trailer for his contracting business and I am so tempted just to throw everything in the house into it.

Despite the square footage I actually think we’ll have more room in the new house. Our house now is a very odd layout and the only storage spaces are the three small closets we’ve put in.  A basement and attic for storage is going to be huge, plus the new house has closets everywhere.   It’s just a simple ranch house but it’s well designed.  I don’t want to move all of our crap, though, and want to start fresh.