Moving

Moving residence is never an easy task and is known as one of the most stressful life events.  To make the move easier, I think regardless of up-sizing or downsizing, you also need to consider your new life and lifestyle. Planning a fresh start in your new home is an ideal time to have a good clear out of any unwanted belongings.

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Here are a few basic rules:

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• Are you going to be entertaining as much as you used to? Would you need the same amount of dishes, pots and pans, cutlery, dishes, plates, Seating, etc?

• When packing, be RUTHLESS! Think you are packing someone else’s stuff and don’t go down the memory lane while you are deciding to keep, store or bin!

• Never keep anything, JUST IN CASE! You either need it or you DON’T!

 

If you have already have a place in mind to move to some of these decisions will be easier, for example number of sofas or seating you will need. But lets start with the basics. This is to decide what is essentials to keep first! Its easier to decide what to keep than what is to get rid of. To do so, lets start with rooms with less personal / emotional attachments in the following order:

 

Kitchen:

• Basically assume you are going to a holiday home and what you will need to get by. Not everything is necessity – most items in our lives are “nice to have”

• Cookbooks: Sorry, but you need to get rid of them! Scan or take a picture of recipes you like… anything else can be googled and found on the internet!

• Choose 6 plates, utensils, glasses, wine goblets to pack. All else goes…(we will talk about what to do with it next)

• Choose 2 serving bowls, 2 platters, 2 deep dishes (for serving or baking lasagne)

• Pick 3 mixing bowls, 3 colanders (1 small one to act as a sieve), 3 sauce pans, 3 skillets / frying pans, 2 chopping boards

• All other gadgets you have collected through years, like string bean slicer or garlic crusher goes! Use a knife for these tasks

• Jar/can goods: Start going through them and throw out anything past sell by date. Start cooking meals with some of the ingredients left to make your moved easier (less last minute packing!)

• Appliances: Other than a kettle, toaster, a blender/hand-mixer and a coffee machine, nothing else is required that can’t be done by hand. All else goes…(we will talk about what to do with it next)

• Baking trays: only need 2 and one roast tin

• Vases: only need 2, one of each different sizes

• Dish towels: you only need 3

• Replace your plastic microwave dishes with glass ones. They are safer to use and can also be used as serving dishes.

 

Bathroom:

• Chose 4 bath towels, 4 hand towels, 2 floor mats. All else goes

• Go through the medicine cabinet like you did with your kitchen jars. If any medicine is past it sell by date, obviously it gets thrown out.

• Check and see if you have anything you may have just used once or twice such as straighteners or curling irons, curlers, etc.

• Things like nail file, nail clippers and all other little tools, keep 2 – get rid of the rest

 

Utility closet:

• Pack a small tool kit - all other tools and gadgets go!

• If you think you may need tools for painting or minor repairs, keep the associated tools. Otherwise, get rid of them. They are not used often and inexpensive to replace if you ever need them

• One vacuum cleaner, one broom, one hand brush and dust pan, one bucket is enough items for cleaning

 

Living Room:

• Seating: In an average house, One sofa and 1-2 other single chairs are enough seating in the living room. If more is required, you can then use the dining chairs

• Side tables: 2 side tables and one coffee table are plenty. If you need more storage, try to get there a large foot rest that can be doubled up as coffee table, foot rest and storage!

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• Picture frames: Keep max 3 for display in a collage. The rest can be scanned and kept on your laptop. Have a slide show to see them at random when and if needed

• Picture albums: Get rid of them! Take the pictures our and put them in a shoe box or purpose built photo storage boxes. An average shoe box holds up to 700 pictures!

• CD’s / DVD’s – Copy them onto your laptop

• Books (including cook books): Get rid of them! Anything you need these days can be found online!

• Decorative items:

Instead of having an object just to decorate your coffee table with, try to keep items that are nice and have a purpose as well, such as a nice box that you can store say match boxes or tea lights in. Move the objects around every few month to add variety to your life!

• If you absolutely love it and can’t live without, keep it!

• If you like it but can live without it, get rid of it! (sell or charity shop)

• If you love it, but don’t have room for it AND it is valuable enough that can be sold, i.e. a designer vase, then sell it!

• If you love it, but don’t have room for it AND it is not very valuable, ask a friend or two if they can hold on to it for you for a year untill you figure out if you have space to take it back or not

• If you are not sure about it, then get rid of it! There will be other things you may come across in the future that you may like or even more!

• Artwork:

  • There are so many walls you can hang pictures on. Assess the size of the place you will be moving into and realistically how many of those items you can actually display! The smaller the art the more you can hang!

  • Ask local shops if they would like to “rent some of the items from you”! Some stores need large mirrors or pictures to fill up their shops .

  • If you still end up with pieces you like to keep but don’t have room for it or not sure what to do with it for the time being, take them and store them under the bed so they don’t clutter your  new place leaning against the wall

  • Collectibles: Ask yourself why do you have it? Pleasure or value?

    • If pleasure and you have the room for it to DISPLAY them, then keep them!

    • If pleasure  and you don’t have the room to display them, then there is no point putting them in storage and not enjoying them!

    • If value and you have the room  to DISPLAY them, then keep them!

    • If value and you don’t have the room to display them, then no point putting them in storage and not enjoy them! Sadly you must get rid of them so you use and enjoy the earning in some other way (see how to get rid of excess items)

Dining Room:

• Get rid of your linen: Table cloths, napkins, etc. Keep 6 placemats and use paper napkins going forward. OK, maybe keep one table cloth for formal occasions like Sunday lunch or Christmas.

• Depending on the size of your new place, you may have to down size your dining table. If it has a leaf in it, then use it without the leaf. If not, you may have to sell it and get a new one that is more suited to the new space

• Some dining tables can be broken up to a center table and 2 end pieces. If so, you may want to consider using the center as a dining table and the two smaller end pieces as sofa or hallway tables

• China cabinet: If you have room for a china cabinet in your new place, then by all means keep it! If not you may want to:

  • get rid of it! Remember, if you don’t have that many plates or glasses, then they should fit in the kitchen cabinets now and you won’t need a china cabinet!

  • repurpose it: Use the bottom part with doors for towel/linen storage and the top part for china/crystal etc

  • put it in a different room such as hall way or bedroom. I have even seen it used in a big bath room as linen closet and for other storage as well.

• Candle sticks: set of two is enough! You can keep 4-6 votive holders as they are small and don’t take space

• Anything else that is just for specific occasions like place card holders can go as well!

 

Bedroom:

• There is so much to tackle in a bedroom that it will need so much time to discuss this! Everyone stores various items in the bedroom but mostly clothes, shoes and accessories.

  • Clothes: Take out everything out of your wardrobe and put it on the bed. Then start rehanging them (or packing them) decide in the following order:

    • Does it still fit me? If no, then get rid of it without thinking! Someday I may fit in it again doesn’t apply anymore! Remember the ruthless mentality!

    • It does fit me, but my life has changed and I may not use it as often, e.g. suits you used for work and now you are retired. Then keep one in case you need one for a formal occasion – In this case, keep the one you can break up and use it for other occasions like wear a black jacket with white shirt and blue jeans as a more casual outfit

    • Ask yourself how many white, black, red, etc shirts do I need? Keep 2 of each colour and get rid of the rest

    • T-Shirts: No one needs more than 10… keep your top 10 and you know what to do with the rest!

    • Sweaters: keep 2 for each season (light weight and heavy weight). Also keep the colours that are more versatile and can have multiple wears that the ones you wear once a season with just one specific pair of throusers!

  • Coats:

    • 1 heavy coat

    • 1 light weight/spring coat

    • 1 raincoat

  • Shoes & Handbags:

    • Think versatile and multi usage. We don’t need a hand bag in every colour! Usually a black, a tan, and something in the jewel toned family (like burgundy or purple) suffice.

    • If you only use it for special occasions, i.e. wedding, then keep one or two. The rest goes!

  • Underwear, bras and socks:

    • An average persons needs 10 of each. Besides they must be changed every year anyway! Keep your top 10 and get rid of the rest!

  • Accessories:

    • Hats, gloves, shawls, scarves:  2 of each should suffice

    • Custom jewelry: If you have the room for it, keep it. Otherwise get rid of anything that has a faded ring, missing a stone, etc. otherwise, my 2-3 rule applies: 2-3 rings, necklaces, bracelets etc. If anything left is in good condition, then you can sell it per below.

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Getting rid of unwanted / excess items:

• The sooner you start to take action about your unwanted items, the sooner you can decide what and how much is left and what to do about them.

• If you can’t get rid of all items before you move, do pack them in boxes and list the content on the box AND the action to be taken, e.g. list on eBay or take to charity shop, etc. You can then get rid of the content of boxes after you move and settled down! Just make sure you don't put them in the loft to get them out of the way and forget about them for 10 years!

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Here is some suggestions to get rid of your items depending on how much time you have before your move:

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Fast:

1. If you love it but don’t have room for it, ask a friend or two if they can hold on to it for you for a year till you figure out if you have space to take it back or not

2. Put an ad in the local library, newspaper, supermarket, any local schools, and /or local shops. These should either cost very little or be free

3. Advertise on Facebook with selective or public audience

4. Have a garage sale

5. Local house clearing agents: They pay you close to nothing but at least they come and take it away for you

6. Local charity shops will welcome smaller items such as books, ornaments or clothing

7. Some local furniture recycling charities may collect items you do not want and pick them up for free

 

More time consuming as you need to take pictures and post them:

1. Advertise on Facebook market place

2. Advertise on eBay and other auction websites

3. Books: List to sell them on amazon

4. CDs/DVDs: List to sell them on Amazon, Music Magpie or other similar online sites. If they don’t sell as you get close to your move date, i.e. 10 days, then it goes to charity shop

 

Free Take away:

1. Free website exchange

2. Charity shops

3. Local council

4. Neighbours