Who's working on decluttering before a move? (very expensive, motel, best)

[ndcairngorm]

Originally Posted by kab0906

I am.

I have a bunch of stuff listed on eBay.

Seems like I remember back in the day that it was a big deal and a lot of trouble to get qualified to sell things on eBay. Is it easier to become a seller these days? What's the process, if you don't mind going through the steps with me. (Thanks!)

[Adamson865]

Originally Posted by bizcuit

Set small goals. Even tiny goals. You will clear out one drawer, or one closet shelf, or something. You'll find that as you do it, bit-by-bit, you'll get more and more motivated. Set short time goals. You will do some decluttering work for 15 minutes. When that time is up, go watch TV, or go for a walk, or on the internet for 30 minutes and then set another 15 minute goal. You will find that the more you do, the more you will want to do.

Or you can watch a couple of episodes of Hoarders. That will kick anyone into high gear.

I second the 15-minute thing. Mine was 30 minutes. I told myself I'd work at packing or decluttering or whatever for 30 minutes, then set my phone timer. When I've done 30 minutes, then I take a 30-minute break. Then I work for another 30 minutes... alternating for however long I want to continue.

LOL @ Hoarders! I got the same reaction by watching the Mama June show on WE. They moved away from the house by the train tracks into a beautiful large house, and there's still junk piled everywhere. I couldn't dare allow my house to look cluttered if it's going on national TV (or if someone's coming over for dinner!)

[Mike from back east]

Here's another thread we have that speaks to de-cluttering.

[Arkay66]

We're helping Sister move. Even after years as civilians, we still have the military move mindset and keep our stuff down to a reasonable roar. So we're completely astonished at how much utter junk she's packing. What she's tossing isn't even a drop in her bucket. Three packing days, 60 boxes, and we've just managed to empty the garage and the kitchen. Haven't even touched the rest of her huge house. Sigh.

At least we finally convinced her it's far better to hire Two Guys and a Truck to move her furniture than to depend on her older sibling and spouse. We're too old to do it efficiently and safely.

Makes me want to come home and throw out more stuff, just because...

[JonathanLB]

We are getting closer, home is going pending today officially (verbal agreement yesterday), closing July 22 and our new house will be finished August 7, but not moving in until September 8 or so. So we're doing the two-month apartment rental thing, now pricing out furniture rental for two months basically, which is probably about $2,000 even for such minimal stuff. What a rip off. But the problem is it would cost about the same amount of money to move some of our unwanted stuff that isn't making the move to the apartment, probably $1,000 moving cost, and then we'd have to deal with selling or giving away a bunch of furniture either right before our wedding (September 6) or right after before we leave town, neither of which sounds appealing. I think the $2,000 for ease and peace of mind actually will be the winner. But then you factor in maybe $3,000 rent, you're looking at $5,000 temporary housing cost. Total pain in the butt.

We are pretty much packed with most of our stuff, though, I have very little that's still out except what I need like my computer and TV system. Luckily I have a 65" older 1080p plasma I can just use in the apartment then get rid of quickly the last few days there, put it up for $100 or something, it'll be gone in 24 hours. I sold 3 TVs a few weeks ago already and they all were gone in less than a day.

The awkward part is I won't even be in the apartment some of the time because I'll be down in Vegas at my aunt's casita dealing with the new house in August, walk through, inspection, contractors for improvements we want to make, pool company, etc. I think July 15 through September 15 is going to be the most annoying, awkward two months in a long while. But ultimately worth it!

I'm now up to past $14,000 of stuff sold on eBay and I think if I include cash from local sales around $15,000.

[Saskia Calico]

Originally Posted by Arkay66

Once a week, I pick a location, such as one drawer, shelf, closet, whatever, and empty it completely. What I don't remember owning goes away. If we still need/use it, we keep it. What's left gets organized, either in the original location or with other similar/related items. This alone has cleared an amazing amount of clutter.

I really like this advice and I've found it at a great time for me because I've been feeling so overwhelmed at the downsizing I have to do that I've taken a week-long break from it. But one drawer a day, one shelf a day, sounds doable. Thanks!

[TMSRetired]

I've decluttered before moves and swear that I won't let it build up again.
Then a few years down the road you move and find out you did let it all build up again.
When I moved into my last home 8 years ago I figured I had to be proactive about the clutter and not wait until I decided to move. So I built a bit of decluttering into my weekly chores. There's one day I stay home and do laundry, clean the house, etc. What I also did was pick a drawer/closet/box to go through as well.

That worked out well for me because I just sold that home and moved. I had very little that I had to get rid of.
Just passing this on as it worked out well for me and I plan to continue it.

And rather than throw out something partially broke or put in a bag for Goodwill I say "Well, you never know" and then stash it somewhere and then it gathers dust. That's how I fall victim to cluttering.

[meo92953]

Originally Posted by TMSRetired

I've decluttered before moves and swear that I won't let it build up again.
Then a few years down the road you move and find out you did let it all build up again.
When I moved into my last home 8 years ago I figured I had to be proactive about the clutter and not wait until I decided to move. So I built a bit of decluttering into my weekly chores. There's one day I stay home and do laundry, clean the house, etc. What I also did was pick a drawer/closet/box to go through as well.

That worked out well for me because I just sold that home and moved. I had very little that I had to get rid of.
Just passing this on as it worked out well for me and I plan to continue it.

And rather than throw out something partially broke or put in a bag for Goodwill I say "Well, you never know" and then stash it somewhere and then it gathers dust. That's how I fall victim to cluttering.

Great idea. I recently moved to a senior complex a year and 1/2 after my first move to Arizona. This was with the same company so I wasn't penalized for moving before the actual lease was up.

Prior to Arizona I had lived in Minnesota most of my life and had a lot of cold weather clothing. I had done a lot of research so I knew there were some cold days and kept some of the clothing.

When moving to this new apartment I then knew what I needed and subsequently got rid of three bags of clothing. They were not so much clothes for the cold, although some were, but rather that I found I just didn't wear them here.

Now as I am unpacking boxes, I have started a new box of things I kept for sentimental reasons as opposed to needing them. I'm amazed at some of the things I kept just because they were gifts. What I haven't used is going away.

I moved from a two bedroom, with inadequate kitchen cabinets, to a one bedroom with a great kitchen set-up. I had bought a lot of space saving gadgets for the old apartment and now find I don't need half of them.I'm up in the air about keeping them or not though as I want to make sure this is where I will stay after my lease is up.

I haven't even visited or explored Tucson yet but from the videos I've watched, it intrigues me. I have visited Bisbee and find it fascinating.

I do like my new apartment so I may stay and will decide later down the road. The only problem is that I now need a stent and the procedure is only done in Tucson. And if the doctor finds other problems, I want to be close to specialists, which are in Tucson.

I don't want to give the space savers away and end up re-buying them so, for the time being, I will keep them. But I am surprised by what I'm finding I don't need. Especially the 'gifts' I kept and have yet to use.

At the same time, I am finding things I kept that I wasn't able to use in the other apartment but fit wonderfully here. Now I'm glad I kept them. Sometimes it's a guessing game.

[JonathanLB]

Originally Posted by TMSRetired

I've decluttered before moves and swear that I won't let it build up again.
Then a few years down the road you move and find out you did let it all build up again.
When I moved into my last home 8 years ago I figured I had to be proactive about the clutter and not wait until I decided to move. So I built a bit of decluttering into my weekly chores. There's one day I stay home and do laundry, clean the house, etc. What I also did was pick a drawer/closet/box to go through as well.

That worked out well for me because I just sold that home and moved. I had very little that I had to get rid of.
Just passing this on as it worked out well for me and I plan to continue it.

And rather than throw out something partially broke or put in a bag for Goodwill I say "Well, you never know" and then stash it somewhere and then it gathers dust. That's how I fall victim to cluttering.

Yeah that more or less always happens to me, somehow the clutter still builds up. That’s why I just plan to move every 2-3 years, it’s the only solution! Haha just joking. This time around it wasn’t mainly clutter that built up, I think there was fairly little of that, it was that my dad made me take everything from his house from my childhood around 18 months ago and I didn’t have time to sort through it so into the garage and closets it went. A lot of it was fairly valuable so it just took a lot of time to sell it all but at least I’ll never have to do that again and it was probably a good thing to deal with before moving out of state so that I wouldn’t have any of my stuff 900 miles away.

I’m selling the last items now, just a few things, it’s basically done except for a bunch of unwanted furniture that will have to go before the move. I’m not looking forward to dealing with that.

[Spedteach17]

I'm still working on decluttering and packing while we wait for DH to get a job offer. It helps me to look around and remember that everything has to be addressed in some way before we go. Whether it's donating, throwing it, or packing, I have to make those decisions.

I'm glad to have started so early so I have time to handle things without a tight deadline. It's really hard to find that balance between tossing extra stuff vs hanging on to things we will still want to use.