Moving to a new home can be a daunting and overwhelming task that gets the best people in the worst of times. It is that one adulting experience most people fear and would rather not do because of the stress and mess it leads to. Moving becomes even more arduous when there is a lot to manage, organize and pack. Most people do not know where and how to start. Aside from being difficult, moving countless items, you swear you don’t remember buying or seeing at any shop can also be expensive.
Throwing out stuff you don’t remember buying is much easier than discarding stuff that holds emotional or sentimental value. Parting with such things can be a gut-wrenching process for people as it tugs at their heartstrings quite strongly. So, people are often unable to let go of such items, even if they rarely use them. People often think that they only have two options – parting with their precious belongings or allowing them to clutter their living space. However, there is a third option. If you have any items that you don’t want to bring into your new home but also don’t want to give them away, then rent a storage unit. You can store your treasured possessions in self storage. Later on, you can decide if you want to keep them or are ready to part with them.
Parting with sentimental items may be hard, but here are five things that you can throw out before moving to lighten the load on your mind, wallet and moving truck. After all, a little decluttering goes a long way in creating a mess-free and chaos-free moving experience.
Old clothes
No one seems to realize just how many clothes they have until their wardrobe or closet is emptied out for a move. There are always clothes that don’t fit anymore, are worn out, faded and damaged, or socks and gloves with a missing pair that are hogging up precious closet space. There are also clothing items that just do not spark joy anymore. There is no need for such clothes in your new home, so throw them out, donate them to shops like Goodwill, or organize a garage sale. You can even recycle them and transform them into newer, fresher pieces.
Books
Although throwing out books is a bookworm’s worst nightmare, there’s still validity in throwing out old, worn-out books or the ones that have completely fallen apart. Books that are yellowed, crumpled, and damaged beyond recognition are the ones to be thrown out, recycled, or donated to paper manufacturers. See it this way. If you declutter your bookshelf by throwing out the damaged, unnecessary items, you can reclaim the space for newer books and then ultimately get new fictional characters to love, places to explore and fandoms to dive into. Plus, this can also be your excuse to go on an enjoyable book buying spree.
Old furniture
Moving to a new place often translates into a fresh start. So, another way to declutter is to throw out any old, damaged, cheap, or worn-out furniture before moving. This way, there’s no pointless added baggage to move.
If you plan on buying new furniture, do sell or donate some of the furniture you already own but don’t need that is in good condition. This way, it will find a new home to make cozy instead of rotting away in the streets, dumpsters, or alleyways.
Out-of-date electronics
We all have miles of unwanted, damaged, and unnecessary cables, earplugs, earphones, cords, USBs, and other electronic gadgets in our homes somewhere. This is your time to sort through all of them, keep what you need that works and throw the rest out. But be sure to dispose of them in an orderly, appropriate manner because you cannot throw electronics in the trashcan like you would discard tissue paper.
Piles of Paper
Even in the 21st century, in this highly digitized era, we still have piles of paper in our homes that are taking over our sacred physical space in drawers, cupboards, and cabinets. Whether these papers are taxes, receipts, bills, kid drawings or just random scraps with random numbers and dates written on them, they need to go. You can digitize the important documents and throw the extra piles out. This will make for a hassle-free packing and moving experience without getting you tangled in piles of unnecessary paper.
Conclusion
There are many things you can part with before moving that you don’t need or want anymore. Feel free to discard, donate, give away or recycle, depending on their usability and value. It will save you a ton of time, money and effort in moving stuff that you will eventually throw out or will only clutter your new home. Check the five essential things to throw out mentioned above, and then you can go from there to avoid the dreaded moving-day panic and last-minute packing. After all, moving day doesn’t always have to be messy and chaotic.
