Preparing for a move can feel daunting, but not if you plan ahead and avoid last-minute scrambling. When you sell your home and have a moving date, start thinking about what you want and need to take with you and what you can sell, donate or take to the dump. Following a few simple tips can make your next move painless and smooth.
- No Time To Waste: Whether you have a 30-day or 90-day closing, start decluttering immediately. You will likely need to do a few passes before narrowing down what you take with you. Go through each room in the house and remove items you don’t use, don’t care for, or that won’t fit in the new home. Pack up boxes to donate and immediately load them into your trunk so you can drop them off on your next outing. Start listing items to sell online on sites like Kijiji, Varage Sale, or Facebook Marketplace. If you’re nervous about selling to people online, exchanges can be contactless by leaving items on your front porch and requesting the buyer e-transfer the money first.
- Purge, Don’t Store: While there are storage facilities on every corner these days, renting one should be a last resort and only if you have an overlap between when you must move out of your old house and into the new one. Storing furniture and boxes of “stuff” with plans to deal with them later will likely lead to months and months of paying expensive storage fees. If you’re having trouble deciding what to part with, use the one-year rule: If you don’t use it for an entire year, you probably don’t need it. To deal with large items you want to discard, hire a company like GotJunk. They can even leave a bin in your driveway until you’ve cleaned out and then take it away.
- Be Realistic: Look at your new floor plan and be realistic about what will fit. If you’re moving from an open concept floor plan to a home with smaller rooms, that large sectional sofa may need to go. And while you may have loved your grandmother’s antique sideboard, if it won’t fit, take photos of it to keep the memory and list it online. Or ask other family members if they’d like to take it. One of the hardest parts of moving is parting with items you’ve had for a long time, even if they no longer serve a purpose. If you’re struggling with how to declutter and organize, there are professional organizations that can help.
- Go Digital: If you’re anything like me, you may have filing cabinets filled with old tax returns, bills, and other outdated items. If tax returns are seven years old, they’re no longer needed, and you can shred them. Most statements can now be accessed online so if you’re hanging on to old phone bills more than a year old, shred them. For sentimental items like old photographs, scan and digitize them to keep them preserved. DVDs, cassettes, and CDs can be converted to digital files, stored on a cloud or local hard drive, and then recycled. Important hardcopy documents like birth certificates and marriage licenses can then be stored in a single file, taking up much less room.
- Moving Day: Deciding to hire a moving company or rent a truck and do it yourself depends on your budget, house size, and how far away you’re moving. Moving companies provide staff and trucks to pack up your home, transport your items and unload, but it does come at a cost. Be sure to obtain a few quotes and ask what options are available. Depending on your budget, companies can go so far as to pack items into boxes for you, load the truck, and unload and unpack at your destination. Whether moving across the country, downsizing homes, or upgrading, preparation and planning from day one are critical steps to surviving an otherwise stressful time.
