How To Declutter Before Your Move

Decluttering is a must-do, regardless of the reason. It doesn’t have to mean that you don’t have to declutter If you’re not hiring furniture movers. This is the process that happens over and over again so that your place can stay clean and fresh, without the piles of unnecessary things mixed up from every single room in the house or apartment.

No matter the reason, If you’re trying to downsize or to simplify your life and clean up your home, decluttering is a big job. It takes a lot of time, a lot of patience, and a whole lot of decisions about what deserves to stay in your home. Keeping unnecessary things will only make your life harder and make you repeat this process more often than If you got rid of the excess things that served their purpose to you. 

So, Where to Start When Decluttering?

Good question. Easy answer. 

Start wherever you like, but before you start you might want to determine some ground rules. In each room at your place, you will find things that either don’t belong there, they need some repairs, they need to go to the storage, or you don’t need them anymore but they can be of use to someone else. Or they served their purpose for good and they need to go to the trash or recycle bin. 

Here is a suggestion about what you can do to make things easier for yourself. Take five big plastic bins that you will move through your place each time when you go from room to room.

Bin 1: Move to the original place.

This bin will be of use for the items from the kitchen, for example, that somehow ended up in the living room or the bedroom. A lost cup of coffee that you left in the morning on your nightstand, or a teapot that you forgot on the dining room table. You will find a lot of these throughout the house, and If you put them all in one place/bin, you can sort them out at the very end or when you declutter the room that you’re into at the moment- before you move onto the next one. 

Bin 2: To be fixed/repaired.

 This bin is for things that got broken but can be fixed, like for example a table lamp, a carpet that needs to be washed, a piece of clothing that needs stitches, etc. Probably, they are sitting everywhere around you and hiding in plain sight, but they have no use until you tend to them. So, find them, put them in the bin, and take the time, later on, to fix and repair what can be saved.

Bin 3: For trash. 

Be careful with these ones. Some can be recycled, so divide them carefully and put them away for trash or recycling.
Don’t hold onto broken things and keep buying new ones. Just get rid of the old and dated items before you go shopping. That can save you from at least one declutter a year.

Bin 4: To sell. 

These will be the items that are no good for you anymore, you don’t have a place for them and you lost the use for them. But still, they are in good shape. Things like these can be sold. Organize a garage sale or list the items on some online platform. 

Bin 5: Donate. 

The items that you will donate are the same ones as from the row above (sell), but you prefer to donate and do it for a good cause. Gift it to someone in need. If you don’t know anyone personally, you can donate to Goodwill, Salvation Army, or any similar association.

Now that we addressedhow to start, let’s talk aboutwhere.

Where to Start Decluttering Before Your Furniture Movers Arrive

If you followed the guidelines from above and got those bins for different purposes, you can start at any room in your home. For those that are decluttering because they’re moving, we will explain each room step by step and mention the things that people usually forget because of the mess that they’re in. 

If you are hiring furniture movers for this project, then you should know that there are two types of services that they provide:

• Moving ( you need to pack your personal belongings into boxes and they are taking care of the rest)
• Full service (they will pack and move everything that you have).

Are You Hiring Furniture Movers Only?

If you are going for moving only, then you are the one that will be packing everything and in this case, you will for sure need to declutter and make things easier for you.

If what you need and want is the full pack and move service, packers and movers, in that case, you will need to get things in order, at least a bit, so your furniture movers don’t get lost on the day of the move. They will put everything in boxes and won’t look at the items If they’re from the living room or the laundry. The unpacking process for you will be much harder if you don’t get things into order before they arrive.

Make Sure Everything is Empty For Your Furniture Movers

Moving the closet full of stuff or overstuffed drawers doesn’t make any sense. If you will move by yourself, you will have to pack and transport all of those extra things; If you hire a company they will charge you more to move the junk that you don’t want in your new home. That’s why decluttering is important, not only to keep things in order but to make moving less stressful and less expensive as well.

Living room

This area in the apartment or a house is the one with the least storage space. Everything is out in the open since it is a seating and entertaining area. So it’s easy to get messy and cluttered, and If you are hiring furniture movers, you would want to clear this space out. 

Use the Five Bins Rulefrom above. There will be something for each bin, for sure. If you are starting to prepare for packing, put all the artwork in one corner, calculate how many boxes you will need approximately after you decluttered everything. 

Here are the clutters that you will encounter probably:

• Books
• Artwork
• Electronics and cables, remote controllers
• Decoration 
• Toys (If you have kids)
• Floor runners, rugs
• Pillows, blankets, and throws, etc.

These piles of things are affecting the type of boxes that you will need to purchase for packing. Clear out the space, put everything where it belongs and do the math. 

Kitchen

The kitchen is the one that is the easiest to become messy. It is normal because this is the place where the food is being prepared for the family. 

Again, you might find things for trash, recycle, put away the bin and make sure that you are asking yourself the right question: “Do I really need this?” If you don’t, just put it into one of the bins that are meant for sale or donation.

Bedroom

The bedroom is where people usually have more storage space, therefore it’s easy to get cluttered with things from other rooms, for laundry or for folding, ironing, etc. Your local furniture movers won’t be happy to see storage instead of a room.

You should be aware of the fact that professional movers are not moving furniture pieces with clothing inside. With this being said, you will need to empty out the drawers and closets.

If you want to prepare for easy packing, you should sort everything out first and estimate the number of boxes, wardrobe boxes, etc. After all, if your move is not happening tomorrow, you still need to live there, so declutter it and simplify your life.

Don’t forget to look under the bed and to open up every drawer and check what you have in there. You might find something that can go into one of those five bins.

Closet spaces

This might look like a personal storage unit. Instead of folded linens and sheets, you might find cleaning supplies, vacuum cleaners, toys, laundry baskets with dirty clothes. Take a sneak peek and remove what doesn’t belong there.

As far as the clothing goes, once you go through each type of clothing, you will have, like before, some for keeping, some for selling, some for donating or putting back to the proper closet. 

Just make sure that you declutter it and prepare for packing because when your furniture movers arrive, it should be all set.

Bathroom

Start with the supplies under the sink for example. Check the expiration dates and toss the ones that expired. 

Repeat the same with the medicine cabinet and the supplies in the shower and all the cosmetic products. 

These bottles will only take a lot of space and maybe they’re half empty or the expiration date passed. So, make sure that you checked and got rid of the unnecessary supplies. 

Repeat the same process throughout each room that you have in your house or apartment. 

In the end, take some time to deal with the content of those five plastic bins:

• Make time to fix and tend to the damaged things
• Put everything back where it belongs before you start packing
• Don’t forget to list the items for sale 
• Find a place where to donate the excess items
• Prepare the bin for trash/recycle

The problems that you will see while you declutter can help you to figure out how to avoid them in your new place once you move out of the old one. If the problem is no storage space in the home – invest in storage-friendly furniture.

So, pay attention. You might learn things that you didn’t need, at least before, in the first place. 

Preparing for Moving Day

Now that we went over decluttering steps, let’s give you some tips about how to prepare for the moving day. 

Cleaning up the place is not the only thing. After you declutter, there is packing of all the itemsinto boxes. That will take a day or two, or more. 

 This depends on how large the place is and on the time that you’re investing as well.

• After you pack, you should disconnect all the appliances. Usually, the cost to hire movers doesn’t include this. And moving companies avoid dealing with disconnecting and reconnecting. You should do it on your own or hire a handyman.

• Also, don’t forget to leave one bin, or bag, box for the essentials that you will need that day and the day after. You don’t want to be in the situation of opening 10 boxes while trying to find a toothbrush and a paste. 
• If you are a perfectionist, you might want to protect the floors as well. Sometimes a moving company is not interested in it.

Need Help Finding The Best Furniture Movers in Los Angeles? Contact Movers of Redondo Beach for a Free Quote

There are many things to think about, but starting with decluttering is the best thing to do. 

While you’re searching for local movers in Redondo Beach, you can ask them about these things. You can hear a lot of useful tips. Ask them about the floors, appliances, If they’re moving drawers with things in it etc. Request a quote and use it to your advantage, they can’t say no!