It might sound like the last thing you would want to make time for before you move house, but a good declutter can be a useful exercise.
If you declutter all areas of your house including; loft, garage, the shed etc then you will get to grips with exactly what you own. Having a new beginning like a move tends to help us focus on what’s got to go.
If you need any further encouragement to do this, then financially it will really help you during a very expensive time. The more things you remove then the less it will cost you to move your possessions.
After a good declutter you should have a great idea of what’s in your home and what you will need to move into the new home.
A great tip here is to sit with a plan of your old house and a plan of your new house and write down what you want to move where - this will help with how smoothly your move-in day goes. A quick sketch of the floor plan will suffice for the job.
From the rough plan you've created, you can add a bit more clarity by colour coding what items need to go in which room. Now you need to make that a reality. A tip is to use sticky dots on the floor plan you've drawn up of the new house and colour code each room a different colour. Then go round the house and colour code the items I want to move into each of the rooms.
It is all well and good having colour coordinated boxes piled up in the correct room however what do you do when you find yourself in a room full of boxes? This is where we suggest you take labelling to the next level so you can find the 'essentials boxes that you need to unpack immediately vs. the ones that can wait.
Our tip is to pack the essentials for each room and label them up with a star or some icon that make it's clear that it's an essential box.
Ensuring that you have what you need first; opened and ready to go.
On moving day itself, you don’t want to run the risk of not being able to get your hands on what you need when you need it.
You never know what might happen when moving home, you might experience delays and you don't want to be trying toiletries, bedding etc in an unfamiliar house when you're tired and ready to sleep in your new home.
Now you have got all the boxes in the right rooms in the new house – it’s time to work out what you'd like to unpack first! At this point the mammoth task can seem daunting.
Prioritising can really help with this as you want to be sure that you don’t spend half the day unpacking all your best china when you are better off spending time on what matters. After all, you can get the rest of your family to help with those items when they arrive!
Although leaving boxes for another day is very tempting the trick is to not to stop where possible. Try and unpack while you have the energy and momentum to do so.
Leaving boxes for too long means they are likely to become invisible to you - before you know it, it's three months down the line and your boxes are still lying around the house.
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