The average person moves about 11 times in their life. That’s a lot of packing!
But you can make your move a lot easier by decluttering first. Plus, it’ll feel great to finally get rid of all those things that are just collecting dust in your storage areas.
However, decluttering while preparing to sell your home comes with a unique set of challenges. You may be on a time constraint or planning to downsize to a smaller home.
Luckily, there are a few key tips that can help you declutter your home. Keep reading to find out more!
Know How Much You Can Keep
Before you begin to sort through your belongings, it’s important to be realistic about your needs. If you’re downsizing, for example, you’ll likely need to get rid of a lot more than if you were moving into a larger home.
Another example is moving long distance. The cost to rent a moving truck really adds up the further you go, so it may be cheaper to declutter a lot, rent a smaller truck, and buy new stuff when you get to your new home.
You may want to set a goal for yourself by only getting a limited number of boxes. If you run out of boxes, you know you have to declutter more.
Make a Schedule
You likely only have a limited amount of time to declutter, especially if you’re trying to sell your house fast. To make sure you’ll be done in time, consider making a schedule.
Start by writing down every area that needs to be decluttered. Then, decide which days you can clean and what rooms you’ll tackle that day. Be sure to give yourself extra time for bigger rooms and storage areas.
Start Small
You may start to worry about all that needs to get done when you’re creating your decluttering schedule. But it’s important to start small, if possible, to avoid feeling overwhelmed from the beginning.
On your first day, consider decluttering a closet or your holiday decoration boxes. Once you’ve finished a small area, you’ll feel great and likely have the motivation to keep going. You can then save bigger rooms for weekends when you have a lot of time to declutter.
Make it Fun
When you spend an entire day (or even a few hours) decluttering, you’ll likely want to take a few breaks. While this is necessarily a bad thing, you may end up wasting more time than you wanted.
Instead, making decluttering fun can help you stay focused so you can take fewer breaks. Play some music, put your favorite show on in the background, or invite a friend over to help. Just make sure that you are actually decluttering instead of just watching TV or chatting with your friend.
Do It While You Pack
You can save yourself a lot of time by combining decluttering and packing together. Start by packing things like out of season clothes, pictures, and holiday decorations.
But instead of just throwing everything into a box, take the time to decide if you really need everything. If you’re not sure you want to take something with you, put it aside and keep packing.
Stay Organized
Everything doesn’t have to either be packed away or tossed in the trash. You may want to donate or sell a lot of the things you won’t take with you.
This means you’ll have to stay organized. Otherwise, you’ll end up with a big pile of things that you’ll need to go through a second time to decide what to do with them.
Get two large boxes and one trash bag. Anything that’s broken, stained, or ripped can go right in the trash bag to throw away. Things that are still in nice condition can probably be sold online. Anything in-between can get donated.
Make sure you label your boxes with “donate” and “sell” in large letters. This will help ensure everything gets sorted into the correct box.
Check Expiration Dates
When was the last time you went through your medicine cabinet? You likely have quite a few bottles of expired medication. So, before you pack it away, double check the expirations dates.
The same is true for your makeup, hair care products, and cans of food. Anything that’s past its expiration date can get thrown away.
Be Realistic
One of the hardest parts of decluttering is overcoming those feelings of “I may need this at some point.” So, it’s important to be realistic when decluttering.
If you can’t remember the last time you used a kitchen gadget or wore a certain shirt, get rid of it. If you have a fancy dress but can’t think of a single occasion where you’d actually wear it, donate it. It may be 10 years before you get the chance to wear it, and by that time, it’ll probably be out of style anyway.
Of course, you don’t have to get rid of everything you haven’t used in a while. Old photo albums and other sentimental things are fine to keep, even if you only look at them once every few years.
Decluttering Your Home When You’re Preparing to Sell
There’s no denying that moving can be a stressful time in your life. But the process can be made easier by following these tips to declutching your home when you’re preparing to sell. From being realistic about how much you can take to checking expiration dates, there are plenty of ways to make decluttering easier.
Do you want to sell your house fast? Contact us today to get a cash offer on your Pueblo, CO home.