New Homes & Lifestyles

Clutter Control - Organize Your Move

At what other time in your life do you pull everything out of each drawer, closet, cupboard, trunk, storage space and hidden corner than when preparing to move? Moving into a new home is a chance for a new beginning. Whether moving into your first home or your fifth, a new home offers a wealth of new possibilities—a new neighborhood, new friends and maybe even a new city. But a new home also offers the chance for new behaviors—such as finally getting organized by creating a place for everything.

While an organized move into a new home may seem like an overwhelming goal (added to the already daunting task of moving your entire life from one place to another), it is an ideal time to purge, prioritize and preserve your belongings. With a little advanced planning, you could be well on your way to having your next home be the clutter-free oasis you always dreamed of.

Purge, Prioritize and Preserve

“Organizational experts say one of the biggest mistakes people make in trying to get organized is not purging their belongings prior to organizing,” says Lisa Lennard, organizational expert with California Closets. “Americans are loaded down with too much stuff to begin with. When you begin your quest for organization by paring down your belongings, you exponentially increase your chances for getting your stuff organized.”

According to Lennard, the 80/20 rule that applies to our clothing (we wear 20 percent of our clothes 80 percent of the time) applies to other household items as well. There are many items we keep but never really use, display or cherish. Often, these items end up completely forgotten in the back of drawers, closets or attics, doing nothing more than taking up valuable storage space.

Prior to moving, go through each room in your old home and identify items you don’t use and don’t really need. Place these items in a box marked “donation” and promptly take them to your local Goodwill or Salvation Army. Or hold a garage sale at the earliest opportunity. Remind yourself that you can use any money you make to buy items for your new home.

Resist the temptation to let nostalgia be the ruling force in your decision making process. For many people, nostalgia plays a big part in the accumulation of clutter. There is a difference between revering Aunt Ethel’s delicate lace tablecloth and burying it in the back of a closet or drawer. If it is something you truly cherish, display it.

A Place for Everything

One of the key obstacles to getting organized is not having a place for everything. Home organization solutions, a $7 billion dollar industry that includes companies such as The Container Store, Garage Tek and California Closets, has been built with the idea that organization is best achieved and maintained when you have a specific space for all of your belongings.

When moving into a new home, do a walkthrough and mentally place all of your current belongings into the new space. Consider the following questions: Are you expanding into a bigger home and need to buy new furniture to fit the new space? Or, are you downsizing to a smaller home and need to get rid of items? Does your new home have more storage space or less storage space than your previous home?

The best way to sabotage maintaining an organized home is to purchase new items without getting rid of old items, says Lennard. “Just like you should get rid of your old tennis shoes when you buy a new pair, you should also get rid of old dishes, furniture or electronics when you upgrade to something new,” she says. This practice also makes us more selective about buying new things.

One way to guarantee organization when moving into a new home is to have built-in storage spaces. You may work in tandem with your homebuilder or with an organizational expert prior to your move. If your current kitchen is the source of your worst clutter, make sure your new home has sufficient cabinet or pantry space. If you need mining tools to find a matching pair of shoes in your current master closet, consider having a professional install a custom closet solution that takes into consideration your current belongings and the space you have in which to store them.

Schedule Time to Organize

Even with the best of intentions, the time right before a move often sneaks up on us and we are forced to move items that don’t have a set place in our new home. Instead of admitting defeat, incorporate this unfinished business into your moving plan.

Pack undecided items together and label them appropriately. Then, once you get to your new home, resist the urge to unpack and stash items haphazardly throughout your house. Instead, set aside a designated place in your home to keep these boxes and don’t open them until you know you can set aside a few hours to go through them. Determine what to keep, where it goes and what else you need to discard.

One way to guarantee this time is to schedule it, just as you scheduled your moving day. While we like to pretend that moving is completed on “moving day,” the reality is that we are often unpacking for weeks or even months afterward. By scheduling four-hour blocks of time committed to sorting through the remaining boxes in a productive way, you can save yourself from making the mistakes of the past and make it a truly true new beginning.

The bottom line is that rather than looking at packing for your move only as a chore in itself, you can capture the opportunity. Moving provides the perfect excuse for taking a realistic look at the contents in your past and present and determining which ones should move on with you into your future.