It can't be emphasized enough that releasing, letting go of, discarding, getting rid of, trashing... unnecessary stuff is a great thing to do before you even contact a moving company.
Moving is the perfect opportunity to go through this process. You can reduce moving costs and headaches of figuring out where to put things by reducing the number of belongings and having your possessions more organized. It's a really useful exercise to do in preparing for your move.
Start this process by discarding unnecessary duplicates of the same item.
Do you have more than enough of this category of object?
As you prepare to move and go through the process of sorting through your possessions you can determine if you have duplicates of certain things or older, less desirable versions of the same type of item. This can actually be unnecessary clutter to discard. The sorting process involves getting all the miscellaneous piles of stuff, emptying them and putting similar categories of items together. Use the nice moving boxes your moving company can provide for you. Examples of categories include: office supplies, kitchen utensils, sports and crafts supplies, sewing, automotive, hardware, electronics, papers and other categories. Once you see the full complement of things before you, you may notice five of the same item. Next you need to make decisions about discarding some of the duplicates, perhaps choosing to eliminate the older, worn out, broken, less desirable, less perfect version. You even may have an exact duplicate, when only one is needed.
Why people have duplicates of things
Sometimes people keep an old version of a certain item because they think they might use it at some point. But as you see before you that you already have several of the same thing, it becomes easier to let go of this extra object. Sometimes knowing there is a worthy recipient (worthy cause or person) for this object may seem easier to let go.
People tend to get multiples of the same thing, even though they know they have it somewhere, it requires more effort to find the misplaced object than to simply buy another one.
As you prepare to move, you will be motivated to take the time to bring those boxes of Misc stuff together and see what's actually in them. You will realize all the extras you have of certain often used items.
Toss it, trash it, dump it, you can do it. Just do it BEFORE you move it!
More Moving Tips in This Section
You'll also want to check out our Packing Guide for more handy information and tips.
What's your move?
