Moving to a new space can be a daunting task, especially when it comes to deciding what furniture and decor make it to the new home. It’s often hard to decide what furniture to keep, and what furniture to donate, trash, or sell. If you have been in the same home for several years or have had your children move out recently, leaving you with an ’empty nest’, you may have an abundance of stuff in your house that you simply don’t need (or want) anymore. At Ed LaPlaca Dumpsters, we understand your pain so we have put together some ideas and industry tricks to help you along the way.
Take Note of Your Stuff
When you are downsizing your home, your won’t have space for all of your clutter that you may have been collecting for years. It is important to think about you belongings that you must keep and decide what you can do without. It often is not an easy task so keeping your emotions and attachments to sentimental property is of importance. Having attachments to material things can make us accumulate things that we don’t need and may never use. When you are going through your things, think to yourself, “Have I used this in the past year?” Chances are, if you haven’t used it in any season of the past year, you won’t need, or miss it. Donating, or giving away these un-used, and often neglected things can not only help to declutter your home, but also to bring joy to the new owner!
Take it Slow
If you think you can declutter your home in one day, even in a small home, don’t get your hopes up. Handle one room at a time. Start with a room you don’t use, or rarely use, may get the process moving along faster and allow for momentum to get you through the more cluttered spaces in your home. Once the first room is sorted and decluttered, repeat the process with the next least used room. It may be a multi-day process but you will need the break as decluttering and downsizing is not an easy job.
To help Identify things you decided to keep, organizing them in labeled boxes and having an itemized list are a must. We recommend sorting your things into 3 boxes, bags, or piles… One box for items you intend to keep, one for items you will throw away, and one for things you will donate, or give away. For the items that you will keep, it may help to later divide and organize those things further into things that will make the move to your home, and things that will go into storage.
Get Rid of Unwanted Items
There are many ways to get rid of your unwanted items. You could host a garage sale which could help a little extra cash before you move. One man’s trash may be another man’s treasure. Once you’ve had a garage sale and still have items left over, you could choose to donate, give away, or discard the items.
Rent a Dumpster
Perhaps the items you are left with are not worth selling, haven’t sold at your garage sale, and no one wants them. In this case, renting a dumpster will help to easily get rid of items, such as furniture, appliances, and household junk.
While this blog post has little to do with dumpster rentals, it is important to consider the waste disposal part of any move, project, or construction job.
And, as always, Call Ed LaPlaca Dumpsters for all of your roll-off dumpster or container needs.