Moving can be an intense time. If you’re buying and selling a home, it can be an emotional roller coaster. I say this from experience having moved in the last year after being in one place for 22 years.
Regardless of why you are moving, you have an opportunity in front of you. The opportunity is to decide.
Decision-making is powerful. Oftentimes clutter is indecision. You have had the space to store it, so it’s lived in a closet or room. You may have tried to declutter before but the process brings up hard feelings so you stop. You try to avoid the pain of decisions but you are really just kicking the “decision can” down the road. Once it’s down the road there are many more decisions and they can stack up on you.
Now is the time. Embrace the opportunity and mentally prepare to clear some clutter.
I talk to people who have moved their items and regret it. They’re surrounded by boxes at their new place and overwhelmed. It may be uncomfortable. That’s ok. It’s an invitation to grow.
Moving provides opportunities to declutter at various points. Don’t think because you missed one that another one isn’t around the corner. Here are some decluttering opportunities in the moving process:
1) Staging your home. People look in your closets and drawers. Sorry, it’s true. It feels invasive but I’ve done it when looking at homes too. When your house is cluttered, it’s harder for prospective buyers to see themselves in the space. When a house has less, it looks bigger and creates positive emotions for the buyer which is what you want.
2) Packing for your move. Don’t leave all the packing until the week before you move. Try to allow plenty of time to pack before your move. This will allow you the brain space to make decisions. If you are frenzied, you won’t be able to ask questions of yourself and decide. This will inhibit your ability to be real and part with things. Usually, you can pack items that are not regularly used well before your move. For example, basement storage rooms or closets that have less used items is a great place to start, décor is another.
3) Unpacking your items in your new home. Invariably, once you are in your new space you will find things that worked in the old home but now don’t work in the new space. That’s ok. Pass them on. Sometimes clarity and readiness come later.
As I mentioned, I recently moved. I have decluttered at each of these phases. It has felt wonderful to enter this new space with less stuff. To have really decided on items and make sure I still choose them is powerful. My items need to serve me, not the other way around.
So let’s talk about “decision fatigue”. Often times when I’m working with clients I’m running up and downstairs, bending, stooping, climbing, reaching – you get the idea, I’m movin’. My clients are more in one spot making decisions. By the time the session is over they’re usually more tired than I am even though I may have run in a marathon in one room. Why? Because their brain was working hard. This is particularly true if you have been avoiding making decisions about your items up until this point. The reason I’m bringing this up is firstly, to validate your experience and secondly to make sure you give your brain a break. Go do something that is right brain, creative, for 5-10 minutes every hour so that you don’t wear out. Thirdly, start the decluttering tasks well in advance of your move so you’re not overwhelmed.
Some Additional Tips and Encouragement
Decision-making is uncomfortable at first. Start with the easy items. Encourage yourself. Say out loud, “I can do this.” Repeat as necessary (which is often). Don’t partner with one of the biggest stuff lies known to man: I might need this someday. Instead, say, I’m not using this these days so I’ll let someone else use it who needs it. Thanks and goodbye. The pit of “I might need this someday” is endless. Don’t fall in.
Decluttering is not a “one and done”. We all have to be regularly evaluating our items. All you have to do is wake up in the morning and bam! you acquire something. You have to be intentional about getting rid of them.
There are various stages of life and sometimes we have items laying around from a previous stage. They hide in the back of the closet, garage, and basement. No one is spending their days looking for items to declutter. Not even me. Let’s not kick ourselves for having clutter. Instead let’s congratulate ourselves for being powerful, deciding, and letting go. You got this.
