You have the keys, the moving day is set and you have all of the cardboard boxes you could ever need. While moving into a new house is exciting, it can also be a stressful experience if you’re not prepared. Before packing anything, you need to come up with a plan to declutter your current home of the non-essentials.
While sometimes it feels easier to just transfer everything to your new house, you end up creating a ‘future me’ problem instead of sorting your things out. Don’t perpetuate the cycle of hoarding! Read our top tips below and see how a general waste skip bin can help!
6 tips for decluttering your home before moving into a new house
Over time, clutter & stuff seems to be magnetically attracted to us. While it feels like a daunting task in the beginning, going through your possessions with a fine tooth comb can actually be therapeutic. By keeping things you love/need, and throwing away others you don’t, you can create a home that is organised and clean. Not to mention, you’ll have fewer possessions to pack and transport to your new house!
1. Plan your time carefully
Don’t wait until the big moving day to start decluttering your home! To ensure you’re setting aside enough time, you need to assess how bad your clutter is. If it’s your garage or the spare room, you may only need a full weekend to declutter. If however, you want to go through your entire house, you’ll need a few weeks minimum.
The best way to manage your time, is to try to tackle one room or cupboard each day (or weekend). By working in smaller sections, you won’t be tempted to just throw everything into a box and move it to the new house.
2. The one year rule
If you can’t remember the last time you used an item, it shouldn’t come with you when you’re moving into a new house. This includes kitchen appliances, sporting equipment, gardening tools and more. If you haven’t used the item in a year, it’s a good bet you won’t need it at the new house.
3. Clean up your backyard
This is something most people forget about before moving into a new home. If you have old gardening tools laying around the backyard or unfinished DIY projects, it’s a good idea to throw them out.
Don’t forget about green waste too! To give the new owners of your home a clean backyard, it’s a good idea to clean out any piles of grass, leaves, branches and other organic material. If you recently landscaped your backyard and have a pile of green waste left over, you should look at hiring green waste skip bins!
4. Clean out kitchen & bathroom cupboards
Kitchens and bathrooms are notorious for collecting clutter. Over time, cutlery, pots and out of date food build up in the kitchen, while unused shampoos and expired makeup collect in the cupboard. When you start packing up your kitchen/bathroom for the big move, throw away anything that is expired or past its best before date.
It’s also a good idea to ensure you’re not doubling up on anything. If you realise you have four identical spatulas, it’s time to throw out the excess.
5. Throw out anything broken
If you have appliances, furniture or anything else that’s broken – and you haven’t fixed it in the last six months – it’s time to throw it out. These broken items are just taking up valuable space. If they are worth taking to the new house, fix them up and take them with you.
6. Clean out the garage
The garage seems to be where the most clutter accumulates. If you have a large garage or piles of stuff to sort through, you’ll want to look into skip bin hire. The easiest place to start (if it’s applicable to you), is any boxes filled with stuff from your last move that you haven’t touched in a while. Unless these boxes hold sentimental items or antiques you don’t have the space for in the house, it’s a good idea to go through them and throw out anything unnecessary.
After these, you should move to any excess furniture, old clothes and toys, gym equipment you don’t use and so on. If you find yourself hesitating, follow the golden rule: if in doubt, throw it out!
So, that’s your declutter house checklist for moving into a new house! A cluttered home is hard to move, so make things easier by cleaning out your old house first. If you have piles of stuff you need to throw out, a skip bin is definitely your go-to. If you need any help, or want to know how to hire professional skip bins/our skip bin hire prices, contact us!