With city living often comes the regular hunt for a cheaper or bigger place. I recently had to move from a three bedroom place to a teeny-tiny 400 sq. ft. studio, requiring some serious downsizing and consolidation. Here's how I compressed my whole life to fit into a U-Haul cargo van.
First off, I want to mention that I'm single. This helps considerably when it comes to consolidating and reducing possessions, but the basic principle can be applied to a couple or a family: ridding of extraneous "stuff". And taking advantage of being single, I alone can decide to cut down to the absolute necessary, which meant getting rid of large furniture items that I once shared with roommates.
Craigslist is your friend. If you know you're moving ahead of time, start selling your stuff well before your move date. Reselling not only allow someone else to take your stuff for you, it also puts cash in your pocket (perhaps offsetting some of those moving costs which undoubtedly arise). Craigslist is full of people hunting for bargains, and as long as you put out a fair offer, there will be no shortage of buyers. My roommates and I got rid of most of our living room furnitures within weeks, and we didn't even have to pay someone to take it away for us!
Donate what you can't sell. Learning from past moving expereince, I've kept my wardrobe to a minimum, with only a few quality items. If you haven't been as successful keeping your clothing collection to a minimum, then it's time to donate. All those sweaters and jeans that you've outgrown, the shirts and pants that have been buried for years, they can all be donated for a good cause.
Store what you can't/won't sell. Some pieces of furniture or items have more than a monetary value to you. Maybe that amoire in your bedroom has been in the family for generations. For these truly meaningful treasured belongings, you can rent a store your items in a local storage facility. Before you store anything, make sure that the facility is secure, practices proper maintenance, and offers environmental conditions ideal for your property. The last thing you want is have mold growing on your family heirloom.
Moving is not the most fun thing to do, by keeping your possessions in check even when you're not anticipating a move is always a good practice. You won't only be prepared when it comes time to move, you'll be saving money and creating less waste as well!
(Images: TheMuuj; Box Town: lovelihood; Storage Hallway: lovelihood ; all licensed for use under Creative Commons )
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And donating can be a good source of money, too. I scored at tax time last year with my Goodwill donations. With some items, I realized I'd get more back by donating than craigslisting.
i'm going through this right now.
i've got a pile in the dining room of 'craigslist sales', a few garbage bags in the living room of 'donate items' and a pile in the closet of things that we somehow borrowed from friends and never ended up returning.
i must say though, it feels SO GREAT to purge before a move. i'm also making it a point to wipe down EVERYTHING before it goes into the moving van...so it'll be a great fresh start for our new place.
I'm also dealing with this. In the middle of posting my furniture on Craigslist as we speak! I've always been somewhat of a hoarder, so I confess that I'm looking forward to having less things and starting fresh in my new place.
I have a hard time getting rid of clothing, but I think it might be time to do that as well. Thanks for the post! More moving posts please! It's super timely for a bunch of us!
Storage is a waste of money! Just get rid of anything you are using, doesn't match your decor and are storing because of the heirloom guilt.
I'm doing just this now- moving into a much smaller place soon, so I'm going through all my stuff to condense and reorganize it. I hate moving and the less boxes I have to take the better. I've been donating a lot of clothes and kitchen stuff, and have found that putting stuff out on the curb with a "FREE" sign is quite satisfying.
I need to figure out what to do with my unwanted books- I may just donate them to the library, but if I could even just get a buck a piece for them somehow it could pay for a new shower curtain and bathmats. :)
I also need to finally get rid of the BOXES of empty cd cases that I have kicking around in my basement. I can't beleive how difficult it is to recycle these things.
My condtions for cleaning stuff out:
- Have I used it in the past year?
- Will I use it in the next year?
- Is it irreplaceable?
So most family heirlooms stay. Books, old art supplies, out of season clothes, bed linens, magazine back issues, etc, are easy things to purge.
LadyKatey, you can put them on Freecycle and someone will grab them pretty quickly. I like to use them as picture frames--they really work to create art pieces out of even such things as magazine photos you've been saving forever! Heck, you might even want to keep them for that reason alone!
I browse craigslist way too often as well as use it to sell items... I regularly see listings along the lines of "MOVING, MUST GO TODAY" and wonder what kind of optimistic haze the would-be sellers live in. XD
The word "consolidate" is used incorrectly in this article.
These are great tips even if you're not moving. People forget that they can get rid of things even if they don't plan to move and make their home feel like a new house.