Moving House

20th July 2010

“Your home should give you pleasure and not serve as a niggling reminder of a chore undone.”

Terence Conran

At any time of transition whether moving from your parent’s home to student lodgings, moving in with your partner or leaving the country, it is necessary to edit your belongings and rethink what you really love and need to take along into your new environment and new lifestyle. The transition becomes more difficult when burdened with making decisions about belongings you have accumulated over a lifetime and have not had time to sort or to complete a process.

The first reaction when faced with a move is to book the movers. They arrive, pack up all your belongings wanted or unwanted, broken or new, all the furniture and clothing whether they fit into your new lifestyle or home, or not. Instead of moving on with your life arriving at your new destination, you are left to sort through everything, box by box finding that you might not have space to house it all or not even wanting it anymore. With a desperate lack of time many boxes get stacked into your garage leaving your car on the street and the niggling feeling of despair not knowing what to do!

Points to consider making your move easier:

Measure up – Get the measurements of your new place.
Establish storage space – decide if there will be sufficient for your belongings. Should you need extra storage like built in cupboards or shelving, plan for it in advance and have it installed before you arrive. You are more likely to stay in control of your belongings if they have a home and everyone concerned knows where to find something.
Assess your needs. Decide whether you love an item enough to give it house-room and if it will fit in with the look that you would like to create.
Keep the best one – If you are getting married or move in with your partner, keep the best equipment and sell the other to purchase something that you don’t yet have.
Take footprints of your furniture and design the layout of your rooms. This will give you an idea of what will fit and what you need to get rid of. It will save time when the movers arrive at your new home and you know where you want the furniture to be placed.
Reflect on who you are in the here and now. Think of what you want to achieve. Be ruthless, make decisions about what to keep and what to let go. According to Marcia Cracia, indecisiveness leads to clutter, figure out what to do with the unwanted items or get rid of them if they do not serve you any purpose, feel lighter and freer to face the future.
Get rid of belongings that become redundant from the previous stage, i.e. books, clothing, toys, sport equipment, unfinished hobbies. Move on, leave the past behind.
Stay in control of your paperwork, keep a Life File – know where everything is and find it at a glance. Now is not the time to search for Id documents or the dog’s vaccination papers.
Cherish a few significant items instead of turning your home into a museum. Family photos and mementoes are important as reminders of special times and continuity. Respect these memories and store these so that they can be enjoyed by everyone over the years to come.
Unwanted items – sell on e-bay, bid or buy, or have a garage sale. There are many charities, places for homeless and orphanages that will be only to glad to receive your unwanted items. The Salvation Army or hospice will even come to pick it up.

Now that you have sorted everything, you can call the movers. Your move will be less expensive because you have removed all the unwanted items. It will be much less stressful because you know exactly how you want your new environment to look like, reducing stress and saving time.

Don’t have the time to change the cardboard chaos into a peaceful home with everything in its place, curtains hung, furniture placed, beds made?

Contact a professional organiser to assist, to declutter and to supervise your move.

Heidi Meyer

Professional organiser