5 game-changing ways to declutter before moving

Are you preparing for a move? Tired of feeling like your home is being taken over by your stuff? It’s time to satisfy your urge to purge. Before staying in a fully furnished Blueground apartment for a month or longer, simplifying your home is essential. Don’t worry though, because we’ve put together some decluttering tips to help. 

With an asset-light lifestyle, you’ll enjoy unlimited flexibility. No more being tied down! You can easily swap cities, countries, or even continents whenever you want. Keep reading to discover five key tips for decluttering prior to a move. 

1. Determine what to do with your furniture

At the top of your moving checklist will be decluttering furniture. Keep and store, sell, trash, donate, or recycle? There are a lot of different options for the pieces you’ll no longer need once you move into a fully furnished apartment.

Want a tax break? Large donations such as furniture can be tax deductible. Plus, some donation centers will even include furniture removal, saving you a lot of hassle. Then there are resale sites like Craigslist and Facebook Marketplace that let you make some money off your goods. However, it can time and energy to coordinate with purchasers. 

In the end, weigh your options. There’s stress involved with selling furniture, a cost if you want to store items, and hoops to navigate if you’re donating or throwing away furnishings. So it really depends on how much time and energy you want to put into decluttering furniture before moving. 

2. Trim your book collection

When you move into a furnished apartment, the heaviest items you’re bringing may surprise you — like your books, which take up a lot of space. Do some deep thinking about why you’re keeping each book in your collection. For decor? To re-read? A sense of nostalgia? For friends to borrow? 

To lessen your novel load, sign up for Goodreads or get their app. This virtual bookshelf helps keep track of what you’ve read in the past and what you’d like to read in the future. You’ll feel a weight lifted by owning fewer books yet still having access to your reading history. Definitely keep your favorite physical books, but consider selling or donating the rest. Moving far away? Booklovers should check out the nine best books to read on a long flight.

3. Keep the clothes you actually wear

Is your wardrobe a bit…excessive? There’s a simple way to find out — the closet hanger idea. Either before or after moving into your furnished apartment, hang all of your clothes one way. Once you wear an item and clean it, hang those pieces of clothing the other direction. Set a calendar alert six months or more later. This makes it easy to see which clothes you haven’t worn lately. As for the rest? Consider getting rid of them. Or at least think about decluttering the clothes that you didn’t wear during the appropriate seasons. 

4. Go paperless

You know those old instructions, guides, and manuals you’ve been holding onto? It’s time to recycle them. That includes stacks of magazines or piles of junk mail. Scan what you need so you have a digital version, then toss the rest. Remember, you can find most appliance or electronic manuals and magazines online. 

5. Scale down your miscellaneous items

Here’s how to declutter 24 things quickly. Try the 12-12-12 challenge started by Joshua Becker of Becoming Minimalist. You simply have to find 12 items to throw away, 12 to sell or donate, and 12 things you definitely don’t want to get rid of. Obviously, you can set a goal for any number, letting you determine more or fewer items to declutter before moving. This is an extremely helpful tactic as you go room by room through your current home.   

Less is more

Decluttering before a move can be fun! It’s a chance to embrace minimalist living and establish what physical items are seriously important to you. Afterward, you’ll enjoy the stress-free experience of moving into your Blueground apartment. And that’s when the fun and exploration really begins.