Are you a super organizer who is struggling with preparing for a move or major home project? I find that people who are extremely organized may hate moving because the systems that they have perfected for years are in disarray. I know I felt this way during my own move.  Some of the clients who fall in this category tend to start packing too early out of fear they won’t be ready in time. However, when multiple areas of the home are all in some stage of packing, these people can feel even more stressed and off track. My tip is not to start preparing for a move by jumping into packing. This may seem counterintuitive, but I find it’s better to focus on these key tasks that prepare us to pack and scheduling the actual packing the week or two before the move.

Schedule

I like to print out blank calendar pages and write down the projected move date.  Then we work backward to schedule all the major tasks of the move.  This allows clients to ‘see’ time and make it more concrete. This also gives us a better understanding of where we need to focus and if we need to add resources.

Floorplan

Have a plan for every single piece of furniture in the new home.  When helping a client with a floorplan a few years ago, I alerted her that her current couch would block the patio door and the path into the kitchen in her new home in Arizona. The floorplan we developed saved her the expense of moving a large, heavy couch across the country, not to mention the frustration of realizing the couch would not work on move in day.  Fortunately, she had a nephew in college who was delighted to get a large and FREE couch.  

Consolidate

Group the contents of the home by categories.  If a home has linens in multiple places, let’s organize them into one central closet. Ditto for the cleaning products; if they are currently residing in 4 places in the home we are going to consolidate. By grouping things into categories, we are better able to edit and pack.  We will also save time on the unpack as things will literally come out of the box organized.

Reduce

Edit ruthlessly.   Review the contents of  every closet, cabinet and drawer and pull out the items to be discarded or donated. When working with a client, I take the donations with me that day or group them together and arrange for a pickup.  By seeing these items leave and having the house feel less cluttered, clients feel more in control and on-task.

Use

The modern American home can hold a surprising amount of food so make it a mission to use up as much as possible before the move - make every effort to eat at home, donate, and share with family and neighbors as much as possible. It takes a lot of time and effort to pack food items so reduction in this category is a real timesaver the week of the move. Kitchens are also one of the most labor intensive spaces to unpack.  Less food will make the unpack much easier.

Now…Pack!

Finally…but pack the least used things first, like out of season decorations and decor and guest rooms.  Keep traffic patterns open in the house as long as possible. Many times, I find it’s much more time and cost effective to have us or movers pack the whole house in the days right before the actual move.  By doing all the steps above and then packing efficiently, we save the client stress, time and money.