Need serious purging inspiration and advice

[mikeys_mom]

UPDATE - I have one week to go until the packers arrive and while it's been intense, it's been manageable. We are almost done! I think the best advice in keeping everything simple has been the 3 category system someone mentioned - Keep, trash, donate. Trash has gone straight to the garage. Donate is all being dumped in one room in my house to deal with after the container leaves. We are lucky that we have a few weeks post-packing date until we physically leave, so I plan to use that time to deal with all the donate stuff. The "keep" stuff, I'm trying to be as organized as possible so when they come to pack, all similar items will be together and will hopefully make unpacking easier.

As for the kids - I've just been going through their toys without them. I realized that once I cleared all the real junk out of their rooms, they don't have such an oversupply of toys. I went through the basement myself and made decisions about outgrown toys.

The one thing I learned is that I keep way too much stuff for "just in case". Lots of stuff from my storage room got tossed or donated because it just hasn't been used in years. I did get rid of some sentimental things but the truth is that they are not nearly as sentimental now as they were at the time. For example, all my kids first pair of shoes. I'm hoping we can try to maintain ourselves this way going forward and not keep too much.

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In a few months we will be moving from 2700sq ft plus a finished basement with tons of storage space and large closets to about 1600sq ft. New place has no closets and very minimal storage. This is very typical for where we are moving. People are just much more minimalists and don't keep "stuff". To say I need to do some serious purging is an understatement! I was looking at pictures of our new rental yesterday and I'm now getting very nervous about just how much stuff I need to get rid of. They are coming to pack us up in a month so I need to get a plan in place asap. It just seems like such an overwhelming job that I don't know where to start.

1) Help! Where do I start?!? I should probably just go room by room but I can't seem to get myself together to do it. It's not even that I feel attached to the stuff. I just can't seem to make a game-plan.

2) The kids can't possibly bring all their toys and games. Anytime I mention trying to sort through stuff they don't use, they insist they still use everything. Clearly all the bigger stuff in the basement (pirate ship, train table, outgrown toys, etc...) is not coming. It's the games, puzzles, dolls and all the miscellaneous dollhouse accessories that they do still use and I need to figure out what to bring and what to leave. Do I include the kids on these decisions or just do it when they are not around and hope that once it's out of sight they forget about it? Do I limit them to a certain number of dolls? Same with games.

Any advice and inspiration that I can pull this off is appreciated.

[MontrealMum]

I think you have to make yourself some "rules" to begin with. And your rules might be different than others' just based on where/how far you're going.

For example, a friend of mine made a huge move like this to a foreign country and one of the first things she asked herself was, "can I get a replacement there?" This resulted in her keeping a lot of books and sheet music (she's a musician) written in the English language because they would be prohibitively expensive to replace, if necessary, in her new home. When I made my big move many years ago I actually got rid of a lot of things like that because books are heavy, and I knew I'd be able to get the same things at a library if necessary.

So, try and look at your stuff in terms of how frequently you use it, and if you mistakenly weed it, how easy/costly it would be to replace.

Good luck! You've got a much larger task than I did just by virtue of having kids and things. Try not to let yourself become too overwhelmed.

[mmsmom]

Are you considering putting anything in storage or do you need to get rid of anything you are not moving? Since you have a month before you are packed I would go room by room & take out everything you think you can get rid of & move it to garage/spare room/basement corner. If you don't find yourself missing it or needing it in the next month then it is probably safe to get rid of. If you are doing storage I would do the same thing but put anything you are questioning in storage then after 6 months to a year if you haven't needed it then get rid of it.

I know if is stressful but I moved from a large house to a tiny NYC apartment many years ago & found it very liberating to be rid of all the stuff. But that was pre kids & now I'm in the suburbs again & the stuff has found it's way back!

[KrisM]

My kids do well selling their things. If you don't have time/desire to do a garage sale, maybe buy it from them :). We do a kids sale once a summer and anything left, or anything I tell one of them they can't sell because it'll get saved for a sibling, I buy off them at garage sale prices.

[mikeys_mom]

My kids do well selling their things. If you don't have time/desire to do a garage sale, maybe buy it from them :). We do a kids sale once a summer and anything left, or anything I tell one of them they can't sell because it'll get saved for a sibling, I buy off them at garage sale prices.

Great idea!! I had originally wanted to do a garage sale but at this point I realize it's just too much work with everything else we need to do.
I think my kids will be much more willing to part with stuff if they get a few dollars for it.

[mikeys_mom]

So, try and look at your stuff in terms of how frequently you use it, and if you mistakenly weed it, how easy/costly it would be to replace.

Good luck! You've got a much larger task than I did just by virtue of having kids and things. Try not to let yourself become too overwhelmed.

This is what I need to keep in mind. I'm going from a place with lots of storage where it's no big deal to keep something for "just in case" to a place with barely any storage. If I go into my various storage areas, I know that lots of items have just been sitting there unused for a long time. Also, I have lots of duplicates. For example, I have a whole bung of soft-sided cooler bags. Some are from various charity events we participated in, some we bought, some people have given us or left here over the years. I just need to get rid of all but one or two essential ones. Same with suitcases. No need for lots of different ones. Just the ones we use most often. Most things we have are replaceable there. Might be a bit more expensive than here but considering shipping costs and potential storage costs, it will add up and not be worth saving those types of things. Luckily it's an overseas move so weight doesn't matter. Just cubic feet. Books are the one thing we probably won't purge that much.


Are you considering putting anything in storage or do you need to get rid of anything you are not moving?

It's an overseas move. We are not planning on keeping anything in storage here unless we come across something in the process that we realize we must keep and will only need when we come back for visits.

[Melaine]

Great idea!! I had originally wanted to do a garage sale but at this point I realize it's just too much work with everything else we need to do.
I think my kids will be much more willing to part with stuff if they get a few dollars for it.

Yes, we sell a lot of outgrown toys on craigslist and usually let the kids keep the cash or put it toward something like family zoo membership. I have done rewards like after major purge we can pick out one small toy at the store. We have also done donations a few times to folks in need. A family lost everything to a fire, so my kids were excited to share. Another time some twin girls were dropped at a grandmas house (abandoned by mom) with nothing but the clothes on their backs. We were able to share a ton with them and the girls enjoyed and were proud to help. One way or another I think it helps to give motivation, whether realizing who you are helping, setting goals, rewarding or whatever. We purge a LOT.

[mikala]

As you go through the rooms I'd put everything into one of three boxes: take, donate, trash. I find it's harder to declutter when I just cherry pick things we don't need. I purge more when I remove everything from the drawer/bin and make each item earn its way back into the storage space.

[mikeys_mom]

Thanks for all the advice! The task still seems daunting but DH and I made a bit of a plan yesterday on which rooms to attack first and what our priorities are so I'm a bit less overwhelmed.

[AustenFan]

I just wanted to agree with a pp that garage sales might not be worth the effort, but I've had a lot of luck selling stuff on craigslist and facebook buy/sell/trade sites.

[mikeys_mom]

Update in OP

[niccig]

Update in OP

What a great update. We're purging the garage and like you, we have kept way more things that we need. We've opened every box and every cabinet and have trashed/donated most of it. Very little is being kept "just in case". It's so much work, but isn't it a great feeling to get rid of the junk? It feels overwhelming to have all that stuff.

[jgenie]

Congrats!! We moved last year and I brought all our junk with us. I'm working on clearing out the junk now. I so wish I had gotten rid of it before we moved like you are!!

[mikeys_mom]

Congrats!! We moved last year and I brought all our junk with us. I'm working on clearing out the junk now. I so wish I had gotten rid of it before we moved like you are!!

When we moved 6 years ago we basically packed up all our junk as well. It's so much easier to not think about it. It has taken us moving across the ocean into a house half the size to really force us to think about every single thing we are bringing and critically evaluate if it's worth keeping. For years I have been meaning to purge but it's just one of those things I never made a priority. Good luck! In the end it is worth the time invested. It feels good not to be burdened with "stuff".

[mikeys_mom]

It's so much work, but isn't it a great feeling to get rid of the junk? It feels overwhelming to have all that stuff.

The best was finally unpacking the last few boxes from our move 6 years ago and realizing that 99% of the stuff is garbage. I am actually looking forward to having less space to store junk in the new house. No garage and no basement, hopefully means no black holes to dump stuff.