Tips on Purging Your Possessions Before You Move

Seasoned travelers will be the first ones to tell you to pack lightly for your trip. The same thinking can be applied when moving, even when you’re hiring a moving company to do all the heavy lifting. Learn some tips on how to purge your possessions before you move.

Prepare an Inventory

As you take every item out of drawers and storage boxes, have you or someone else build an inventory of these items. You can come up with your own codes and way of labeling these components so you can easily find them after the move. You can, for example, color code the boxes per room, instead of the usual “kitchen” or “Johnny’s bedroom”. Colored tape is cheap and can save you a lot of time individually labeling each box.

Declutter While Organizing

While you’re at it, start decluttering your things. There are various methods to do this, but, basically, your items should fall into one of four categories:

1. Trash – Unwanted items that can’t be sold, donated or repaired.
2. Sell/Donate – Unwanted items that can be sold at a yard sale, donated to a charity or repaired at a later date.
3. Store – Items that you don’t use on a regular basis, yet still hold some value. Consider renting storage space for larger items to save time moving into your new home.
4. Keep – Items that you use regularly, such as clothes, laptops and cooking utensils. Put these items in a container that you can easily find and access.

Start Early

Moving is hardly an overnight operation. In fact, we recommend starting your packing as soon as you confirm your move-out date. Avoid procrastinating; the earlier you get started, the more relaxed the whole process will be. An early start also gives you more time to evaluate and choose the movers that you will hire.

When looking for movers, turn to Around Town Movers. Give us a call at (703) 682-5922 , or fill out our contact form. We serve customers in Sterling, VA, and Washington, DC.