I did so much purging of stuff before I moved (which I highly recommend) but as I learned you may also need to do more of it on the other side of your move as well once you see the space you have available to you.
Turns out my new home has a lot less storage space so rather than let it all stay piled up somewhere I sharpened my decision making skills and pared down even more. At this stage it gets tough because most of the items are ones I love and use. However there are three parts to this equation.
Clutter = anything you don’t love or use OR have the space to store.
So out it went. And you know what, now that’s its gone, I don’t miss any of it.
In fact it feels great! So great in fact that this load above was the first of two in my new house! Just when I thought I couldn’t get it down even more than I have, I went through again and added more to the pile.
Best feeling in the world! Well okay maybe not THE best but it’s up there 🙂
Do you have long forgotten piles of stuff that have been sitting there for some time taking up precious space in your home? Why not take a pass at purging some of it today and then after you feel the high of that, go through it again and again and again. You’ll be so glad you did! 🙂
What are you going to part with today?
I’d love to see YOUR purge pile so email me (orgjunkie (at) hotmail (dot) com) a picture of it with My Purge Pile in the subject line so I can check it out. In my effort to get others “hooked” along with me, I’m going to select one person from those emails to personally send a copy of Peter Walsh’s DVD, It’s All Too Much, which is a step by step guide for decluttering and bringing organization to every room in your home.
I so know you can do this!
I’ll make the email cut off Monday at 4:00 pm pst so be sure to send me your email before then. Just know that by emailing me your purge picture you are giving me permission to use it in future blog posts although you can remain anonymous if you’d like.
Purge power!
Rhonda Dale says
Sounds fun!! And yeah for me as I have a free weekend. So I have LOTS of time to purge this weekend. 🙂
Sharisse says
This is SO SO SO true!! We moved on Memorial Day Weekend of this year into a bigger home with more storage space but I was determined to keep it clutter free. We now have a 2 car garage and would like to actually use it to park cars!! Imagine that? 🙂 I did end up purging a LOT before moving but was surprised at how much more purging I needed to do after. Things we didn’t love, things that didn’t work for the new space, things that didn’t match the new decor etc… Any excuse I could find I purged it. Most of the items were either sold or given away on http://www.freecycle.org.
Amanda says
I really need to purge. so thanks for the motivation! off i go to find things that aren’t beautiful or I dont love.
Brittany says
Awww, I just sent my 3 huge boxes of purge piles to Goodwill last night without getting pictures. Decluttering and purging has been the best thing I’ve ever done! I never knew I was such a hoarder!!
Maryann @ Raise Healthy Eaters says
We will be moving to a new home in a couple of months. I so need to purge stuff so may take you up on it!
Tabitha says
I’ve moved more than a few times in the last five years and I think I’ve been excellent about purging things I don’t need. I’m very minimal when it comes to clothes, shoes, etc. – but my last move took me from a huge walk-in closet to a *sigh* 5′ wide reach in closet! I’ve put everything I don’t need (holiday items, keep sakes, etc) in plastic storage bins in the garage and labeled each box with EVERYTHING that is inside the box. It helps a lot, I probably need to purge again, but in the meantime I know exactly where to find the things I moved to the new house. Thanks for the article – it’s all to easy to “forget” to clean out spaces when it’s not much fun 🙂
Cassiopeia says
I am in the very same boat! We moved from a huge house to a charming smaller house a few weeks ago. We knew we were downsizing, so we recycled, sold, gave away or disposed of literally half of our empire (as my husband is fond of saying).
We get to the new house only to find that we still need to get rid of a lot of our stuff. Our son has an apartment in the basement, so there is NO storage. If you don’t absolutely love it, if it isn’t an item that you can’t live without, it’s G-O-N-E!
Marcia Francois says
We moved to this house nearly 5 years ago and I still remember that glorious feeling of double purging!
It is fantastic, isn’t it?
I did a huge purge before the move and then weekly for about 4 – 6 weeks.
Sadly, I wasn’t blogging then otherwise I’d have the most beautiful piles of things to take pics of.
I am VERY impressed with your pic.
P.S. Why is it we always think we have more storage space than we actually do have?!
Becky L says
I just saw my pile in my bedroom again today. I need to purge it but not right now. We just got back from a road trip to Southern Oregon and I’m still putting a few things away and catching up with stuff. I don’t like packing or unpacking from a trip. I didn’t buy needless items either. A sweatshirt to keep me warm from Crater Lake and lots of photos that I’ll post soon. And many good memories! :p
katie says
Oh, I hope you do this again! I just found out that if all goes as planned, we could be moving anywhere from 4-10 months from now. Looking around, I’ve already decided that I need to purge. Clothing, household items and who knows what else will be leaving this house!
Pilar @ Scoring Deals says
Thanks for the inspiration. I have TONS of kids clothes waiting to be sold on eBay. I have clothing as small as size 3, and my youngest is 8 now! :-O
Sharon says
Amazing! Even after all the purging you did before- you still found more stuff to get rid of! Way to go! I showed my husband and said “This is what we need to do!!” We’ve just started thinking about moving down the road and what better time to begin the purging process. It’s been a busy company filled weekend so hopefully you’ll do this again!
Handy Man, Crafty Woman says
Oooh, I have a purge pile waiting to go to Goodwill. I’ll have to take a picture of it.
I did the same thing: purged big time before we moved (or so I thought!) then purged stuff AFTER we moved. Only, that made me feel a bit guilty that I bothered moving stuff that I just got rid of later…! Oh well, at least it’s gone. I continue to make purge piles weekly/monthly…I even did a 365 challenge: toss/donate 365 items in 365 days. I didn’t think I’d make it, but I did!
Beth R says
Oh I LOVE that idea! 365 items in 365 days. Now that would be a challenge. I am going to do this. Make it a game and I might win !
Lauren says
Nice definition of clutter – will keep in mind… moving day tomorrow! Cheers
Elli D. says
Oh, this is quite admirable. People are usually getting rid of what they don’t necessarily need before moving (because that is when they discover they own SO much stuff) but well, after the move, nobody even thinks about it. It is the same with me – it feels weird to throw away recently moved stuff (it would be smart, though).
Connie Weiss says
We recently downsized from a 3000 sq ft house to a 990 sq ft apartment and after three weeks here…I’m realizing that I need to purge some more. I started today.
My husband is still unwilling to part with any of HIS stuff. *connie shakes her head*
I want to thank you for all of the great tips you shared during your move. They helped me so much.
Anne Deschesne says
Great article! We just combined two entire households into one and boy, did we have a lot of duplicate stuff! Our entire two-car garage was stuffed to the gills with extra furniture, household stuff, clothing, etc. and that was AFTER the individual purges we both went through pre-move. I ended up selling loads of stuff through an electronic bulletin board at work and then holding a huge yard sale. After all attempts to trade the stuff for cash were exhausted, we called the Salvation Army to send a truck for the remainder (after carefully inventorying the entire donation for tax purposes, of course). We ended up making enough money for a large air conditioning unit for the upstairs and a big flatscreen TV for the master bedroom!
Hannah Grissom says
So true! Moving is the best time to purge…and the only time I ever do. hehe
Molly Stone says
Moving is a hard process and I am glad that you shared your tips on how to make it easy and quicker. Here are even more tips how to make your live easier http://www.buzzfeed.com/peggy/brilliant-moving-tips
Christian Reese says
A very good post. You never know how much junk you’ve collected until the times comes to put it all in boxes and move out. Speaking of moving and boxes, I recently found an interesting article containing useful packing tips for moving house http://www.fantastic-removals.co.uk/blog/10-packing-tips-must-know-when-moving-house/ Properly packing your items, at least the ones you really care about, is really important. When packing you actually realise whether you need a certain object badly or not 🙂