Becoming a new home owner is very exciting and a proud moment! This momentous occasion is quickly followed by the daunting task of vacating your old place and packing your belongings and unpacking and organizing your new home.
To be effective in the process of organizing your new home, it’s important to do things in a particular order and plan ahead of time.
Declutter and Tidy Your Old Home
The biggest opportunity to efficiently organize your new home is to de-clutter and tidy up unneeded items as you move from your old home, as well as packing and labeling as detailed as possible.
Planning time before your move from your old home, to declutter and tidy up your home will create a much easier process moving forward. By reviewing your things in your home to consider what should be donated, tossed out or recycled, and what will remain a part of your life going forward allows you to pack only the necessary things and maximize your packing space.
Marie Kondo’s, “The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up,” is a very popular and effective way to go through your things, category by category, and simplify and organize your home.
Organize & Label During Your Move-Out of Your Old Home
Now that you have filtered down your things, you can feel good about all the items coming with you to your new home and know they will serve a purpose and bring you happiness.
Packing up your current home with items together that will live together in a room in your new home, will make the unpacking process easier and less stressful. Label each box with the room it is heading to in your new home, and quick list of the type of items inside the box to trigger your memory of what is in the box, when you see the box in your new home.
Pack a Short-Term Bag with your Living Essentials
Pack a suitcase, luggage, or a duffel bag with short-term items you know you will need in the next span of time before you’ll have easy access to all your items, similar to packing for a vacation. Consider how long the unpacking and organization process may take when deciding the size of short-term bag.
Your short-term move-in ready bag will likely include; 2-3 day worth of clothes (for work or other social events), toiletries, and other important documents or items you will definitely need each day. This way you will have quick access to these items and won’t need to dig through boxes.
Unpack One Room at a Time
Focusing and completing the unpacking of one room at a time is the most efficient way to make progress. It is very easy to get side-tracked and distracted from one task to the next because there is so much to do when moving home.
I always recommend having a plan before getting started. Think through the order of the rooms you will unpack.
The kitchen is a common room to start with so that you aren’t stuck ordering out for each meal.
The next rooms to unpack are usually the bedrooms so that you can comfortably sleep and keep your daily work, and life without a lot of inconvenience in finding clothes and other items.
The bathrooms key items should be in your short-term essentials bag, so you can leave the bathrooms until later in the list.
Living rooms are generally quickly unpacked with necessary items, and mainly decorative.
It’s important to unpack critical items before moving on to decorating the home!
I hope these tips help you to organize your new home as efficiently as possible, good luck!