Step 1 of the Moving Process: Declutter, Reorganize, & Clean

Help!!! We are moving again!!!!!!

Okay, I’m only sort of kidding. We really ARE moving. Oh, and also I am about as stressed as I sound there. Ha! And yeah, we do always need help, so I guess I’m not kidding at all….

We are five or six months out from our big move. That all depends on how fast this house sells and our ability to secure a rental house at our next town. We are only moving a couple of hours away this time, so does make it easier. It is a different state though, so I get to do all the fun re-registration stuff all over again.

Ah….I just love paperwork and the DMV…….said no one ever…..

Step One……Prepare the House to Sell

We are standing nicely on square one here. We will still be on step one for a while yet. I’m trying to address each room one at a time. Well, is there any other way to do it?

And for my first room I have chosen:

Dum dum dum…….the basement

We have a decent sized basement, so I narrowed it down to four areas of the basement. First, I went through the laundry room. I trashed things and sent things to Goodwill. I have one dilemma left: keep the extra washer and dryer or donate/sell them? What do you think I should do? We have an old spare set, and we have kept them just in case, but what is the point? What would you do?

So I have now moved on to area #2 of the basement: the working storage room.

This room looked like a wreck. I thought I knew where everything was anyway. I call myself re-organizing it a couple of times a year. This storage room gets used a lot because I keep gift bags, beach towels, and seasonal items, as well as hand me downs in there. However, it’s been a while since I straightened up that room, and it was a MESS.

Here are the before photos:

Storage Clean Out: The Video Series:

I’ve been making videos to document the process. Y’all, if anyone is an expert on moving, I guess I’m fairly close. This is my 13th post-college-adult move. (I had to sit here and count them each up on my hands to figure that out.)

How do we still have so much junk? I really need to go ruthless minimalist on this mess:

I was truly in my Southern voice the day I made this video….When I get serious the cornbread comes out.

Come back by here for the big “after” reveal and the rest of this video series. Moving is hard, so treating it like some big important mission makes it more doable for me. Plus, really no one will ever buy our house if I don’t declutter.

I’ve started a Pinterest page to collect tips for all things related to “getting my act together.” Follow along here. My name is @aprilmomoffour on Pinterest.