8 Steps To A Clean Sweep Start In Your New Home

So you’ve sold your current house and are making plans to move to your new home. Take advantage of this milestone moment in your life to make a clean start.  Begin by eliminating the clutter and “stuff” that has built up over the years in your current home. A local junk removal companycan help with your “clean sweep” effort.

The Challenging Task of Looking Forward

Selling your home is a milestone event in your life.  While you look forward optimistically to a new start, there is emotion attached to leaving behind a life that you have built in your current home.  Trying to sort through the emotions, as you sort through overstuffed closets, and a cluttered garage and basement can seem overwhelming.  It’s tough to know where to start.

Use this handy 8-step process, that we offer to our customers, to find focus and get started on a simplified new beginning.

1. If things are really bad, the first place to start is figuring out what you are anxious to get rid of.  Maybe this means doing a first pass and gathering things that you just want whisked away quickly.  You may want to start in the garage or basement.  You’ve probably accumulated lots of junk in the garage or basement that you are sure you won’t move to your new home.  Getting rid of things in these areas gets you off to a quick start, and gives you room to manage other items as you sort and organize. A local junk removal companycan help with your “clean sweep” effort.  Doing this initial purge can help provide you with a renewed focus on the task at hand.

2. Now you have a little bit of breathing room to sort through round 2.  Create some type of tagging system to visually separate your things into one of four categories.  I would suggest buying 4 different rolls of colored tape or colored labels.  You can easily go from room to room and label your items based on the following categorization system. 

3. Tag Your Items Into Four Different Categories

Category 1 - Absolutely keep.

Category 2 - Absolutely get rid of – dispose of

Category 3 - Absolutely get rid of – sell on craigslist or garage sale.

Category 4 - Not sure – This is an important category and this is what trips many people up.  They get caught in the emotional uncertainly of what to do with these items, and get paralyzed and can’t move forward and focus on the bigger task at hand.

Focus on the certainties, and once they are taken care of, you can find clarity on the “not sure” items in Category 4.

4. Managing Category 1 - Absolutely Keep

One thing that can help in providing a fresh start is to temporarily store things that you know you want to keep. Are there things that you can pre-pack – that you are certain you want to keep, but can do without them over the next couple of months as you transition from one house to another?  If so, pack these items up and store in your garage or extra room, or in a storage rental unit.  Get these items out of your way.  You’ll be surprised that even this step can go a long way to keeping your momentum going.

5. Managing Category 2 - Absolutely Get Rid Of – Dispose Of

This is where a junk removal company can help.  With a single phone call, a professional team can be at your house and work to take away anything you don’t want.  This can eliminate a lot of the stress that goes along with getting everything sorted out.

6. Managing Category 3 - Absolutely Get Rid Of – sell on craigslist or in a garage sale

While this requires a bit of effort, with some organization, and a little bit of leg work, you can simplify and at the same time, put a little money in your pocket.  Craigslist and kijiji can be great ways to sell larger ticket items.  As a general rule, if you have something worth over $50, and are willing to invest a little extra time, you can get a much better price on craigslist or kijiji than you will at a local garage sale.  If you think about it, your potential buyers increase from maybe 50 at a garage sale to thousands with an online listing. A larger audience allows you to command a higher price. 

7. Category 4 – The Uncertain Group 

Hopefully, if you have tackled Categories 1, 2, and 3, this effort will have given you some clarity on the importance of the things you put in Category 4.  As you try to assess what to do with the items in Category 4, some questions you may want to ask include:

Have you used this item in the last year?  If not, there’s a good chance you are hanging on to dead weight.

If it’s broken, is it worth the investment of time or money to get it fixed?  Again, ask yourself how long it has been sitting around in a broken state.  If it’s been longer than 6 months, there’s a good chance you should just move on.

If you find that you hang onto items with the thought, “someday I’ll use this” or “you never know when,” then my suggestion is to get rid of it.  You’ll appreciate the simplified start in a new home.  And be surprised at the stress that leaves your life with a clean sweep! Chances are you’ll never miss discarded items in your new home.  And will have a new appreciation for a simpler, less cluttered home.  

8. Resources That Can Help

There are different professional service teams that can help you in making a clean sweep.  Consider these types of companies as you get started:

Portable Storage Units – for pre-packing items that you know you want to keep.

Self Storage Units – for pre-moving and storing items.  As you put your current house up for sale, getting personal items out of your home can increase your chances of selling your home.

Junk Removal Company– A great resource for doing the heavy lifting as you undertake a big de-cluttering project.  Allows you to focus your effort on sorting through your things and truly making a fresh start.