The two gold standards of cleaning out your house these days are:
The Home Edit
Marie Kondo
Back in 2016, when my husband and I were preparing for a big move from Colorado to California, I read Marie Kondo’s The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing. I followed every step of her book verbatim and it was a HUGE advantage to our move that year. After it was all said and done, we donated 30 giant bags of items to GoodWill along with many pieces of furniture. We donated so many great items that year, we saw a $4,000 credit on our tax bill for charitable donations! (Helpful hint: as you’re packaging up items to donate, write every single item down on a list and claim it as a donation on your taxes. Depending on which state you live in, this could mean thousands of dollars in your pocket!)
Here’s the thing about Marie Kondo’s process that is both a crucial step but also difficult for me. She advises that you should clean out your house in categories: toys, clothes, paperwork, kitchen gadgets, etc. I prefer to tackle the job room by room.
For example, when you’re ready to go through your clothes, Marie will suggest that you bring every stitch of clothing from every room into a single pile to 1) see how ridiculously large the pile is and realize you could never, ever need that many shirts, pants and dresses, and 2) go through the entire category all at one time.
I’m not going to lie: this stresses me out. It absolutely works - don’t get me wrong! I’m not saying her advice is bad. If you can handle seeing every single garment you currently own in a single pile on your bedroom floor to sort through, then you should absolutely do it. I have to take mine in smaller groupings to make the work more manageable. I will start with a single closet or dresser. I still put everything from that closet or dresser into a pile and go through every single piece to decide if it says or goes, but the smaller bites are easier to chew.
Then, as is super familiar in all kinds of memes and jokes these days, you decide if each individual item “sparks joy” for you, or not. If it does, keep it. If it doesn’t, set it free so that someone else can love it.
With a moving coming up again for my husband and me, here is how I plan to handle the home purge this time around:
25 weeks out from moving (a hopeful 6 months from the big day!):
Divide the number of rooms or areas in my house by those 25 weeks
Main Bedroom Closet 1
Main Bedroom Closet 2
Main Bedroom Dressers
Main Bathroom
Upstairs Loft
Laundry Room
Guest Bedroom Closet
Guest Bedroom Dresser
Guest Bathroom
Office 1 Paperwork
Office 1 Desk
Office 1 Other
Office 2 Paperwork
Office 2 Desk
Office 2 Other
Kitchen Part 1
Kitchen Part 2
Living Room
Dining Room
Entry Coat Closet
Mud Room Storage
Half Bathroom
Garage Part 1
Garage Part 2
Back Patio Storage
Schedule time each week or weekend to pull everything out of its storage spaces for the room or space on the list, so that it is a planned part of my calendar.
DON’T SKIP OUT ON THIS IMPORTANT APPOINTMENT EACH WEEK!
Sticking to the schedule you created will be important so you don’t cram in all of this work too close to moving day. This will more than likely turn into a busy time for you and your family, and you’ll opt not to do it at all.
Both Marie Kondo and The Home Edit insist on the “edit” part of the home organization process as the most important step. I think this also goes for moving. Packing, moving, unpacking and organizing a bunch of items that you don’t even want in your life is a waste of time, energy and money.
Plus, maybe you’ll find that pair of missing sunglasses you’ve been searching for since the last move…
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