The moment the thought pops into your head, “I would like to move,” the clock starts ticking on something most of us dread: touching, sorting and packing every single item we own. It can feel daunting before a single box is even taped. But one decluttering author says there is a simple way to start, and it begins with a trash bag.
Dana K White, author of Decluttering at the Speed of Life and creator of the “No Mess” decluttering process, shared tips for decluttering before a move in a YouTube video. The starting point is blunt: moving and decluttering go together. It is just fact.
Step One: Take a Trash Tour
White says the first thing to do, the minute you even have the thought of moving, is to take a “trash tour.” The reasoning is simple. You do not want to move anything you do not absolutely have to.
Here is how it works. Grab a trash bag, plus a recycling bin if you already have one, and walk through the house. Your only commitment is to look for and get rid of actual trash, meaning things that can be thrown away.
White says this does two good things. First, it is the easiest of the decision-free stuff, and it makes an immediate impact and makes you feel better. Second, everything that goes in the bag is something you will not have to move.
Walking the house also helps your brain see everything you will have to deal with. The thought of packing up for a move, knowing every item in the home must be touched, can be overwhelming. A tour with no commitment other than finding trash lets you see the job without having to solve it.
Step Two: Let the Math Pick Your Boxes
The second idea is the one that surprises people. Instead of grabbing boxes for the stuff you have, buy or gather boxes according to the actual math from a moving box calculator.
White explains how to do it. Take the square footage of the house you are moving into, go online, and look for a moving box calculator. It will tell you how many boxes are recommended for a house that size. That is the number to go with, whether your current house has way too much stuff in it or you are dreaming of a bigger house.
White did this personally during a move, and says it worked extremely well. It is one of the top things recommended to people who are thinking about moving.
Why Limiting Boxes Works
The trick, White says, is the mindset. A limit on the amount of space naturally reveals what is worth packing and what is not. If you pack for the house you are moving into, rather than packing up all the stuff you have, it really changes things.
Think of it like this. The new space is limited and finite. It is not an endless-possibilities kind of situation. So as you put something into a box, something happens in your brain, and it reveals that this particular thing deserves to go, or does not.
And there is a safety valve. You can always get more boxes. White says to give yourself permission to try the plan, knowing you are not locked in.
Keep the Donate Box and Trash Close
White also suggests keeping the donate box and the trash close at hand while packing. If you pick something up and it reveals itself as obvious trash or a donation, you can put it right into the donate box or right into the trash as easily as putting it into the moving box.
It is a small shift, but a powerful one. Packing everything and sorting it out at the other end means paying to move, and then finding room for, things you may never have wanted. Deciding before the boxes are sealed means you unpack only what you chose.
How to Try It at Home
- Walk through the house with a trash bag and a recycling bin before you do anything else.
- Look up the square footage of the new home and find a moving box calculator online.
- Gather only the recommended number of boxes at first.
- Keep a donate box and a trash bag next to the packing area.
- If you run out of boxes, treat that as a signal to look again at what you are packing before you get more.
One more thing to remember is that you do not need to finish the whole house in a day. The trash tour is meant to be quick and low pressure. You can walk it again in a week, and again after that, and each pass will make the next decision a little easier because there is simply less in the way.
Moving is tough, and it is easy to let the stress take over. White ends on an encouraging note: if you are moving, it is going to be tough, but you can totally do this. Start with the trash, let the numbers guide the boxes, and let your new space, not your old clutter, decide what comes along.
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