In the majority of cases, packing for a move is a bitter pill to swallow. But when the home to be packed up is much messier than usual, then the packing task will become even more difficult, complicated, and laborious to complete.
Packing a messy house to move can be a serious challenge due to the fact that the messy part will need to be taken care of first before standard packing procedures can be performed. With all the clutter in the home, it can be really tough to know where to start, let alone know how to organize the entire packing project for a smooth residential move.
Read on to learn how to pack a messy house when moving and what packing principles to use when you’re facing a disordered mess when getting ready to move out.
Get to work as soon as you can
The first thing you’ll need to understand is that packing a messy house to move will take much more time than you think. After all, all the clutter will need to be taken care of first, and that decluttering task alone can take anywhere from a few days up to a week or even more depending on just how cluttered the home proves to be.
As a rule of thumb, your best chance of tackling the tough job of packing a heavily cluttered home on time is to start working on it ASAP. Most likely, you will be surprised just how quickly time flies away – even a seemingly simple task like deciding which items to take with you to the new home can take many hours to complete.
Bear in mind that packing a messy house for a move is practically a race against time, so don’t just put off the packing task, not even with a single day. As soon as the house move is confirmed, PACKING should become your top priority, especially when you know that your home is a bit messier than you would have liked it to be.
Good to know: How to pack quickly for a move
Inventory your entire home
The best way to pack up a messy house quickly is to know exactly what you’re up against, and the way to do it is to create a detailed inventory of all the items in your home. Often, the inventorying task will uncover things that you have forgotten about simply because you haven’t used them in many years. Out of sight, out of mind, right?
As you go from room to room, write down the items that are NOT worth packing and moving for one reason or another. In the case of a messy house, that not-worth-packing list will be quite long but it’s exactly that itemized list that will enable you to declutter your home in the best possible way before you begin to fill up those cardboard boxes with nothing but useful stuff.
Be ruthless when deciding the fate of your possessions!
Don’t pack and move any
- Worn out items. Clothes, shoes, and furniture that happen to be too worn out are not worth the expense to move them to a new home.
- Broken items. Why would you pay good money to move things that are broken or out of order?
- Clothes and shoes you won’t ever wear again. Fashion changes, and so do you.
- Duplicate items. Isn’t it time you let go of duplicates that serve the same purpose?
- Books you’ve already read. Don’t hold on to any books you’ve already read and do not plan to re-read again. The same is true for books you never liked or even gifted volumes that you haven’t even started to read.
See also: How to make a moving inventory
Sort out your things into 4 piles
The best way to pack a messy home for moving is to sort out your belongings into 3 separate categories: 1) things you’ll keep, 2) things you’ll sell, 3) things you’ll gift to friends or donate to charity, and 4) things you’ll recycle.
- KEEP. No matter how disorganized your home is, there’ll always be must-move items that you won’t part with no matter what.
- SELL. You can always try and earn some cash from the things you don’t need but are still in good overall condition. Sell such items online or organize a moving sale prior to moving out.
- GIFT. If you know or suspect that a friend of yours has had on eye on an item you won’t be moving with you, don’t hesitate to gift it to them as a token of your friendship.
- RECYCLE. Dispose properly of the items that nobody will ever need or find useful in any way.
When unsure what to do with an item, use the 12-month rule as a guide. That unwritten rule states that if you haven’t used an item in more than a year, then you don’t really need it, so it’s not worth paying to move it between the two homes.
Read also: How to get rid of things when moving
Come up with a good packing strategy
The secret to packing a messy house to move is not to tidy it up but to first declutter it thoroughly, and then to use a smart packing strategy to pack up that home quickly and easily.
You already know how to declutter your home: 1) inventory it, 2) sort out your things in 4 distinct categories, and 3) get rid of the clutter prior to packing. Now it’s time to use a packing strategy that’ll work in the case of moving out of an overly cluttered house.
- BEGIN packing from the messiest rooms in the house – that is, the rooms that will be the most difficult to sort and pack – and work your way toward the ones that are, in general, easier to pack up.
- PACK one room at a time to increase the overall efficiency when packing a messy house for a move. Transferring the packing action from one room to another before you’re done with the first one will only slow down your progress.
- GET rid of all the clutter – anything you don’t want, like, or need anymore – before you get down to packing. The importance of decluttering prior to packing can’t be stressed enough, especially for a home that’s become too cluttered with stuff through the years.
- FOLLOW a good PACKING CHECKLIST during the long packing process to stay on the right track and boost your packing efficiency. A well-made packing timeline will keep telling you what you’re supposed to pack up next, thus saving you valuable time in the process.
- PREPARE all necessary packing materials in advance so that you don’t have to interrupt the packing process to look for more moving boxes, bubble wrap, or packing paper.
- LABEL your boxes properly to introduce order and structure when packing a messy house for moving. As a bonus, the labeled boxes will let you identify faster what’s inside them after the move is over and the moving containers have been delivered to the new home.
Good advice: The golden rules of packing for a move
Thank you so very much for your article. It provides very helpful information about planning the move, developing a timeline and taking inventory of possessions. I now have an idea of where to start.
Don’t forget to list “donate” — maybe put it under “sell” or “gift.” One man’s trash is another man’s treasure, and you could improve peoples’ lives instead of putting things in landfills. When time’s an issue, it’s faster and easier than shipping items you sell online or sitting in your yard for two days at a yard sale. Just put stuff in paper bags (make sure it’s clean; anything less is an insult), pack up your car, drive over, and voila.Places like Goodwill and SVdeP will actually come and get big items like furniture. Help the poor and lighten your load efficiently.
Also you might consider, for “gift” if you’re not 1