Many people make the mistake of moving without decluttering the house first. It’s tempting to pack everything up and move it simply, but this creates a cycle of hoarding. Moving is the ideal time to declutter and simplify your life. A reason why there’s a need on how to declutter your house.

Before you even book movers, decluttering can significantly ease the moving process. But where do you begin with years of accumulated belongings?

Decluttering isn’t just about getting rid of things; it’s about identifying what truly matters to you.

Decluttering is crucial for a smoother move. It reduces packing and unpacking stress, saves money, and makes the entire moving experience more efficient and fulfilling.

Don’t feel guilty about decluttering. There’s limited space on the moving truck. After the move, let’s unpack clutter-free. This declutter your home checklist can help make the process smoother.

We also offer other helpful moving checklists.

Best Time to Start to Declutter Your Home Before Moving

When should you start decluttering?

The ideal decluttering start time depends on factors like how much you own and the size of your current and new homes. You could even begin a year in advance with ample advance notice.

While starting early is best, use our declutter your home checklist to stay motivated!

This declutter checklist is designed to guide you through the decluttering process before your move and will give you decluttering tips to make your move smooth.

Getting Started: How to Declutter Your House

The word ‘decluttering’ can be daunting. It’s often overwhelming, which is why we tend to avoid it. Many people find it difficult to decide what to keep and what to discard.

One of the best declutter tips is to give yourself ample time and focus on decluttering one category of possessions at a time.
This list outlines the items you should consider getting rid of before your move.

Get Rid of the Extras

If you find yourself with multiple identical items (like four cocktail shakers), declutter your home by getting rid of the extras. It might feel wasteful to discard perfectly good items, but if you don’t use them or can’t use more than one at a time, it’s time to declutter. Be decisive. You don’t need five cake tins.

Furniture That’s Just Taking Up Space

If you have unused furniture, such as tables, chairs, empty cupboards, or unused coat racks, Start decluttering them. Now’s the time to sell or donate your furniture. These items are simply taking up space in your home.

Avoid wasting time and money moving unnecessary furniture. While essentials like couches, beds, and dining sets are necessary, consider whether items like coffee tables, sideboards, and hallway tables are essential and suitable for your new space.

Before moving, measure your new home and existing furniture. Create a floor plan to visualise how your furniture will fit in the new space. If an item won’t fit or is disproportionate to the new space, sell, donate, or discard it.

Broken Stuff

If you have any broken items that have been neglected for over six months, discard them. If you haven’t repaired them within the last few months, either fix them immediately or get rid of them.

Duplicate Paperwork

The Australian Tax Office recommends keeping seven years of tax-related documents, including payslips, bank statements, and tax returns. Older documents can be discarded or scanned for digital storage. You likely won’t need physical records from past jobs.

Magazines and Newspapers You Don’t Read Anymore

Magazines and newspapers accumulate quickly. Regularly declutter your home by discarding anything older than a month, or you’ve already read. If you want to save an article, scan it or take a photo with your phone. Magazines and newspapers can take up a lot of physical space.

Collectable Media (if applicable)

If you no longer use VCRs, tape decks, CD players, or DVD players, you don’t need the associated media (tapes, CDs, DVDs). Create digital backups on an external hard drive if you have important recordings. This also applies to movies and music. This will eliminate the need to store large physical media collections you rarely use.

Memorabilia

One of the decluttering tips we’ll give you is to keep sentimental items like photos, cards, and collectables organised in one place, preferably not on display. This will make decluttering easier and ensure their safety in emergencies.

Sorting through sentimental items can be emotionally challenging. Use a box or bag for things you’re ready to let go. Sometimes, out of sight truly means out of mind.

Ask yourself: Why do I keep this? Can I store it digitally? Is it replaceable? Would discarding it upset someone?

Sentimentality often leads us to hoard unnecessary items. Even if you have space, storing these items increases moving costs.

To declutter your home, consider taking photos of sentimental items instead of keeping the physical objects. You’ll most likely forget about the photos anyway.

Craft Supplies

Like a messy kitchen, your crafting supplies might overflow with unused items from past projects. Now’s the time to declutter! Gather all your craft materials and decide what you truly need and what’s just taking up space.

If you have good-quality supplies, consider donating them to local schools, libraries, or community centres. You can also try selling unopened items online. Be honest with yourself – which crafts are true hobbies and which were just fleeting interests?

Related: How to Pack Wall Art When Moving

Duplicate Kitchenware

We’ve all been there: rummaging through kitchen drawers and finding multiple copies of the same item. You know you don’t need that many, but decluttering your home never seems to happen.

The kitchen is a notorious clutter hotspot, overflowing with utensils, baking tools, and gadgets used only once. If you’ve lived in a shared house, your kitchen might have more forks than a restaurant!

Donate unwanted items to local charities or repurposing shops. Ask yourself: “Do I use this regularly?” and discard the rest.

Check out our How to Pack Up a Kitchen and Moving Kitchen Appliances guides.

Food

Unwanted food builds up over time. Guilt about wasting ingredients prevents us from tackling pantry clutter.

Gather a box and discard expired food—separate organic waste from packaging for composting (if possible). Recycle soft plastics in designated bins. Schedule your decluttering for after garbage collection to avoid overflowing bins.

Be realistic: Will you ever use this again? Apply the same ruthless approach to the fridge. This decluttering saves space during your move, ultimately saving you money.

Decorations

We often keep decorations “just in case “after festive occasions. Now’s the time for a reality check.

Separate decorations you’ve reused from those gathering dust. Say goodbye to the latter.

Before discarding decorations, consider selling high-quality items online or offering them to friends with young children. They may appreciate the festive cheer you once brought to your home.

Renovation Tools

If you’ve recently renovated your home, you likely have many tools you used only once and won’t need again. Consider hosting an online garage sale to sell these tools, especially targeting people renovating their homes.

Enquire with your local council about proper disposal methods for paints and other chemicals. Only keep the tools that will be essential in your new residence.

Toys and Books

Involve your children in the process. Ask them which toys they’ve outgrown and which ones they still enjoy playing with.

Consider making it a special event with a “goodbye ceremony” for the old toys. Donate usable toys to charity and discard broken or non-sentimental items.

When decluttering books, be honest about your reading habits. Do you keep books for show or for reading?

• Start by keeping your absolute favourites.
• Keep books you refer to often.
• Consider selling or donating the remaining books. Decluttering your book collection can save money and reduce the burden of moving by minimising the weight and volume of items you need to transport.

Check our how to pack books for moving guide.

Clothes and Shoes

Thrift stores often gladly accept unwanted clothing in good condition. Contact them beforehand to confirm they can accept your donations. Some even accept extra buttons and other small accessories.

Many clothing retailers have clothing recycling programs. Your local council can provide information on drop-off location

Consider recycling sports shoes through programs like a Reuse-A-Shoe program, often found at sporting goods stores like Rebel Sport.

You can check our how to pack clothes when moving guide for a more smooth move.

Bathroom and Laundry

Decluttering shouldn’t stop in the living spaces. Also, remember to tackle the bathroom and laundry room.

• Bathroom:
  • Medicine cabinets often accumulate a variety of half-used toiletries.
  • Discard expired or unwanted products.
  • Empty and recycle containers before disposal.
• Laundry Room:
  • Remove accumulated clutter like shopping bags, old towels, and other miscellaneous items.
  • Decide what to keep and what to discard.
  • Contact your local council for proper disposal of detergents and bleach.

Gardening Supplies

Before moving, look at your gardening supplies in the shed. Bring everything out and organise them into piles. Keep unopened items that will be useful in your next garden. Donate unopened supplies to organisations like the local council or school, which often have gardening budgets. Sort through used tools and supplies, keeping what you can reuse and donating the rest. Finally, discard any rusty or unusable items.

By decluttering these often overlooked areas, you’ll significantly reduce the number of items you need to move and make your relocation process smoother.

Decluttering Tips for a Smooth Move

You’re ready to declutter before your move. This guide provides a step-by-step approach to eliminating unwanted items effectively.

Start Small, Start Early

Begin decluttering your home well in advance of your move to minimise stress. Avoid feeling overwhelmed by tackling everything at once. Start with a small area, such as a single drawer or closet. Dedicate a portion of each day to decluttering, progressing room by room until your move. Experience the rewarding feeling of reducing your possessions and streamlining your move by eliminating unwanted items.

Be Organised When You Sort

As you declutter your home, categorise items into four piles: keep, donate, sell, and discard. Be decisive when letting go of items that no longer bring joy or serve a purpose.

A helpful guideline is to discard items that haven’t been used within the past year, as you’re unlikely to need them again.
Find a decluttering method that suits you best, whether sorting by category, emotional attachment, or practicality. The most important aspects are consistency and confidence in your decisions.

Assess Storage Space at Your New Home

Storage solutions is very important. Consider the storage capacity at your new residence. This may be the primary reason to reduce your move’s size, saving frustration and costs.

Identify and Remove Duplicate Items

If you’re a hoarder facing a move, you might feel overwhelmed. A declutter checklist can provide a crucial starting point. It encourages an objective assessment of your possessions.

Hoarders often accumulate multiple copies of items. Beyond essentials like socks and underwear and obvious sets like cutlery, you typically only need one of each item (e.g., one ironing board, one bread maker).

Begin decluttering your home by eliminating duplicates. This is a simple yet effective first step, even if you’re unsure where to begin.

If You Didn’t Use It This Year, Get Rid of It

When decluttering before a move, apply the ‘One Year Rule’: discard anything you haven’t used in the past year. This rule helps overcome indecision during the decluttering process.

With the exception of sentimental items or heirlooms, anything unused in the last year is likely unnecessary. If it were valuable or useful, you would have used it. Keeping unused items wastes valuable space.

Sell, donate, or discard these items.

If You’re Not Sure, Toss It

When decluttering your house, follow this simple rule: ‘When in doubt, throw it out.’

Indecision often hinders decluttering—categorise belongings into two groups: essential and non-essential.

• Essential: Items you need.
• Non-essential: Items you can live without.

Items falling in between should be sold, donated, or discarded. If you’re unsure about an item, it’s likely not essential.

This declutter your home checklist provides essential guidelines for a smoother move. A cluttered home makes moving more difficult and expensive.

By following these rules, you can reduce moving costs and stress.

For packing supplies, consider The Smooth Movers, which offers a range of boxes and materials to ensure your belongings arrive safely.

Significant Strategic Benefits of Decluttering

Decluttering is essential for a stress-free move and a smooth transition to your new home. A declutter your home checklist is a valuable tool for guiding your decluttering efforts.

Make Moving Easier

Moving with unnecessary possessions can quickly become overwhelming. Decluttering significantly reduces the volume of items to pack and unpack, streamlining the moving process.

Reduce Stress and Expenses

Moving is a highly stressful event. Transporting unnecessary items further increases stress levels.
Decluttering also reduces moving costs. Since many moving companies charge based on the volume of items transported, decluttering can lead to substantial savings.

A Chance to Start Anew

A change of scenery should bring a sense of freedom, not the burden of unnecessary possessions. Decluttering your house helps you embark on your new life with only the essentials, creating a liberating experience.

Eco-Friendly Disposal Alternatives of Your Clutter

Avoid simply throwing things away. Explore environmentally and ethically responsible disposal methods.

Selling Stuff Online or at a Garage Sale

Holding a garage sale is a rewarding way to declutter. It is incredibly fulfilling to see your possessions find new homes within your community.

Online platforms like Facebook Marketplace and Gumtree offer alternative and convenient ways to sell unwanted items.

Reuse and Recycling

Recycle and repurpose whenever feasible. Donate to local schools or charities. Remember to offer items to family members who might find them useful before discarding them.

Donations to Charitable Organisations

Donating gently used items to charities benefits the organisations and those they serve. It allows you to contribute to the well-being of others. Charities like Lifeline use the proceeds from their shops to fund vital mental health services. You’re making a positive impact!

Moving Light: The Minimalist Way

Following the decluttering your home process, pack your remaining belongings efficiently to minimise the weight and volume of your move.

Effective Labelling

Clearly label your boxes to make unpacking easier and help movers efficiently place items in the correct rooms. Use a color-coding system or simple written labels to indicate the box’s contents.

Essentials Box

Pack a suitcase as if you’re going on a short trip. Include essentials like clothes, toiletries, and daily necessities to avoid rummaging through boxes on your first night.

Achieving Success on Moving Day

The final and most crucial step is executing your moving plan. You’ve decluttered, packed, and labelled – now it’s time to put it all into action.

Quick Final Check

A final sweep is crucial before moving house. Double-check for any unwanted items that may have been accidentally packed. Have a skip bin readily available for easy disposal of large items.

Prioritise Loading Order

Pay attention to the loading order. Ensure essential items and frequently used furniture are loaded last for convenient access upon arrival.

Develop an Unpacking Plan

Pack strategically for efficient unpacking. Group items from the same room together. Use clear and concise labels for easy identification by both you and the movers.

Embrace Decluttering Your Home as a Positive Step

Decluttering your home is the key to a smooth and successful move. One of the benefits of decluttering is that it reduces possessions and creates a fresh living space.

Embrace the how to declutter your house process as a rewarding step towards a new chapter in your life—partner with a reputable moving company like The Smooth Movers, known for stress-free and efficient relocations.

Request an instant quote or call 08 6244 8090 to experience a hassle-free move. Decluttering today will pave the way for a more mindful and intentional living experience in your new home. Your future self will be grateful.