First steps to prep for the move

I don't know about you, but every time I move to a new place I get kinda pissed about how much stuff I have. Carrying all the boxes and bags sucks especially if you have had multiple 3rd floor living situations (oops). If you're really trying to get all the stuff in in a reasonable amount of time you are hauling real hard and are sweating in about 10 minutes and aggravated after about the third trip. Because of these moving frustrations, Chris and I got really motivated to slim down our stuff. A few years ago we were actually planning to move into a tiny home together but the process got halted when we realized we couldn't get a loan for a rolling home and being at the start of a career and in college, respectively, we did not have 40-50k to make our mini dream home. However, we get on board with ideas real quick when we like something, so we began donating and selling our excess belongings in case we did find a way to move into a tiny home.

Fast forward two years or so and we have wardrobes about half the size, camping gear that fits into our backpacks, home decorations that can be packed into a couple boxes, fewer vehicles, and just a few essential pieces of furniture. Check out the pictures of our progress! We are excited to have slimmed down our belongings so much because we know how much easier it will make our move next year! Originally he was going to make us each drive our own cars full of all of our stuff all the way across the country (a trailer would most likely have been included too). I was not a fan of that idea. So instead, we began planning our pair down. Some items are easy because you can just donate them and get that warm feeling someone else will enjoy it...plus the tax write off. Other items can be gifted to friends or family in need of the item, or sold on eBay for a small profit. Our biggest pair down was selling my car, neither of us could believe that we were doing it when we met the buyer at the tag agency but it's gone now. We usually have extra cars we are flipping and I have been riding my bicycle a lot of places so the adjustment to no designated vehicles has been very easy. It is nice because we save money on maintenance, insurance, and all the other costs of owning a vehicle. I feel that overall having less belongings makes life cost less because you can get a smaller home, do not have to pay for excess storage, eliminate most of your random spending, lower moving costs, and more.

Here are some ideas on how to DECREASE your overall belongings:

Chris had an old dresser from his grandmother's basement for years. He left all his clothes in it as he moved to new apartments around Pennsylvania for the last four years. Not surprisingly, it was pretty beat up by the time we were getting a place together. I told him not to bring it, but on move in day it showed up anyway and ended up sitting in the corner of our bedroom collecting crap for a month. He was leaning towards finally throwing it out when he decided he could re-purpose it instead. The shelf you see to the right is pieces of the old dresser! Chris sawed off a portion of the top and sides to assemble this useful little shelf. He painted it black to match our rustic modern apartment better, and now we use it as our mini desk space. I never thought I would say it, but "the dresser" can come with us now.

Closets, containers, storage bins, crates, junk drawers, sheds...all of these are common places for excess junk to collect. It is not surprising at all, they are all places which get the stuff out of sight...and therefore out of mind. However, if you are planning to move (or just want to live a life with less stuff) you need to clear out these areas just like the ones you actually look at every day. One of our collection sites was our outdoor closet. Our town home came with this awesome "shed" that we planned to use to store our camping gear. After we moved in, it turned into storing every tool, car item, sporting equipment, AND camping gear. Between me as an avid hiker and Chris as a previous boy scout, we had A LOT of stuff in this small closet. We knew it would be a big weight on our backs when we moved out so we finally set aside some time to clean it out. We ended up donating a bunch of old gear to his boy scout troop, we threw out some stuff (like my beat up archery target), and we consolidated the rest and planned to replace a few items. I should have taken a before picture but this photo shows what it looks like now.

Other ideas I have thought about are:

Capsule wardrobes. These involve a set up where you basically design a "uniform" for yourself so that you can have fewer clothes overall and everything matches each other. Many people call it a 10 item wardrobe (or other smallish number) but you can really customize it however you like. The idea is just to have all of your tops, bottoms, light jackets, and dresses all in the same color pallet and style so that you can wear them together and not have to spend time matching items to form an outfit every time you get dressed. Depending on what climate you live in, you may have multiple "capsules" for different seasons. But overall, you would have less items than the normal person and spend a whole lot less time creating outfits each day.

Getting convertible furniture. Over the course of my childhood, my parents bought a few different couch sets for our family room. Every time we got new couches, the old ones would go into the basement and the ones previously down there would get donated or thrown out. This was the only way to do it before and works if you have a big house to fill with furniture or you like helping others get used furniture, but I am none of those things. These days, companies are starting to make furniture with replaceable covers! Mine and Chris' favorite is Lovesac but I think there are a variety of brands that have similar products at various price points. Lovesac is an investment, but the main portion of the furniture comes with a double lifetime guarantee and its all incredibly comfortable. We bought our first piece, the Pillowsac, nearly three years ago as an anniversary gift to each other. Soon after, we got the Squattoman to match. Both items were purchased with neutral tone suede-like covers to match our changing living situations, but when we buy a house we will probably get them new covers to match the room. When compared to other couches I've sat on, Lovesac is one of the comfiest and most fun because they are convertible! When you buy Sactional pieces, you can add on in the future and change the covers on all the pieces to match your new design! I'm real excited to invest in a set in the near future. But overall, the idea is to change the color and fabric of your couch instead of buying a whole new set every however often you do that.

Minimalist decor style. So how many people do you know that have collections or constantly buy little trinkets that sit around their house? I think it's more common than we realize, especially when the person has lived in the same home for many years. I realized growing these collections makes it very difficult to move. It takes a ton of time and money to pack and move all these excess items. And once you've been collecting for years you don't even appreciate them anymore because there are so many little things! In order to change this, you must clear off your home's surfaces and stop buying the little trinket decor.

What are your favorite ways to downsize (or keep minimal) your belongings, comment in the box on the homepage?

#moving #minimalism #truck #preparations