Whether you’re preparing for a long-haul move or a local move across town, getting your house in order
is a big task. From decluttering and organizing to cleaning and packing, getting ready to move can feel
overwhelming. Burly Boyz Moving & Storage understands the excitement of relocating to a new
home—and the work it takes to get the job done. To help make the process easier for you, we’ve
created this quick guide of our top pro tips to clean and organize your home before moving:

1. Start Planning Early

As soon as your house goes on the market or you know you’ll be moving out of your rental, you should
already be thinking about packing. Look around your home—once you consider the basement, attic,
garage, and hidden storage spaces, you likely have much more stuff than you thought. Getting a head
start on planning will give you time to take stock of everything and decide what’s moving with you,
what’s getting donated, and what’s moving into short- or long-term storage.

2. Get Emotionally Prepared

Making a big local move or packing up and moving across the country is a big job—especially if you’re
downsizing into a space with much less square footage. Before you start to clean and organize your
space and start packing, it’s important to do a mental check-in—with everyone in your household. It can
be a massive change to move locations, and most people have memories that can be tough to leave
behind. Moves can be particularly tough for children since it may be the only home they’ve ever known.
It can also be difficult for seniors since they typically need to downsize sentimental items to have
enough space in their new home.

3. Declutter First

The most important part of getting your house ready for a move is decluttering. This helps to make the
process of cleaning and organizing much less overwhelming. Decluttering essentially involves getting rid
of items that you know you won’t be packing for your move. This includes any items that are broken or
damaged, anything that is obviously trash, or things you have been planning to pass on or donate to
others. Once you start going through closets, drawers, and cupboards, you may be surprised by how
much stuff you have stored in those hidden nooks and crannies. A popular method of decluttering is to
create three piles for your stuff: Keep, Donate, and Trash. This is a quick way to organize items and make
the process of decluttering much less stressful.

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4. Create a “Box Room”

An efficient way to organize your items and prepare for your long-distance or local move is to create a
box room—or a place where your packed boxes can be placed before your move. Clearing out one room
or designating space in the basement or garage for packed boxes will give you a central location to store
boxes so they aren’t taking up space in individual rooms. This can also help you gauge your progress and
schedule enough time for packing since you can see what’s ready to go—and what still needs to be
packed. As you fill up your box room with packed boxes, you may find that you need additional space.
Booking a local storage facility like Burly Boyz Moving & Storage can give you a secure place to store
your packed items until moving day. Moving boxes out of your space also allows you to clean each room
as they are cleared out instead of leaving it all to the end.

5. Consider living and storage space in your new home

When most people move, there’s an adjustment in the amount of space they have. If you’re moving into
a larger home, you’ll be able to move over any of the items in your current place that you want to
keep—and maybe still have room to add new furniture and décor items. If you’re downsizing, you’ll
need to decide what items you’ll be able to take with you and what you’ll need to donate, sell, or give
away. It’s also important to consider how your storage spaces will change as you move from one house
to another. For example, suppose you’re moving from a home with a garage and a basement into a
place without a garage. In that case, you’ll need to consider alternative storage options like a secure
storage facility.

6. Organize and pack one room at a time

To help you gain momentum and keep you from feeling overwhelmed, it’s always a good idea to start
organizing your least-used room first—typically a home office, den, or spare bedroom. Be cautious
about starting with a room you use multiple times each day—like your bedroom or the kitchen. Trying to
find a daily-use item in a stack of boxes that have already been packed can be frustrating. Another pro
tip is to make sure you’re only packing items from the same room together. This will make it much
easier to find things before your move—and to organize and unpack boxes in your new home.

7. Label your boxes!

It may seem like a small thing, but one of the biggest mistakes we see as professional movers is when
people neglect to label their moving boxes. You may think you’re saving time or that you’ll remember
which items are in which boxes—but you’ll likely forget and waste a lot of time searching through them
or moving them to different rooms because you weren’t sure where to put them on moving day. We
recommend labeling each box with the room it goes in and its general contents.

8. Deep-clean as you go

Wouldn’t it be nice to be able to deep-clean your old home once everything has been moved out? But
with tight turnaround times on possession dates and people looking to minimize their carrying costs,
there may not be much time between when your belongings are moved out and the new occupants take
possession. Just as we recommend that you declutter, organize, and pack one room at a time, the same
approach can be used to help you clean each room as it’s packed and ready to go. Your deep-cleaning
checklist for each room should include vacuuming or washing the floors, washing the walls, baseboards
and trim, wiping down any windows and mirrors, and removing dust and dirt from light fixtures and
power outlets.

With a bit of extra planning and approaching the task in stages, cleaning and organizing your home
before your move doesn’t have to be a stressful experience. From professional packing and moving
services to short- and long-term storage facilities, Burly Boyz Moving & Storage has what it takes to get
you moving! Contact us today for your free custom quote.