The Art of Unpacking…

There is an art to unpacking a house after a move.  It is important to stay organized and always start what you finish.  Summer is a VERY popular time for families to move so I wanted to share some of my favorite tips so you can stay organized while you unpack each and every box.  I know some of you are reading this post feeling guilty that boxes from your last move are still packed up in your garage but don’t worry, there is still hope for you!

• Start by being organized as you pack!  It is so much easier to purge and sort as you pack compared to after you move in!  Take time to sort through things as you put them into boxes.

• Label all of your boxes by room so you or your moving company can put them into the appropriate room at your new home.

• Instead of unpacking one box at a time dive right in!  Open up all of the boxes in the room and sort the items from the boxes into categories and plan where things should go before you start to put them away.

• Do not keep things just because they are new or unused if you never plan on using them.  The cost of keeping them around and having them clutter up your storage will outweigh the benefits of letting go!

• Only purchase storage if your new living situation is temporary.  Remember, what is out of site will be out of mind.

Here are some photos from a unpacking project that I worked on last summer.  My newly single client downsized from a 4,000 square foot home into 1,800 square feet.  I unpacked many of the rooms in his house and set up organized systems so that he and his kids would be able to function as an organized household.

Here is the master bedroom before I started…

I started by pulling everything out of the boxes and sorting the items by like and kind in piles on the floor. Doing this will help you see the all of the items that you have so you can efficiently plan where things should be stored.  If you unpack one box at a time you will waste hours reworking shelves and drawers.

A few hours later I was able to find room for everything my client needed to keep.  For this project I worked independently and my client trusted me to make decisions.  For the items that I wasn’t sure about I left him small piles for homework to be tackled on his own.  Here is what the room looked liked after…

There is a little cottage in the back of the house that my client used as a home gym and family media/game area.  This is what it looked like before…

In this space I unpacked all of the boxes and sorted everything into categories.  Most of the boxes were filled with toys and games.  If a game was missing parts or was too young for his children I put it in a box for Goodwill.  This is what the room looked like after…

My client’s master bath was much smaller and lacked the storage that his old bathroom had.  He had several large boxes of toiletries that needed to be sorted through and most importantly he needed to find a storage system to give everything a home.  Here are the boxes before…

After I sorted through all of the products I stored them in neat rows, keeping like items together. All of the products that were expired, close to being empty, or had a funky smell got tossed.  Products that had many duplicated for downsized and donated to a local shelter.