Cleaning & Organizing
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Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Organizing for a move
I have three kids, and we have a TON of stuff!! And nothing ever seems to be organized, or at least to stay organized long enough for me to have an immaculate house. And to make matter worse, we will be moving in July into a new place. I have no where to begin, in terms of purging and organizing. Any ideas? Help! Thanks! And how long would you keep kids clothes before you get rid of them?
Re: Organizing for a move
First I would start keeping an eye out for boxes. You could also save newspapers for packing material. When I moved I was able to go to the grocery store and get a bunch of boxes for free.
Also, I would start making trips to Goodwill now. It's too big of a pain to pack, move, and unpack stuff you no longer need or want. Keep a bin for donations and as it fills, donate it.
If you want to start packing now, I would start packing out of season clothes and other items that you won't anticipate needing until July. Label each box on each side with the room it belongs in, as well as the contents of the box. It's a little bit of a pain to do while you're packing, but it makes unpacking SO much easier.
It may be too early to pack a bunch of stuff, but it's not too early to do a deep clean. The last thing you want to worry about as you're packing the last of the boxes is cleaning the inside of the oven or behind the fridge. Doing a thorough cleaning in spring will make it much easier to clean up after yourself when you're actually on your way out the door.
Good luck!
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The key is... one room at a time. Otherwise you'll get overwhelmed. Pick a room and go through everything.
In my house, if you haven't used it in a year or if it doesn't have some sort of sentimental attachment, it goes. Whether that's via ebay, craigslist, salvation army donations, freecycle, on the curb for the dumpster divers, or the trash can... it doesn't matter to me. As long as it leaves the house.
We just don't have room to accumulate useless crap.
For the clothes... I see you have three kids. Are you planning on having any more? If not, once the youngest is grown out of anything that can be handed down, get rid of them. If it's stained or ripped throw it out or turn it into a rag. Donate anything that's in wearable condition. I see no point in hanging onto clothes that no one in your house will wear.
If your oldest is a girl and then you had two boys, then get rid of the girl's clothes once she no longer fits in them. It's not like you'll be handing much of that down to the boys. If you have a large age gap (as in a teen/pre-teen and two toddlers for example) then you can probably get rid of the teen's clothes as they're outgrowing them... odds are that your youngest won't want anything to do with their style by the time they're old enough.
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I'm moving in July too (but we just have 1 kid) and I agree with the PP. My plan was to go through all the seasonal clothes first (because I have to anyway) and putting them in labeled plastic totes so they can be stored for next year and moved without changing containers. Ditto with DS' stuff because we plan to have more children.
My next plan was to go though each room and donate or throw out what I can while I spring clean each room. Go through every drawer/shelf/bin. Even if I don't know how I want to organize it, I just get the stuff out.
And then I plan to start packing. If I'm lucky, I can get this done by June:) GL with moving with 3 kids, I can't imagine! I'm hoping people have more to add since my plan is kinda weak, but its a start.
And I agree with the PP about kids clothes. If you're done with kids-get rid of the youngest kids clothes. If there is 3 years or less between each kid, I would save them for the next one.
When were putting our house on the market to sell, I choose one room/closet/cabinet at a time to go through. If I didn't use it, it was old, broken, or otherwise taking up space, I just threw it out. I didn't want to move a ton of stuff that I wasn't going to use in the new house.
One at a time. And just get started.
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