Today - Preparing to move house

Moving house can be and in fact is well noted as a high stress life situation but much of this can be avoided with a little planning.
The first and most important thing is to avoid packing and taking stuff you don’t need or use - yes clutter! I know I probably sound like a broken record by now but why pay to move stuff from A to B when you don’t even need it! Really you may well be able to hire a smaller vehicle if you get rid of the junk. So first thing is to declutter well ahead of time.

Next if you are moving yourself and not hiring removalists then DO NOT under estimated the size of the vehicle you’ll need to move everything, this is a very  common problem so make sure you allow extra room.
Now when you pack it is vital that you label what’s in each box and also what room it’s for - you should know where you’re moving to and the various rooms that are in it. So if you currently have 2 kids on one room and youre moving to a home ehere they’ll have a room each then the items packed for each child should be in separate boxes marked for the different rooms.

This same technique can be applied in a micro fashion for the kitchen whereby you mark what the items are that’s in the box and where in the kitchen they’ll be going.
Create an inventory of all your boxes and other items so that you have a comprehensive list that you can check off at the other end immediately. That way if something is missing you know straight away rather than a month down the track when you go looking for it.

Moving house is a fabulous time to declutter,  free yourself of stuff you don’t need and get into new habits in your new home. It’s a whole new start where you can apply all the best strategies covered in this series and become totally organised at last or again as the case may be! All you need to do is a little planning, it’s quite simple and well worth the effort.

That’s it for this time, next episode is the series Finale!

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It is always sad news to me when I find stories like this. Two lives were placed at significant risk due to the significant amount of clutter in the home. My partner is a firefighter and I know that I’d be rather upset if in carrying out his job - trying to save lives - he was badly injured or killed in a situation due to clutter rahter than some other understandable occurence that could be expected when fighting a house fire. Killed by clutter (effectively) does sound quite so heroic!

Here’s the details:

 Fire destroys NE Portland home, sends two to hospital
Posted by Helen Jung, The Oregonian June 23, 2008 08:46AM
An early-morning fire destroyed a Maywood Park home, in which clutter and combustibles helped the flames to quickly consume the home.

The fire, which was ruled accidental, began on the back patio of the home at 9914 NE Failing, said Lt. Allen Oswalt of Portland Fire and Rescue.

Portland fire crews, initially told there might be a person inside, had trouble accessing the home due to “excessive content clutter” inside. The homeowner was able to escape after some difficulty, said Oswalt.

A firefighter suffering from heat exhaustion was sent to a nearby hospital where he was evaluated, released and expected to fully recover. The homeowner, who had tried to put out the fire, was also sent to the hospital for evaluation.

When clutter is a problem, motivation to change can be a challenge - could the possibility  of loosing your own or the lives of others due to clutter be a motivating factor to change perhaps?