You’ve found the house you love, and best of all, sold the one you’re in.  Now the real work begins – getting ready to move. Your first instinct may be to start packing up everything and organize it later. What you may not realize in your hurry to get the task accomplished is the longer-term negative effects of that decision, like the costliness of time, money and stress.

Here are four points to consider before you decide to pack up for moving day.

Saving Money:  Moving is costly, and whether you’re moving locally (where movers charge an hourly rate, or out of state, where the move cost is based on weight and distance), you should ask yourself if the investment in money up front and the time spent later, is going to be worth it to you. Industry experts advise that the best thing to pare down when moving are books. Often thought of as the hardest things to part with, books require smaller boxes due to weight, and that weight adds up quickly. Sorting through and donating books and other items you don’t need can definitely positively affect your bottom line when it comes to moving expenses. 

Saving Time: If you figure you’ll just move everything now and really sort it out when you get to your destination, you’re setting yourself up for a stressful move day.  Not only will you possibly run out of time when you’ve scheduled the movers even if the movers are doing the packing for you, you’ll spend much longer sorting through stuff you most likely won’t need, or – worse yet – not fit in your new space.  Wouldn’t you rather be enjoying your new space faster?

Knowing What Will Fit:  If you’re moving to a smaller space, your possessions may not fit into the new location, so sorting through is one of the most important things you can do to save yourself the headache of finding places for it all.  However, even if your new space is larger, will you have enough storage?  Do you have the same amount of wall space for pictures?  Can your furniture be arranged in a pleasing way?  Sorting through your possessions with these thoughts in mind will help inform what to keep and what to let go.

Benefit Someone Else:   According to statistics collected by the LA Times, the average household in the US has over 300,000 items in it.  Sorting through things you haven’t used for years and donating them to particular charitable groups can not only help another person, but lighten your load considerably.  

If you need assistance deciding on what to take and what to keep, you may want to consider a move management company like The Move Makers to lighten the burden of moving.