We will be moving in a few months and I want to start packing up a few things and was curious- when you move what do you usually pack up first?

I am thinking I may start with some of our clothes- but kind of hesitant to pack up spring season clothes (which in my case is summer clothes). My dh told me to start packing up the things we don't use-but my point on that is if we don't use it- why don't we sell it (I refuse to move all of this stuff into a new home!!!).

We packed up stuff like holiday decorations, anything that wasn't an actual piece of furniture...candles, vases etc that you might have out. I also packed up my entire china cabinet, all my party stuff like trays, dishes, glasses etc I started packing toys early too. I pared down the linens to the basics, and packed the rest.

When we moved, I packed up books, picture frames, cookware that I use occasionally but not all the time. I packed up toys a little at time when the kiddos were asleep so they did not notice. Also, if you can have a 3 bin or box system ... one for packing and keeping, 2nd for charity and 3rd for trash. I wish I was able to purge more before we moved but we ran out of time.
Best of luck

When we move we're generally showing our house so I start with getting out as much as I can! I take down at least half the accessories. I get rid of MOST of the boys toys and keep out their favorites! (easier to clean but they still have fun) Once the house has sold though, then I pack up the rest of the accessories. I'm usually so excited to be moving that I pack most everything I can! The linen closet is usually the first to be packed. All the extras in the bathrooms... tons of stuff. In the end the kitchen is sometimes almost completely packed minutes a few pots & pans and some paper plates, etc!

I'll bet you have more things that you don't really use than you realize! We were thinking of moving about a year ago! We gave ourselves a month to get the house in order! I packed up a ton and we ended up even getting a storage room to move all the extras into! We want the house to show as nice as possible and to look as big as possible so the Kangaroo climber, bouncy horse, train table, and other big items that we usually don't mind inside went to storage! After I tiled the bathrooms & generally got the house mostly done we decided to stay here a bit longer since my husband's job didn't seem too stable. Anyway, I realized later I had A TON of things that I packed up that I didn't miss once they were gone! I was pretty shocked! I had a ton of accessories that I had out because they were given to me, etc, but not because I loved it or because it made the house look better!

Anyway, we had a garage sale over the summer and I ended up selling a lot of the stuff that I'd purged out before putting the house on the market! Of course even now I can still look around and find things I could do without!

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Stay at home mom to my 3 boys... ages 5, 3 & 1!

I can do all things through CHRIST who strengthens me. Philippians 4:13

we have moved 16 times in the last 20 years and I have found that knickknacks and hanging decorations are the best place to start (and usually the last thing that gets unpacked. Make sure to box up from room to room and mark accordingly so whoever is helping in the move has some direction. I usually get some boxes or in our last move in a whole room and start putting everything we didn't use in there for a huge rummage sale. Last time we moved I made over $500 and what better way to get rid of clutter!

Good luck with the move! My last move I was 8 months pregnant in July, I hope yours isn't as miserable!

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My gourds made the front page of the paper!!

I usually start with things like books, non essential kitchen items, the holiday things is a good idea, etc.

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We're getting ready to move in 2 weeks, but the army is paying for movers to pack us up so we don't have to go through that *fun* process. So far what we've done is take all the stuff off the walls and shelves, gone through all the clothes to weed out things - clothes I'm keeping as hand-me-downs are folded and packed away and the rest I threw out or donated, weeded through our books and have either sold some on www.cash4books.com or donated, gone through all of my pictures and scrapbooking stuff to sort and put in bins, gone through our filing cabinet and financial stuff and shredded documents we don't need anymore, gone through our storage area, given away some houseplants and sorted through all of our toys.

As much as I hate moving I have to admit that it's great to get rid of stuff and be clutter free. Our last move was 3 weeks after our last baby was born so there really wasn't a chance to weed through everything and I still can't believe the amount of stuff we moved with us that we could have just tossed (sad part is that all of it was *needed* at one point )