How to Unpack and Organize Your Things After a Move

How to Unpack and Organize Your Things After a MoveHave you recently moved to a new apartment, house or dorm room?

Wondering what to tackle first when it comes to unpacking and organizing your belongings?

In today’s post I give you a few quick tips to keep in mind when it comes to unpacking box after box after box.

Before we begin, special thanks to T.G. and L.D. for suggesting this blog topic!

 

Unpack as soon as possible.

You’ve just finished moving box after box and are probably tired.

While it can be tempting to let the boxes and other items just languish around the house, you might not ever fully move in!

You don’t have to unpack everything all at once, but consider regularly unpacking a few items day after day.

Set a deadline to be fully unpacked, be it a week or two if you have a studio apartment, or a month or two, if you are in a house.

Give rooms a purpose.

Assigning different purposes for each room will help you better envision how you might organize and store your belongings.

Start by writing down all the different rooms in your home. Don’t forget the bathroom, hallways, attic, basement, pantries and other storage areas.

Write down the purpose of each room next to the room name, as well as any major furniture or items that will be stored in that room. Feel free to edit your list as necessary.

If you live in a studio apartment, simply give certain areas of your space a purpose to help you corral items (i.e. dressing/closet area, desk area, etc.).

Start with larger items, end with smaller items.

It’s important to build a solid foundation for your belongings in your home.

Make sure larger items, such as beds, tables, dressers, armoires and other solid piece of furniture are moved to their respective rooms first.

You can then start unpacking those smaller items that sit inside those larger items, such as bedclothes, clothing, books, and sundries, as well as other room accessories.

Unpack for function, then decoration.

Undecided as to which rooms you should unpack first?

Tackle the basics in your home first so you can properly eat, sleep and bathe. This means unpacking your kitchen, bedroom, and bath first.

Once you have these rooms taken care of, you can focus on working on other rooms of the house, starting by first unpacking functional items or those items you’ll use on a daily basis.

Functional items in place, you can now focus your attention on decorating, accessorizing, and feathering the rest of your nest in general.

How about you? How do you approach organizing a new space? Is it a time for a fresh start with new systems, or would you rather keep things as they were at your old place? Join in the conversation and leave a comment below!

5 Unexpected Things You Need to Organize a Work Notebook Mockup
About the Author

Rashelle

Rashelle Isip is a New York City-based productivity consultant who helps successful entrepreneurs and business owners manage their time and energy so they can reduce stress, work less, and make more money in their businesses. She has been featured in Fast Company, Forbes, NBC News, The Washington Post, NPR, and The Atlantic. Get her free guide, 5 Unexpected Things You Need to Organize a Work Notebook, by clicking here.

7 Comments

  1. Todd

    Minding purpose, size, and prioritizing function. Yes, yes, yes! Very helpful! I have also found that doing the same between and within closets is very effective. Master bedroom closet gets sheets, towels, extra or less frequently used toiletries, medicine, etc. Second bedroom closet gets tools, extraneous cleaning supplies that don’t go anywhere else specifically, batteries, etc.

    Getting the big stuff out of the way and clearing boxes made things seem so much better, but I think as important is knowing where the many more smaller items should go and not having to think too hard about each one.

    Reply
    • Rashelle

      I’m so glad you found the tips helpful. I completely agree on the closets, it makes far better sense to keep items related to that room within said room.

      One benefit of getting the larger stuff out of the way is you literally deal with all the “heavy lifting” right away. No fussing with a bed frame or couch weeks after your move! You can then relax and take it easy (well, at least a bit more easy) dealing with the smaller items. Plus, by that point it will be much easier to physically “see” how many boxes left you have to unpack.

      I hope everything is unpacked and you have comfortably settled in! 🙂

      Reply
  2. Sally

    I love your ideas. Organization is my weak point. I can never seem to figure out where to put things and then, I forget where I put them and buy another – which I then put up in a still different place. So now, I have two I can’t find, lol. I call it “misfiling my items” as I clean. What I have done after reading your article is to list all of the areas I need to put my things in. Now, I hope to gather the things that belong in those areas by function into the same place, which I have written down. Right now, I have items from the same topic, let’s say art, tucked away in almost every room – it is very hard to put my hands on what I want, when I want it. I particularly have problems with on-going areas, like clothes and mail. I am forgetful (distracted easily) and struggle to be consistent. I also tend to throw away what I need and keep what I don’t need (horrors!). If you can offer any help on those things, I would love it. If I put a thing “away” I may never see them again -years could pass. Once I organized my clothes closet into cute boxes. After that, I could never find the clothes I wanted, so I bought more. Now, I seriously need to see what is in those boxes! I am hopeful that you can help the organizationally challenged. Thanks in advance for the help.

    Reply
    • Rashelle

      Hi Sally, thanks for your questions. While your situation is unique, and as I only have limited space here, I can only give you a couple of general suggestions. As you’ve mentioned clothing several times in your note, I’ll stick to that subject:

      You may want to consider paring down your clothes closet so it’s easier for you to find and use items on a regular basis. One way of doing this is to pick out frequently worn items. You could pull out, say, a full wardrobe for one week, and hang up only those items on your closet’s clothing rod. Now, you can take your time going through the other clothing: if an item doesn’t fit, or is stained or damaged, it’s probably time to let it go. Instead of going through everything at once, work your way through three pieces everyday. Donate or trash items appropriately. That might help you cut down the amount of clothes you have, so you can get it down to a more manageable level.

      If you want to organize things in boxes, or baskets, but are having trouble figuring out where items are, make sure you clearly label the outside of the container. You could use a label that has words on it, or draw, or take a photo of an item (like a t-shirt), and stick it on the outside of the container. Keep things simple and store like clothing with like, such as pants with pants, belts with belts, t-shirts with t-shirts, scarves with scarves, and so on. You could get four large open baskets and place them on the floor of the closet to store belts, scarves, folded t-shirts, and socks, respectively, in each of the baskets. This way, it’s easy to grab what you need, and store items, too.

      If you are still having difficulty managing your things, you may want to consider hiring a professional organizer. They can help you through the process of organizing your belongings, and setting up systems for you in your home. If you’re in the United States, you can start looking at the National Association of Professional Organizers, http://www.napo.net, or do a search online for organizers in your area.

      I hope my suggestions help you. Thanks for reading my blog, and please let me know how things go!
      Rashelle

      Reply
  3. Ida Foster

    Unpacking is fun. If you don’t forget to sign the boxes it will be fun. When I moved last year I have forgotten to sign half of the boxes. It was a disaster. I hope you don’t make my mistake. Best regards!

    Reply
  4. Dianne J.

    Amazing post! This should be everyone’s guide for unpacking. Let’s add 1 more tip: Pack a suitcase with overnight essentials for your family – toilet paper, clean bedding for the beds and some towels. Make the beds in the new house as soon as possible, chances are high you’ll be too exhausted later!

    ~ Richmond Upon Thames Man And Van Ltd.

    Reply
    • Rashelle

      Thanks, Dianne. I love that tip; makes for an easy transition in the new home.

      Reply

Submit a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Pin It on Pinterest

Share This