Thinking about moving in the next year or so? If so, don’t wait to declutter the two areas that most homeowners ignore until the end, namely basements and garages. 

The pictures shown here are typical of what I often see. This basement storage room was in the house of someone whose job required him to move a number of times  and my first impression was, “Whoa! Where to start??” In fact, just about everything in that room had been there since he moved in 10 years ago and a closer look revealed that many boxes had been moved – unopened – more than once! 

Look, I know that  basements and garages hold everything that we don’t want to deal with. And it’s tedious to even THINK about going through all that stuff, let alone actually getting started. But professional organizers, like me, can help keep you on point and get the job done. We’ll even get rid of anything you don’t want anymore! In this case, once my client and I dove it, it was clear that the vast majority of what was stored could be donated, recycled, shredded or trashed. So the room was cleared relatively quickly. The irony was that we tackled the basement only because he was preparing to move again and this time he was paying for it, instead of an employer.

Preparing to move often takes months. My advice? Don’t make the process more difficult  by doing the hardest job last.