When you're planning a move, one good way to make it more affordable and less stressful overall is to part with as many unnecessary items as you can. After all, the fewer items you own, the fewer you'll need to pack up and pay a removalist to move for you! It can be difficult to part with items you've had around the house for years, so note a few things to help you purge all that clutter.

Use the "one year" rule

If you haven't used something in the last year, you can probably discard it. It's true that you may have seasonal items that you haven't used in months, but if you haven't used them in the last year, chances are you'll never use them again. This can include exercise equipment that you bought with the best of intentions, sporting goods for sports you never play anymore, clothes that are out of style or don't fit, and so on.

Use the rule of "three"

The rule of three means that you are allowed to keep mementos, but only three items for every person or occasion related to those keepsakes. For example, you can keep three items from your school years, three items from a past romantic relationship, and three items from a deceased relative. If you're concerned for how pictures might fall under this rule of three, consider that photo albums would count as one item, but then you would only be allowed to keep two more items and nothing else in addition to those albums.

Get storage bins

It can still be difficult to part with items even if you don't use them, so use a storage bin trick; buy a few small storage bins for your unused items. Next, label each one for items you need to purge; once the bins are full, you need to toss out everything else! As an example, you might have one storage bin for old tools; once that bin is full, you need to sell or otherwise get rid of all those other tools. Have a small storage bin for clothes you no long wear but are trying to fit into again; once that small bin is full, everything else needs to be tossed.

Get a skip bin

A skip bin hire can be a big help in purging as you can tell yourself that once something is in the bin, it cannot come back into the house. Remind yourself that if you put something in the skip bin, you must not be that attached to it. Have the bin picked up and emptied quickly so you don't have any temptation to rethink your decision to part with old items.  

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