HOW TO MOVE LIKE A MINIMALIST? 10 MINIMALIST MOVING TIPS TO MAKE MOVING EASIER
Move like a minimalist without stress and overwhelm thanks to these helpful minimalist moving tips!
Last week, my partner and I moved from Southern France to Corsica.
We initially planned to rent a small truck to move our entire lives to the island.
However, we quickly realized that it would be too expensive and too much of a hassle to do.
While we had already decluttered the excess in our home and lived pretty minimally, we decided to minimize even more so that everything would fit into our car.
It meant that we had to be extremely intentional about what we could bring with us.
Downsizing and moving with only our car taught us many lessons, and today, I want to share my best minimalist moving tips with you.
Whether you’re moving to a smaller house and decluttering a lifetime of belongings or simply downsizing before a move, this article will help you make moving easier!
You’ll find helpful advice on how to let go of stuff when moving, how to pack for a move with intention, and overall, how to move like a minimalist.
Why you may want to move like a minimalist and need these minimalist moving tips
Moving is one of the most stressful and overwhelming things we get to experience in life.
After years, if not decades of living in the same space, we’re suddenly faced with everything we’ve ever acquired and need to do something with it.
Each item we bring is something we need to pack carefully and carry to the moving truck.
It’s also something that costs money to ship or to move.
When we arrive, we then need to unpack it and find a new spot for it in our new space.
And sometimes, things get damaged in transit, which is upsetting.
Moving with a lot of stuff is incredibly stressful and consumes a lot of our precious energy, time, and money.
This is even more true for those of us who move far away, whether it’s to the other side of the country or the world.
Becoming a minimalist has been life-changing for me for so many reasons.
One of them is that moving is SO MUCH easier.
It’s still quite difficult, but nowhere near as exhausting as a few years ago before I started living with less.
These minimalist moving tips will help make your move easier, or dare I say, easy if you’re ready to follow them and finally move like a minimalist!
Read more: 9 awesome benefits of minimalism
How to move like a minimalist? 10 minimalist moving tips to make moving easier
1. Start as early as possible to move like a minimalist
Start planning and preparing for your move months, or at least, weeks in advance.
Things always take more time than expected and moving is always more stressful and more work than anticipated.
So do yourself a favor and start early.
Make a list of everything you need to do before the big day and break down the process into small chunks.
Set a deadline for each task so that you don’t leave everything for the last minute.
If you can, do a little every day, even if it’s a tiny task like packing up a drawer or decluttering your bathroom cabinet.
If you want to move like a minimalist, start early!
It will make the process a lot less overwhelming and stressful, and you’ll be less likely to have those dreadful panic moments near the end.
What’s more, it allows you to get rid of things responsibly.
It gives you the opportunity to go through everything you own mindfully and find a new home for your unwanted items.
Plus, it allows you to choose what you want to bring with you on this next chapter of your life.
When we leave things for the last minute, we usually don’t have the time or energy to pick things with intention.
We often end up shoving everything into boxes, including things we don’t actually want anymore.
2. Visualize your new space and how you want to live in it
While preparing for your move, regularly visualize your new space and think about the way you’d like to live there.
How do you want to live exactly?
Doing so will help you understand better what your new lifestyle will look like and thus, what you will need in your home.
For instance, if you currently have two couches, you may not have enough space for them in your new space.
Similarly, your decor preferences may have changed since your last move so there is no need to bring all the pieces you no longer love.
With each move, we’re entering a new season of our lives and not everything from the past belongs there.
It’s best to leave old, unwanted things (including items, lifestyles, and habits) behind and open space for our new lives and what they have to offer.
Visualizing your space may also motivate you to keep going whenever you’re lacking motivation while preparing for your move.
3. Decluttering before moving to move like a minimalist
This is one of my favorite minimalist moving tips!
Moving out of a house or an apartment is truly the only time when most of us have the chance to look through everything we own.
So take advantage of that and go through each closet, each drawer, and each cupboard in your house.
There is no sense in moving things that no longer serve us.
Each item we bring requires us to spend our precious time, energy, and money to move it.
We have to pack it properly so that it doesn’t get damaged, carry it to the moving truck, and on the other end, unpack it and find a new home for it.
Not to mention that we need to continue maintaining it and taking care of it in the future.
So for each item, ask yourself this question: is it worth the hassle of moving it?
Some items may bring you joy and provide value in your life while others may no longer serve you.
Lighten your load and declutter as many of those unneeded items as you can.
Don’t bring anything that you don’t love, need, or use.
Also, consider digitizing as much paperwork as you can and then, recycle it.
Use up consumable products such as pantry items and skincare products, and give away the rest to a shelter or friends and family.
Read more:
4. Long-distance moves
If you’re moving cross-country, internationally, or simply far from where you live right now, ask yourself whether it’s worth bringing your furniture and other large items with you.
Moving furniture is incredibly expensive, especially over long distances.
So depending on its value, it might not be worth it to bring it with you.
When we moved last week, we had to bring everything we had on a ferry.
Bringing our furniture with us would have cost so much more money than repurchasing everything from scratch at the destination.
In our case, it wasn’t worth moving with it!
It’s important to remember that you have a choice, and you can decide to move like a minimalist.
If your move becomes outrageously expensive because of all your furniture, know that you can leave it behind if you want to.
You can sell it and use that money to repurchase new (or second-hand) pieces when you arrive.
In some cases though, moving with your furniture can be worth it.
For instance, if you invested and bought some expensive pieces or if you are sentimentally attached to them, you may prefer to keep them.
Another option is to keep some of the pieces and get rid of others.
That way, you will be able to opt for a smaller moving truck, which will reduce your moving costs.
5. Minimalist packing supplies
Let’s be honest, packing supplies can be expensive and we only use them once before we no longer need them.
They’re also usually not sustainable and create unnecessary waste.
To move like a minimalist, know that you don’t have to buy wasteful, expensive packing supplies like bubble wrap or cardboard boxes.
Instead, ask local businesses for free boxes.
Most will be happy to give them to you!
To protect your dishes and other fragile items, use your clothes, towels, and other home textiles.
During our move, we used t-shirts and socks to wrap things in the kitchen, a rug to protect our TV, and my bathrobe to wrap our printer.
Nothing got damaged or broken.
Using what you already have as packing supplies will help you save space.
Indeed, you’ll be using something you’re bringing with you anyway instead of adding bubble wrap to the volume of things you’re moving.
And you’ll get to save a lot of money and be more sustainable in the process!
6. Organize things by categories as you pack to move like a minimalist
One of the best minimalist moving tips is to organize your items by categories as you pack them into boxes.
For instance, pack all your kitchen stuff together, all your bathroom products in the same box, and all your kids’ clothes in the same suitcase.
That way, you’ll be able to know where to put each box, each suitcase, and each bag as you take things out of the truck or the car.
Things will go directly to the right room, which will save you time later.
It will also make finding things and organizing them in the new space so much easier.
Don’t forget to label all the boxes so that you know what’s in them and where they should go!
7. Get the whole family involved
If you’re moving with other people like your spouse and your kids, get everyone involved if possible.
You don’t have to do everything alone.
You shouldn’t, otherwise you’ll get burned out and overwhelmed.
If your kids are old enough, ask them to declutter their toys and knick-knacks.
Of course, you may need to help them if you see that they’re struggling or if they want to keep everything.
Doing so will also help them learn that precious skill.
Also, ask them to pack all their items into boxes and suitcases so that you don’t have to do the entire house.
Even if they do a little, that’s still something!
Read more:
8. Ask for help to move like a minimalist
As moving day approaches, ask as many friends and family members as possible if they can come and help you on the big day.
Loading a moving truck, or even just a car, is really time and energy-consuming.
So don’t be afraid to ask for help.
The more people come, the better!
Even if you’re moving like a minimalist and don’t have that much stuff, asking for help will make everything so much quicker, easier, and less tiring.
If you have the means to, you might also want to hire movers, even if it’s just for a couple of hours.
Professional movers are super efficient and quick at loading things into a truck.
So it will help you reduce stress and make everything so much easier and faster!
This is particularly helpful if you have no one who can come and help take care of your kids on moving day.
9. Take your time to unpack on the other end
Have you heard of the packing party?
Well, you can now do it in real life as everything you own is boxed up!
When you arrive at your destination and all your boxes are in the right rooms, don’t unpack everything at once.
Instead, take advantage of the fact that everything is out of sight to truly see what you need and want.
Only unpack things as you need or want them.
For instance, you may first need to unpack some of your clothes, your bathroom essentials, your kids’ favorite toys, and your kitchen stuff.
Then, you may realize that you’d like to unpack some of your decor to make your new space feel like home.
And so on until you feel like nothing is missing to live your life comfortably.
Only then, open the remaining boxes and suitcases and reassess what is left.
Consider letting everything go.
Of course, check each item to make sure you don’t end up getting rid of something you still really want.
But remember that you haven’t pulled out those items for a reason.
Maybe they don’t add much value to your life after all.
Or maybe they do, and in that case, find them a home in your new space.
You get to decide, but try to be intentional with what you keep!
You may also see that some of the items you brought don’t fit in your new space.
Declutter those as well.
10. Form new minimalist habits going forward
One of the best minimalist moving tips that is rarely talked about is to use the move as a blank slate to form new minimalist habits.
Now that you are starting fresh with fewer things, commit not to accumulate useless clutter anymore.
Don’t go shopping whenever you feel bored, and buy things with intention when you need them.
Avoid keeping things just in case going forward and go through your belongings every few months to keep things simple in your home.
Overall, try to cultivate a minimalist home that feels light and airy, a space where you feel good and calm.
Acknowledge that you’re in a new season of your life and that things and habits from past seasons may no longer be beneficial to you and the life you want to live.
Read more: 20 lazy habits for a clutter-free home
Final thoughts on minimalist moving tips & how to move like a minimalist
I hope you found this article about how to move like a minimalist helpful and that it helped make your relocation easier and less overwhelming.
These minimalist moving tips should make the process less stressful whether you’re moving to another house in your city or moving across the country with your family.
If you liked this post, you might want to read the following ones too:
· How to pack like a minimalist?
· 10 ways to practice minimalism every day
· 8 simple tips to maintain minimalism in your home
What are your favorite minimalist moving tips?
Please share your hacks in a comment!
Don’t forget to share this blog post with your friends so that they too can learn how to be minimalist when moving and make the process easier.
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