It’s moving day – how do I begin to unpack?

Today is moving day and you are feeling completely overwhelmed. You have no idea where or how to start. Here are some tips to help.

Boxes that contain essentials, things you need right away, should be unpacked as soon as possible. Hopefully, you have packed your daily medications, some tools for furniture assembly, a knife to open boxes, recycle bin for opened boxes, cleaning supplies and a whole lot of patience and energy. You will need all of these to make it through the day.

Kitchen utensils, dishes, pots and pans should be unpacked after the essentials. You will need them if you want to eat anything other than carry out food over the next day or two. A coffee pot, toaster and other small appliances make life easier. If you are planning to line the kitchen cabinets, do it now before you put everything away.

Bed linens, towels, hair dryers and grooming products are essential for daily life as well, and should come after the kitchen items. Just like in the kitchen, if you are lining the closet shelves, do this before putting items away. If you do not do it now, either you will never do it, or you will have to take everything back out to put in the liners.

Organize one room at a time and your task will go more smoothly. You can get distracted if you go from room to room and you might begin to feel lost in the process.

Plan out how you are going to arrange the furniture before you start moving heavy pieces. It’s going to be a very long day, don’t burn out now. Leave boxes alone until the room is arranged the way you want it. Once the furniture is in place, unpacking the boxes is a lot easier.

While it’s not a critical job, hang pictures fairly early in your unpacking. The new place will start to feel more comfortable as soon as you have your belongings on display. Wait until the major pieces of furniture are in place so you can see what spots on the walls are available. Leaving photos and artwork piled up while you wait to figure out where it will look best can lead to having things sitting around for months. Decide where they will go, and hang the pictures while you have momentum.

Try as best as you can to leave the television, computer and other distractions turned off for as long as possible. They can become a stumbling block to your plans, take attention away from the task at hand and leave you behind schedule.

Get to the rest of the boxes and other items as quickly as possible. The sooner you unpack, the sooner you can go on with your life. Make sure you have a place to put everything away to reduce future clutter.

You may feel like you are stuck in limbo and that you don’t know where anything is, causing emotional strain. Stop and take a deep breath when you need it. Moving day is a very stressful time for just about everyone.

If you or someone you know has moved weeks (or months) ago and still have unpacked boxes, it may be time to ask for help. When you are overwhelmed and do not know where to start, the clutter can begin to snowball. Please get in touch with Aim 4 Order and I can offer you help to get organized.