In the past 8 years or so I’ve moved more than 10 times. Now before you think I’m some flighty flake, most of those moves were during college and graduate school- where I never lived anywhere longer than a year. In all those moves, I’ve learned a lot of lessons about how to make your move as smooth and organized as possible. These are my top tips!

1. Don’t pay for boxes

I’ve only recently settled down my roots in my permanent home. The past 8 years or so I’ve moved a lot- through college, graduate school, moving in with my boyfriend, and finally, moving into my house. And I’ve never paid for boxes. Not one cent.

Instead, I look for free boxes on craigslist. Someone will always have recently moved to your area and want to get the boxes off their hands. Alternately, once you’ve finished unpacking, you can list your boxes on craigslist and have someone come pick them up and get rid of them for you.

Get boxes for free, and give them away for free and avoid ALL the hassle. It’s really the best way to move.

2. Pack by thinking about unpacking

It’s easy to get into a frenzy of just throwing things into boxes with other similar things. I like to think about unpacking before I even start packing. Your move will go so much easier if you plan by unpacking.

Instead of putting all your books in one box, put your textbooks in a box for your office and your novels in a book for you living room, for example. That way, when you move in, instead of moving things from room to room, you will just unpack each box in its own room.

And leave your clothes on the hangers. Seriously- it’s such a waste to take them off when packing and put them on when unpacking. I usually just lay mine flat in a huge duffel bag and it has always worked so well for me.

Before you start packing a box, think about what room that box will go in.

3. Label, label, label

What’s the point of organized packing if you don’t know what’s in the box? Label, and do it right away.

Seriously, your steps should be: pack, seal, LABEL. If you don’t do it right away you might forget what is in the box. Having a sharpie and masking tape around to label each box is so much more useful than you know.

I like to use two labels: one that says what room the box should go in, and one that summarizes what is in the box. So that way I know not to stack the box of novelty mugs on top of the box of my grandmother’s china. You don’t want to mess around with the irreplaceable stuff, which is another good reason to label.

Over-labeling is preferable to under-labeling. Go nuts!

4. Temporary storage will save you a lot of headaches

Unless you are one of the lucky few whose leases or closings line up perfectly, you might find yourself in a temporary living situation. You could move all your stuff into your temporary place, and then move it again to your next home, but that is a lot of work.

Instead, use temporary storage places. My favorite are the ones that will deliver a portable storage unit to you, you fill it, they store it, and then deliver it to your new place when you’re ready. I’ve made the mistake of not doing this before, and it is a real pain.

Why move twice when you can move once? Use portable storage units.

5. Furniture rental services are totally worth it

You COULD move all your furniture into your temporary place and then move it again into your new place… but that is just so much more work than necessary. Furniture rental is by far a better option.

Going hand in hand with using portable storage units is finding a way to furnish your temporary living situation. I can tell you first hand that CORT Furniture Rental is an amazing service who I am a big fan of. Their furniture is really great quality and affordable, and they have what you need for any sort of temporary living situation. They make it so convenient and easy.

Save yourself the headache and rent furniture when you move!

Good luck with your move, and I hope these tips help you stay organized!

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Feeling overwhelmed with organizing? Then you’ve come to the right place. I’m pretty good at keeping our home organized. It’s something that comes naturally. I put this list together for the more organization-challenged. These simple tips will help you think like an organizer.

If you haven’t quite figured out how to keep your home organized, start here. These basic tips will help you set up a system that works for you.

1. Know what you have

The whole point of organizing is knowing where you keep things. Before you do this, you need to know what you have. Lars is notorious for placing things in weird inconvenient places like the back of the coat closet and then when we are looking for it we can never find it and end up buying a replacement. Then about two months later when I’m organizing the coat closet I find the original thing I was looking for. It’s really a pain.

So take an inventory of your things. You don’t have to do this all at once, obviously. Try it gradually, maybe working on one room a week, and make note of the random things you have put away in odd places. Once you know what you have you can find a place for them.

2. Clean out your possessions regularly

When you are working on figuring out your inventory, it’s time to declutter. Get rid of excessive things, things you don’t use, and things you don’t need. This is easier said than done. A home with less clutter is much easier to organize.

I have a bin in the closet just for giveaway. Whenever I am organizing or tidying up and find things we don’t need or use I stick them in there. When it piles up we donate everything in the bin to Salvation Army or Purple Heart. Chances are you don’t need a lot of the things you have. You’ll be happy to be rid of them.

3. Keep clutter out of sight

I wrote a whole post on the secret to an organized home. The secret is to have a place for everything, that place being a bin or box or basket. If you are a lazy organizer, just keep everything in bins. All you have to do is literally throw them in the bin. And voila, you’ve got a decluttered and organized room.

The more organizing tendencies you have, the more useful you can make it. Keep things in boxes with other things in the same category. That will make it easier to find. Don’t remember where you put the glue away? Well, it has to be in the craft bin! That’s where craft supplies go. It’s as simple as that.

4. Keep function in mind

Before you implement an organizing system, think about using it in your everyday life. Will it be complicated and difficult for you? I keep my dress shoes on the top shelf of our closet. This works fine, because I only wear them each about once a month. My regular daily sandals I keep on a mat by the door or in a basket under the bench by the foot of our bed. Easy access.

So, moral of the story: don’t keep things you use regularly in a place that’s hard to reach, and don’t keep things you use rarely in a prime easy location. If it makes sense and it’s convenient, you will actually keep things organized. If it’s inconvenient you will never put anything away.

5. Make use of all space

Don’t let any space go to waste. The space above a door? Great spot for a shelf. Under the bed? One of my favorite storage spaces. Closet system doesn’t work for your wardrobe? Customize it.

All the best organizing solutions give you a new way to use a place you didn’t think of using. Over the door hooks, cabinet doors, the top of your closet, above the door, hanging above the sink, what have you. So look around at all the empty space in your home and think of whether you can use it. Chances are, you can.

So, now that you’ve got the tips- get organizing!

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One of the awesome features of our apartment is a huge closet in the living room. It constitutes the majority of our random storage.

In the past few months I’ve really let it get out of order. Which means it’s time for a new fun project: reorganizing the big closet!

How did I let it get to this point?

First things first- we had to take everything out of the closet that wasn’t working. So that constituted the majority of the stuff in there. Pretty much everything but the boxes on the middle shelf. That way I could get an idea of everything that needed to go back in the closet and figure out a logical place for it.

Everything out of the closet

We ended up lowering the shelf with the linens on it so we could stack some smaller boxes on the left. When I had originally picked them out I had measured the boxes and thought they would fit there, but I didn’t account for the space the shelf brackets took up. Lowering the shelf gave just enough room for those boxes to fit.

After reconfiguring the shelves, the next thing to do was figure out general categories for all the stuff. Some things are easy- tools, cosmetics, linens, etc. Other things are harder, like bike helmets, heating pads, and a crock pot that I was trying really hard to fit into a basket that was too small for it. I was eventually able to split everything into general categories.

It’s always good to clean out big closets like this at least twice a year because you always end up stuffing things in there that you don’t know where to put. So we were able to put a bunch of the things we didn’t need anymore into our donation bin (which we keep in the guest room closet).

And the best part is- there is more empty space! So I can reconfigure some things in the rest of the apartment if I need to.

The key to keeping a closet like this tidy is having everything in boxes and bins. The loose items were what caused the mess before. And the bins make it easier to locate things, because similar items are grouped together.

So there you go! We cleaned up the mess in the big closet. The whole thing took less than an hour. It still isn’t perfect, so until I get a few more bins and boxes, it will do.

What is your favorite organizing tip? Let me know in the comments!

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