Project: Moving out from a 2-bed flat

What happens when you have to move out of a place, you have 4 weeks, and you have 2 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, a kitchen, a living room, storage, and more to pack up?

“Last month I was overwhelmed with the impossible task of packing up my entire life in the space of a month with the goal of getting rid of approx. 80% and fitting the remaining into a tiny 15 sqft storage locker. As a neurodivergent person I struggle with getting started on big tasks, and I am very particular about how I approach tasks, however Fran completely understood this without confusion or judgement. Fran broke things down into smaller tasks and started alongside me which made all the difference in getting momentum going, and productivity to snowball. I especially recommend Fran if you are neurodivergent, she knows how to work with my brain and not against it. She’s incredibly patient, offers consistent positive reinforcement and opts for encouragement instead of putting on pressure (which would cause me to freeze). She asked my friends to be gentle with me, acknowledging how difficult the project would be for me, and she offered emotional support and regular check-ins. Fran goes above and beyond for her clients, even finding potential buyers for some of my items - a particularly memorable example was when she found a buyer for my entire makeup collection in literally 30 seconds. She also encouraged me to reach out to friends and family for support, and practical help which turned out to be a real game changer as asking for help is something I’ve always struggled with, but really need during times like this. The project was entirely successful, I moved out on time, with the storage locker filled exactly to requirement. I couldn’t have done this without help and I haven’t hesitated to recommend Fran to several friends already - particularly my neurodiverse friends. Thanks again for everything ?”
E., 29 years old, South London

The answer is you start small!

On day 1 we decided to keep it simple and short, particularly as my client wanted to do as much as possible in her own time.

We had a walk around the flat and decided priorities over a cup of tea (my fav way to decide priorities in life, #teaislife). The top priorities were three simple tasks:

Make a list of every category of items in the flat – I strongly recommend going room by room and using a notebook with a page or two for each room.
Highlight what you will definitely need to take to the new place – there might be things you will need in the new place that you do not want to repurchase
Decide what you can part with, and what you cannot – of what’s left, there might be sentimental things that you don’t necessarily need, but want to keep

Decision time!

Day 2 is here (just a few days later)! My client did the work, and listed all of her items on her notebook. A couple of pages for each room, and we had a complete list of all things inside the flat.

We also know what’s staying. My client highlighted all the needed things and sentimental items with a highlighter (do you have a fav highlighter colour? Mine is light blue).

The next step is deciding what to do with what’s left. Priorities are as follows:

- Sell as much as possible: I suggest picking two platforms and sticking to those (eBay, Facebook Marketplace, Shpock, Vinted, Depop, CEX, etc)
- Prioritise donating to friends: there might be things in your flat that your friends like or need, take a pic and drop them a DM, maybe they can come and collect for you
- Liaise locally for donations: there are local charities that will collect furniture for you, or soup kitchens that will take any surplus food, search online!
- Recycle as much as you can: pharmacies will take expired medicines and dispose of them appropriately, local network providers will recycle old tech and mobile phones, etc.
- Anything that cannot be sold, donated, or recycled, can be binned: use local recycling and waste stations for plastic, glass, tin, paper, food waste, rubbish, etc.

We used different highlighters for the different things, so almost everything was sorted. We had a few things we weren’t sure what to do with, but no worries, I was confident we would figure that out later.

Action time!

Day 3 (the following week) was for deciding what was feasible and what wasn’t. My client’s to do list was long, and she had about 3 weeks left.

We opted for a few things to do between now and the moving date (this is not a full list, but just to give you an idea):

Online selling:
- For the following week, at least 3 days were dedicated to take pictures of sellable items (ideally when the sun was out) and list them online
- All of those listings were also shared on social amongst friends, and on various group chats to give priority to your own connections
- For the sold items, collection was planned on selected days (where possible), so that it would save her time and cause fewer disruptions to her day
Offline selling:
- Tech such as some unused charging cables, an old (but in good condition) mobile phone, and a few other things where taken to CEX to be sold
- Some old broken jewellery was taken to the local pawn shop for resale, making a bit of spare cash for last minute expenses
Donating:
- I suggested to my client to organise a ‘goodbye flat’ party with friends, so that she could sell and donate things from the comfort of her home
- Some of the food items were used for baking goods that were then shared with friends at said party (and when friends were visiting)
- Many of the food items that were still sealed and unused went to the local soup kitchen which were very grateful for the help!
- A local charity was happy to come and collect some of the furniture that was not worth selling, and freed up a lot of space in the process
Recycling:
- We enslaved… I mean engaged some friends to help with donations, as there was a charity shop and a pharmacy on the way to the station ?
Things to be kept:
- On the days she was waiting at home for item collection, she made sure to scan all documents that needed digitising
- Once all documents were scanned and filed, she dedicated one day to shred everything confidential and then recycle all the paper

Additionally, for transportation, I always find it handy to use suitcases instead of boxes where possible. They often have wheels and are easy to carry from place to place.

I know, sometimes it feels like you don’t have enough time for everything. But what matters is how you plan for the time you have. By spending the first week planning what needed to be done and prioritising accordingly, the next steps were easier. And more importantly, your focus was on what matters.

That’s why I believe that, more than being a ‘declutterer’, I am an organiser of clutter. The focus should always be on doing what is most important to you.

The kitchen before