Before the Home Purge - Unpacking and Organizeing

We all have random skills in life, anything from juggling to memorizing song lyrics. One of mine, is unpacking. Specifically, unpacking moving boxes. The last time I moved, several years ago, I unpacked my entire one-bedroom apartment in a day.  After my piece a couple weeks ago on how to curate your library, one of my best friends asked me for some advice on how to unpack and organize her stuff. And, if you are Marie Kondo-ing your place, you’re going to need to open those random storage boxes to see what’s in there. So here are a few tips on how to unpack, organize, and, if necessary, get rid of stuff.

Break the process into manageable chunks

We’ve all looked at a giant pile of boxes and been overwhelmed by the sheer amount of stuff that needs to get done. But don’t need to do all or even most of your boxes. Just do one box/suitcase. You can do one. And one box isn’t overwhelming at all. So don’t worry about the whole just look at a single piece, which you can totally do. 

Make it fun

Unpacking/organizing is work, even for people like me who enjoy it. Therefore, it’s important to make the process fun. The main ways I do that is blasting music. I have a playlist for basically everything, including ones for inane office tasks, writing, and, of course, unpacking and organizing stuff. You can also drink while unpacking or sorting – I’ll often have a glass of wine when I reorganize my bookcases. There is also bribing yourself, like promising yourself that you get ice cream if you finish a project, or an uninterrupted night of Netflix.

Don’t worry about the steps ahead

It’s easy to psych yourself out with “I can’t unpack this box because I don’t know where to store these knickknacks” or “but what if I need to move this stuff later?” That kind of thinking will just paralyze you. The process is a sequence. Step one. Unpack a box. Step 2. Decide what to keep. Step 3. Determine where to store. Step 3 can’t happen without step 1. Jumping around mentally, while totally normal, is massively counterproductive. This isn’t to say that it’s great to leave things in piles on the floor indefinitely. But most of us are more motivated to clean up a pile of inconvenient stuff than unpack a box, because it’s easier to ignore or forget about stuff when it’s packed away. Hence the importance of taking this all one step at a time

Keep What You Want

Marie Kondo is all about keeping what “brings you joy” and my addendum is “regardless of what other people or even you think should bring you joy. I started a rock collection when I was in kindergarten and I not only kept it over the years, but a few years ago sorted through and shipped most of it across the US to where I now live. That’s right, I shipped rocks I collected as a five-year-old 3,000 miles because they were and are still important to me. And I have zero regrets about that. So don’t feel bound by what other people say it makes sense to keep, or what you think is the “correct” thing to own. Only you know what actually brings you joy, and your opinion really matters in this.

Remember You Got This

Unpacking, organizing, and getting rid of stuff, is work. Often stressful and overwhelming work, even with an awesome playlist, and even when you enjoy it like me. But, like so much of life, it’s important to remember you got this. Because even if it can be a slow and sucky process, and you might need some help sometimes, you’ve totally got this.