Why my 17th “moving day” will be my best

If my memory is accurate, I’ve changed residences sixteen times. I should be an expert at it by now. Instead, of all the recurring events in my life, moving day is probably the one I dread the most.

I’ve had loved ones wait for hours while I scrambled to finish cleaning up on the last day or get into brutal arguments with me after they made the mistake of volunteering to help. I’ve paid companies hundreds of dollars to take stuff I couldn’t get rid of in time. And yet every time I move, I seem to leave with more than I started with, half of which never left the boxes it arrived in.

I’m about to move again. Only this time, I actually feel optimistic. One by one, I’ve looked at each of the mistakes I’ve made in the past and come up with a better alternative.

Test drive before you buy

As if moving out of my current place wasn’t hard enough, I have the added challenge of not yet having a place to move to. But this time, I’ve removed a lot of the guess work.

A couple of months ago, I wrote about the experiment in which I stayed at a couple of Airbnb’s to give me a feel for what it would be like to live in different neighborhoods. That experiment was a success: the first neighborhood was so-so, but I loved the second one. This eliminates one big decision: now I just need to find a place I like in that part of town.

Plan around stress

Whenever I decide to move, I begin to worry about all of the things that could go wrong. What if I’m not ready in time for the movers? What if I don’t find my new home in time? What if I find a place too soon and have to pay for two residences at once? What if I don’t find a way to sell, donate, or safely dispose of the things I no longer want?

My solution: plan for multiple outcomes. I gave myself two moving deadlines: an ambitious one and a “drop-dead” one. I have plans for when and how I’m going to look for a new place, as well as places to stay temporarily if I don’t find a home by moving day. And I’ve found a packing strategy that gives me a good chance of leaving with less stuff without having to sweat it so much if I have to keep more than I’d hoped.

Follow the 80-20 rule

It may be one of the most overused concepts in personal productivity advice, but the “80-20 rule” still holds up. It has different versions, but the one I subscribe to is that for a given task, 80% of the total results will come from 20% of the total effort (and, conversely, it will take 80% of the effort to accomplish the remaining 20%).

In the physical sense, about 80% of my space is taken up by about 20% my possessions. I’m much better off dealing with the big stuff first, like furniture and appliances; and saving the tiny stuff like papers and photographs for later. In the emotional sense, I know I’ll spend 80% of my time struggling to part with mementos and other objects that hold personal meaning, so I set those aside while I tackled the rest.

By following this approach, I’ve managed to go through almost everything I don’t need on a day-to-day basis, and I’ve already cut my memento boxes in half. I’ve also disposed of loads of trash and recyclables.

Then there’s the matter of where I put everything so I’m not climbing over boxes until moving day.

Designate a place for everything

In my garage, I have three large, wooden pallets. I’m using each one for a different purpose. The one in the back is for things that are ready to move. The one in the middle is for things I want to process. The one in front is for things I’m ready to get rid of either through sale, donation, or specialty disposal services like e-waste and paper shredding.

Every time I add something to the “ready to go” pallet, I feel a small rush, knowing I don’t have to think about it again until I unload it from the moving truck. Every time I add something to the “get rid of” pallet, I feel even better because I know it’s going to find a new home that isn’t mine! Meanwhile, the to-be-processed pallet keeps getting emptier.

I still have a lot left to go through, but at this point, even if I run out of time and have to keep the rest, I feel like I’ve already won.

I’m almost ready

I now know when I’m going to move: about halfway between my “ambitious” moving day and the “drop-dead” date, give or take a week. I could probably finish in time for the earlier date, but I decided to give myself a little more breathing room so I can split my time between preparing to move and enjoying my final days in this city. I’m proud of the progress I’ve made and I know that even if things don’t go as well as I hope they will between now and my move, I have other options to fall back on.

Now, as I begin to count the days until moving day, instead of being filled with dread, I’m actually starting to get excited!