Less is more when moving your household. Consider having a garage or yard sale first. Get rid of things you don’t need or use. No need to move things you don’t need!

A good rule of thumb for clothing is if you haven’t worn it in a year (or you can stretch it to two) out it goes. Go through your kitchen cabinets with the same precision. Only in the kitchen, I’d stretch it to a five year span. If you haven’t used a turkey platter in five years, well you don’t need it. Out it goes.

Go through the rest of your home too. Go through drawers and closets and clean out all that is just hanging around. Sell it at a cheap price at your garage sale. Remember, you want this stuff gone!

Anything that’s left over, well, just call your local charity and they’ll come take care of it for you.

Go ahead and think about furniture too. Will that huge buffet fit in the new place? If not, sell it. Try craigslist. If it doesn’t go, gift it to a relative or a charity.

With all the extra stuff gone you’ll now have less left to pack up.

Pack a room at a time. Don’t mix kitchen utensils with books and knick knacks or you’ll never find anything when you unload!

Unless you’ve got grandmother’s crystal stemware, you can probably forgo bubble wrap. Instead use your linens, dish towels, bath towels and the like to fold delicate china in. Plates go very well inside folded towels.

When it comes time to obtain moving boxes you have a few choices. You can scrounge around the back side of the local grocer, or liqour store. You can bring home Xerox paper boxes from the office or you can go to a box store. Some packing stores even carry used boxes. Think green when finding your packing supplies.

After you move. Offer your used boxes up on a local bulletin board. Someone else will be glad to have them.

Recycling your moving boxes is a good thing.