Organizing A Move – Tips for unpacking

I’m working with a client whose family has just moved from a large, spacious house into a decent size New York apartment.  As we are tackling the unpacking chores, I can see how easy it is to become overwhelmed by all the decisions that need to be made concerning the best storage location for everything from clothing to sporting goods, especially when you don’t have a NYC professional organizer on the scene!

Here are some tips that I’ve developed through my work as a professional organizer in NYC over the years that will help facilitate unpacking the next time you move.

1.  This is the time to stay very focused…even though there are many distractions.  I have stressed the importance of gathering all of the items together that don’t belong in an area and re-distributing them all at one time instead of piecemeal.

2.  In addition, before determining the best location for a specific item in a given room I sorted all of the items and grouped like with like.  For instance, in the kitchen, I grouped all of the grocery items together and divided them by category so that I could determine the amount of shelf space required.  Once this was done, I then placed the items on the shelves based on frequency of use.

3.  We have been using containers in setting up the closets so that less frequently used items or seasonal items can be easily located when needed. To begin with, we have been re-purposing existing containers. As this apartment has a tremendous walk-in closet, we will be buying containers so that we can better organize the winter sweaters and other clothing stored on the shelves.

4.  We have worked on one area at a time and completed the unpacking so that my client and her family will feel more settled.  The space starts to feel much more like home as the number of boxes decreases.