The 'moving out' decluttering method is essentially asking you to imagine you're moving house and you're taking everything you currently own somewhere else.
From the get-go, that feels overwhelming, right? But, not if you break it down and give yourself the time to declutter, considering whether you'd want to pack certain items up, move them, and unpack them someplace else.
The beauty of the 'moving out' method is that you're not actually moving out. So, you've got the much-needed time to work through your home without a deadline, always keeping the idea that if you were packing up cluttered areas in your home into boxes, what would you actually want to keep?
When I first heard about this method, it reminded me of Swedish death cleaning, but the 'moving out' method felt a little less morbid and a little more hopeful. So, I decided to give it a try.
How the 'moving out' method works
As I briefly explained, the 'moving out' decluttering method wants you to reframe your mind. What would you want to move with you if you were packing up boxes? You're tasked with considering your belongings and thinking, if I didn't move with these things, would I even care?
If the answer is no, you'll be able to tell yourself it's time to donate these items or throw them away. If you want to take it one step further, you can grab some boxes and clear entire cluttered spaces out and sort them into boxes as if you were actually moving. Organizing the piles for storage, donation or getting rid.
If you look at items and think to yourself: "I don't want to pack this up" then you can leave it behind. Then, if you do eventually move, you've done a lot of the hard work already.
Here's what happened when I tried it
Luckily, I discovered the 'moving out' decluttering method in the months leading up to my own big move and getting a head start on it made all the difference. But, you definitely don't need to be moving for this method to help you, it just meant that once I packed a box up, I could keep it that way.
Once I'd channelled the mindset, it became increasingly easy to look at the things I owned and feel almost embarrassed at the idea of packing some of these things up. Like, why do I have so many leftover shopping bags? Because there's a cupboard where I can hide them all and nobody asks me what they're doing there.
If I'm packing all those shopping bags into a box, I'm asking myself, is it really necessary? Do I need to move these someplace new and find somewhere entirely new to store them? It's easy to become complacent with the way you live when no-one's asking you to pull it all out and reassess it. So, pull it all out, grab some boxes, and pretend.
What I will say about the 'moving out' method is that it's a constant battle with the question "what if...?" or "just in case". It is so much easier to accumulate things when you're staying in one place for a long time. If you don't have any intention of moving, it can be hard not to just keep something because no-one's asking you to pack it up and move.
For me, I was moving, so it made a lot of sense. But, if I tried to recreate the same mindset now that I've actually moved, I'd say it's become a lot harder, but not impossible. As long as I gave myself targeted areas rather than thinking about packing up the whole house (because I haven't gotten over the stress of doing that yet), it's a really helpful method that I'd recommend anyone giving a try.
