One of the main roles we play when planning a client’s move is helping our them sort their belongings so they can decide what to move to their new home and what to sell, donate, give away, or discard. We call these sessions (surprise, surprise) sorting sessions.
Some clients need just a few sorting sessions, some need many. It really depends on two things: how quickly they make decisions, and how much “stuff” they have tucked away in their home that needs to be sorted.
I use the word stuff to differentiate these items from furniture. Decisions about which furniture to bring are made when we prepare a floor-plan of the new home (discussed in this previous blog post). The “stuff” is everything else: clothes, books, kitchenware, decorative items, photos, files, and anything else filling the drawers, closets, basements and attics of a home.
We schedule sorting sessions to fit our client’s move schedule. If they are moving in a few weeks, sometimes we have to schedule a lot of sessions in a short period of time. But if they are moving months later, or don’t have a move date scheduled yet, the sessions can be spaced out. Each session is at least four hours long, but typically not much longer than four hours.
At the start of each session, we select an area to work on. We always try to set realistic goals. If you aim to take on too much at one time it can be exhausting and discouraging. We often suggest to our clients that we start with areas that will be easiest for them – in other words, stuff you don’t care all that much about. If a client is an avid reader and has a huge book collection, we may suggest starting with something else, like clothes. If they never cook, we may suggest starting with their kitchenware.
Sorting is an exercise that isn’t familiar to most people. It can feel awkward and overwhelming at first. So if you start with things that are not incredibly important to you, you can get into the habit and get more comfortable with the process before you tackle the stuff you really care about.
Once we have decided where we will sort, we go to that part of the apartment and try to stay there for the duration of our session. We help our client get comfortable on a nice chair or sofa and then we start lining up objects for them to see. This may involve pulling things out of a closet and placing them up on a coffee table, right in front of our client, so they can make decisions about what is important to them.
As they decide, we pack up things they want to donate, or we make a pile of things they want to give away. The things they want to keep we put right back where it came from, so it’s ready to be packed by the movers.
There really isn’t a short cut to this process, I’m afraid. There’s no magic wand we can wave to make all the sorting just happen without any effort because everything in a client’s home is something they have chosen and, thus, something with meaning to them. So everything needs (and deserves) to be looked at, to be touched briefly or held, and to be considered. Only then can a client make a good decision about it.
We often get resistance to the process. “I can’t possibly get rid of any of my books” or “There is nothing in this closet I don’t need” are things we hear a lot, at first. But once we get into the work, most clients are able to let go of a lot of their things.
The best thing about this process is that we have solutions for the things our clients aren’t keeping. A lot of people (rightfully so) get upset if they think their possessions are going to go into the landfill. Our staff knows that there is a lot that can be donated, and some things that can be sold. The landfill is our last option.
It’s been very satisfying to see how happy our clients are once they have done some downsizing. This includes the ones who were most reluctant at first. Most often, it allows them to appreciate the items they kept that much more.
Sometimes clients tell us it feels like their things are new again. And we almost never hear anyone regret parting with something. Usually they feel like a weight has been lifted. I used to be amazed by this but I now realize that most people don’t want a lot of clutter in their lives and really want to shed things. They just haven’t taken the time or invested the money into hiring a company like ours to take them through the process.
