moving to new home

[Tom.9]

Within december, I have to move to a new home (in the same village).
For now, I am checking the moving agencies hoping they will transport all content of the old home to the new one.
But there is a lot of unprocessed / out of date stuff around, mainly in the basement. With Christmas coming, a family event next weekend and major work-related changes a forknight ahead, I feel somewhat overwhelmed.
Any help focussing on the real important things welcome (I tried the forum search briefly without succeeding, but I don´t want to fall into unproductive websurfing).

 

[sholden]

David Allen described a time a while back when he was writing a book, moving, running the business, consulting, etc. I think he called it a daily dashboard that was depicted in a mind map. This idea stuck with me, and that is what I have on my work computer -- Dashboard Mindmap (using MindJet/Corel's MindManager) that covers all the main things that are on my mind. I still have them all in my external brain (in Outlook) but I look at the mind map several times a day to keep me on track.

 

[kelstarrising]

I'm in the middle of a big move myself and I write daily punch lists (on paper that sits out on my desk that we can both see) of must handle items/high priorities over the next few days, that are culled from my lists and calendar. My husband and I go over this list just about every day, given how fast things are moving.

 

[TesTeq]

For now, I am checking the moving agencies hoping they will transport all content of the old home to the new one.
But there is a lot of unprocessed / out of date stuff around, mainly in the basement. With Christmas coming, a family event next weekend and major work-related changes a forknight ahead, I feel somewhat overwhelmed.
Any help focussing on the real important things welcome (I tried the forum search briefly without succeeding, but I don´t want to fall into unproductive websurfing).

1. My recommendation for uncluttering is "It's All Too Much" by Peter Walsh. More practical than Marie Kondo's "life-changing magic of tidying up".
2. If you can quickly get rid of something do it ASAP. Every box counts. And it's not "all or nothing". It's "less is better than more".
3. Move stuff from the basement to the basement and then treat it as a backlog to process according to the functions defined for each room (as described in Peter Walsh'es book).

 

[mcogilvie]

Within december, I have to move to a new home (in the same village).
For now, I am checking the moving agencies hoping they will transport all content of the old home to the new one.
But there is a lot of unprocessed / out of date stuff around, mainly in the basement. With Christmas coming, a family event next weekend and major work-related changes a forknight ahead, I feel somewhat overwhelmed.
Any help focussing on the real important things welcome (I tried the forum search briefly without succeeding, but I don´t want to fall into unproductive websurfing).

We are in the middle of a major kitchen rehab which required moving everything out of our kitchen and setting up a “kitchenette” in our family room with a microwave and hot plate. We identified key kitchen utensils and foods which we could prepare, triaged a fair bit of the pantry, and packed most everything else. We bought a good quantity of disposable plasticware and paper goods, although we have been able to reuse most of the plastic stuff so far. A key step early on was a crude estimate of how many boxes we would need, and how long it would take to pack. We were close enough to get it done on time.

We did this just before Thanksgiving.We usually help out with the cooking for my mother in law, who is 89, by cooking a second turkey and extra dressing, as well as a vegetarian entree and meat loaf for Friday night. She had 35 family members for Thanksgiving. A family decision was made to buy prepared food for all dinners.

This past Tuesday my daughter-in-law gave birth to a third daughter, so my wife left town to help with care for the older siblings (2 & 4). I’m conferring with her by phone on some unforeseen kitchen issues.

This is all good and happy stuff. Can it cause stress? You bet! But busy with happy stuff should be happy, so we need to find ways to keep happy. This means compromises. I didn’t go with my wife because her work schedule allowed her to go, but mine didn’t. I’ll see my new granddaughter for the first time later in December. I’m eating complete junk while she’s gone, because it’s hard to prepare nutritious meals now. (Pro tip: a raw vegetable party platter is the easiest way to get fresh vegetables with no cooking and no prep.) For the first time, we didn’t cook our own Thanksgiving dinner, but we did celebrate with many family members from all over the country. I get baby pictures even if I don’t get to hold the baby. GTD is of course an important tool for handling everything, but by itself it is rather neutral to moods and feelings. If you’re good at GTD, you can do it while sad too. Good luck!

 

[Oogiem]

But there is a lot of unprocessed / out of date stuff around, mainly in the basement. With Christmas coming, a family event next weekend and major work-related changes a forknight ahead, I feel somewhat overwhelmed.
Any help focussing on the real important things welcome

My last move was 18 years ago but it took 6 months to accomplish due to the logistics of moving animals. My info is probably out of date but might spark some ideas for you. These are the things I wish I had done when we moved.

Sort out the must have within the first 30 days stuff and make sure it gets separated and packed and identified easily.

Rather than have a service come pack for you take the time to do it yourself. You will do a better job and can do at least some weeding out as you go. Trash is obvious but there might be a few things youc an dump easily. If you can do so.

OTOH don't go overboard and get so tired and frustrated that you just get rid of it all. That way will result in you losing something special that cannot be replaced or feeling bad about the choices you made for a long time.

Unsorted/un rocessed/out of date etc. stuff can overwhelm you and take too much time to sort and pack properly before the move. Do what you can but for the rest attempt to sort into large categories and then box it in groups and call it backlog. But don't do what I did, then forget/ignore the backlog for a long time. Have a plan to handle 1 box a week or maybe 2-3 per week until it is all processed.

As you unpack create the inventory of stuff for an update for your house insurance. It's a lot easier as you unpack to figure out what you have and cocument it than it is to go back and do it later.

 

[Tom.9]

David Allen described a time a while back when he was writing a book, moving, running the business, consulting, etc. I think he called it a daily dashboard that was depicted in a mind map. This idea stuck with me, and that is what I have on my work computer -- Dashboard Mindmap (using MindJet/Corel's MindManager) that covers all the main things that are on my mind. I still have them all in my external brain (in Outlook) but I look at the mind map several times a day to keep me on track.

For now I´ve searched a quick software-based solution (FreeMind) and it is making a difference! Thank you @sholden!
@TesTeq: I´d love to read the book you recomended, but for now it goes to someday/maybe.
@Oogiem: Thanks for the input; I´ll see what I can incorporate from it while beeing very busy.
Thanks @all!