You’ve packed up your home, managed your time on moving day and unloaded all those boxes, but now you’re surrounded by boxes and furniture that all need a place in your new home. Unpacking is one of the most time consuming and stress-filled parts of moving day. Make it a bit easier with these five unpacking tips that will have you unpacked and settled in like a pro. 
1. Create a Staging Area
Have an area for unpacking. We find it helpful to make this area part of the living room, as that’s normally the room you can worry about unpacking last. Use the unpacking staging area to sort items and collect trash and recycling.
2. Have a Plan
If you were super organized as you prepared to move you would have created a model of your new living space complete with where your furniture and other household items would go in your new home. If, however, you decided to wing it when you moved don’t worry you can quickly create a plan by walking through your new home designating which rooms will be which and who will unpack what.
3. Prioritize
Determine which rooms and which items are the most important to unpack first. We like to start with the kitchen, followed by the bathroom, bedrooms and so on until the entire house is unpacked. Unpacking the kitchen first often gets rid of a lot of boxes and it can provide an area for people to take a break from unpacking. Bathrooms in working order are just a necessity and the bedrooms while nice to be able to sleep in the first night you can always just pull mattress anywhere to sleep if you don’t get to it that first night. Figure out what makes the most sense for your family.
4. Put Away as You Unpack
Don’t open every box. Unpack one box at time, putting away all the items and then putting the box in the recycling pile in your staging area. Empty boxes left all over the place just create more clutter and opening every box at once is an easy way to keep your home disorganized for months. You don’t want that.
5. Take Your Time
It takes time to settle into a new place. Don’t rush it. Unpack slowly, making sure to put items where they belong and you’ll stay organized. Don’t feel as though you have to finish unpacking everything the first day or even the first week. Take your time. It’s not home until you can walk around in the dark without bumping into anything anyways and that normally takes at least a month.
Have you moved recently? Share your unpacking tips.
This post comes from the relocation specialists at In Order to Succeed, a professional organizing firm providing moving relocation coordination assistance and home and business organizing services.
