Clearing out the cupboard, attic or storage room: sort, keep, sell or discard
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by Verpakkingdeals.nl
6 min reading time
Emptying a full closet or attic without stopping halfway: work with four piles, store dry and labeled, and prepare items for resale for shipping all at once.
There's probably a box somewhere in your house that you taped up during your last move and haven't opened since. You have a general idea of what's inside. You also know that if you open it now, you could empty half of it. And yet, it remains, because tidying up only truly begins when you know where the items are going.
That's precisely where most tidying efforts fail: not during sorting, but during disposal. Late August and September are good weeks for this, as it's still light enough to venture into the attic, and you have time before autumn and the holidays demand space. Below is an approach you can execute in one Saturday, plus what you'll want to have on hand beforehand.
Start with one spot and four destinations
Not "the attic," but "the left cabinet in the attic." A defined space gives you an endpoint, and an endpoint is what you need to keep going. Set up four destinations before touching anything:
Keep — goes back, but re-packed and re-labeled
Sell — still has value, and you have time to ship it
Donate — has value, but not enough to bother selling
Discard — broken, incomplete, or musty
The pitfall is a fifth pile: "undecided." That pile always grows and moves back into the closet unopened. Force yourself to make a choice by asking one question: would I buy this again today? If in doubt, it goes to selling or donating, not keeping.
What you need before you start
Stopping halfway because you've run out of boxes is the quickest way to postpone the job for a month. Count on approximately one large box per linear meter of shelf space, plus a few extra.
Storage: dry, flat, and with contents on the outside
Cardboard on a concrete floor or against an exterior wall draws moisture. Place boxes on a shelf, a pallet, or at least on two battens, and keep them away from cold walls. Items sensitive to moisture—photos, paper, textiles—should not be at the bottom of a stack of five.
Write three things on each box: what's inside, who it belongs to, and the year you taped it up. That year is the most useful of the three. A box labeled "2021" that you haven't opened in four years will tell you exactly enough for the next round.
Type of items
What works
What to pay attention to
Textiles, blankets, costumes
Large box, loosely filled
Pack dry and clean, do not compress
Books and paper
Small box, half-full
Weight; lift it once before closing
Fragile crockery and glass
Small box with padding
Place upright, fill cavities
Cables and small items
Cube box or bin per category
Everything mixed up is worthless later
Documents
Envelope or folder in a box
Write retention period on it
Reselling: prepare it for shipping all at once
What you sell, sells better if it's immediately ready for shipping. Don't put the "sell" pile back in the closet; instead, add packaging directly. Small, flat items — a book, a game, jewelry, clothing — are cheapest to send as letterbox mail. A bundle of recycled letterbox boxes A6 of 180 x 115 x 28 mm (€ 17.95 per 100 pieces) quickly becomes more economical for multiple sales than individual packaging each time.
For something that shouldn't scratch or bend, bubble envelopes of 33 x 23 cm (€ 0.80 each) are handy, and for fragile items, fill the gaps with bubble wrap from a 500 mm wide roll (€ 12.95). Take photos immediately while the item is still clean and displayed on a table – no one unpacks again afterwards.
Put the "donate" pile in the car before you start tidying up—not in the hallway, because it will stay there. The same applies to the "discard" pile: flatten cardboard and keep it separate, put foil and plastic in the correct bin, and electronics and batteries at the collection point. If you're unsure where packaging materials belong, check with your municipality; the rules vary by location.
Small aids surprisingly save a lot of space in what remains. With self-adhesive hooks of 6 x 6 cm in a set of 10 (€ 5.95), you can hang up items in a storage room or on a cupboard door that would otherwise lie on the floor, without drilling.
How to keep it up
Plan the next round immediately: one spot per season is enough to never have to do an entire attic again. Keep one empty box on hand for items you put away in the meantime, and agree that the box is gone as soon as it's full — sold, donated, or disposed of.
Everything to finish it
Do you want to be ready in one order? Check out boxes for moving and storage boxes, tape for rolls and dispensers, letterbox packaging for everything you resell and ship, stickers and labels to keep it recognizable, and storage for the rest. Don't know which box size or how many you need? Send your question to info@verpakkingdeals.nl, and we'll calculate it with you.
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