The 3 box method that made my 900 mile move feel doable

Last month I packed for my move from Columbus to Nashville and hit a wall with the kitchen stuff. I kept putting things in boxes with no system, then couldn't find my coffee maker for three days. My sister suggested labeling three boxes: keep now, use in a month, and donate before the truck leaves. It sounds basic but it forced me to sort every single item as I packed. I ended up donating 40% of what I owned, stuff I hadn't touched in years. The unpacking took half the time because I knew exactly where everything went. Has anyone else tried a sorting rule like this for a big move, or did you just toss everything in?

2 comments

2 Comments

the_elliot1mo ago

Whoa, I gotta say I’m the opposite on this one. Sorting as I pack makes me freeze up and overthink every single spatula, so I just shove stuff in boxes by room and deal with the chaos later. The donate pile sounds great in theory, but I’ve thrown away stuff I actually needed right after a move because I got too aggressive with the “haven’t touched it” rule. Honestly, the real time saver for me was just labeling boxes by what room they belong in, not what I might use in a month. To each their own though, if it got you unpacked in half the time, that’s a win.

the_taylor29d agoTop Commenter

And that's exactly why I don't sort by stuff either, I sort by rooms and then within each room I just pack whatever's on the surface first. The freeze happens when you try to decide if the spatula's worth keeping, but if you're just grabbing everything off the counter and throwing it in a box, there's no decision to make. I've seen people get so caught up in the donate pile that they end up with a half-packed house and a trunk full of stuff they're iffy about. The real trick for me is that I label boxes with the room AND a vague "kitchen stuff" or "bathroom stuff" so I know where it goes but I don't have to catalog every single item. Then after the move, I just unpack what I actually need in the first week and the rest stays in boxes until I feel like dealing with it, usually that's never. That way I got the chaos of moving without the extra chaos of making decisions about a fork.