The Decluttering Checklist for Moving House (and Spring Cleaning)
There are two reasons people clear out a house: because they have to, and because they’ve decided to.
Moving is the first kind. There’s a date, it isn’t moving, and everything in the house has to be dealt with by then. Spring cleaning is the second – no deadline, which is exactly why it stalls in the garage doorway every year.
The job is the same either way. Here’s how to work through it, room by room, and what to do with what comes out.
Why decluttering before a move is worth real money
Removalists price on volume and weight. Every box, every wardrobe, every crate of things you haven’t opened since the last move is something you’re paying a professional to carry down your stairs, drive across town, and carry up someone else’s.
Which means the maths on decluttering before a move is unusually simple: anything you’d bin at the other end costs you twice – once to move it, once to get rid of it. A skip bin for moving house sitting on the driveway for a week before the truck arrives is almost always cheaper than the alternative.
The test that cuts through everything else: would I pay someone to carry this to the new house? It’s remarkable how many things fail it instantly.
When to start
Six weeks out – the garage, the shed, the roof space. Highest volume, lowest emotional weight, and none of it is stuff you need in the meantime.
Four weeks out – room by room through the house. Book the bin for this stretch.
Two weeks out – kitchen, bathroom, laundry. Anything you’re still using daily gets done last.
Final week – packing only. If you’re still making keep-or-bin decisions in the last week, the move gets harder than it needs to be.
The most common mistake is packing first and sorting later. Don’t wrap, box, label and transport something you’re going to throw out in a month.
The four-pile system
Every item lands in one of four places. Decide once, then move on.
Keep – going to the new house, or staying in the cleaned-out one.
Sell – anything with real resale value. Furniture in good condition, working appliances, tools, sporting equipment. Marketplace and Gumtree move most of it within a week, but start early – it’s the pile that takes longest to clear.
Donate – clean, working, saleable. Op shops will take good furniture, clothing and homewares, and many will collect. What they can’t take: broken furniture, stained mattresses, chipped crockery, anything damp. Charities pay substantial amounts every year to dispose of unusable donations, so be honest about the line.
Bin – everything else.
And a fifth pile, which is the one people forget:
Can’t go in a bin – paint, chemicals, gas bottles, batteries, e-waste, medications. Set these aside as you find them rather than discovering one at the bottom of a load.
Decision rules that actually work
- The twelve-month rule. Haven’t used it in a year? It goes. Seasonal items and genuine tools get an exemption; “I might” doesn’t.
- Would I buy this again today, at full price? If not, it’s not worth the space.
- Did it move house last time, unopened? Then it isn’t needed. Bin the box without opening it if you can bear to.
- Duplicates: keep the best one. Four vegetable peelers, three hammers, nine reusable bags.
- “Just in case” and “one day” are the same answer, and it’s usually no.
- Broken things you’ll fix. Give them a deadline. If it’s been waiting two years, it’s not a repair project, it’s storage.
- Do the sentimental items last. They’re the slowest decisions, and starting there stops the whole job.
Room-by-room checklist
Kitchen
- Expired pantry items, spices older than you remember buying
- Containers with no lids, lids with no containers
- Chipped or cracked crockery
- Duplicate utensils and gadgets used once
- Appliances unused in twelve months
- Worn-out pans, scratched non-stick
- Cookbooks you don’t open
- Novelty mugs
Wardrobes and bedrooms
- Anything that doesn’t fit now – not aspirationally
- Worn, stained, misshapen, permanently unfashionable
- Odd socks, stretched underwear, old sleepwear
- Shoes beyond repair
- Bags and accessories unused for a year
- Bedding and pillows past their life
- Bedside drawer contents
Bathroom
- Expired or unidentifiable medications – these go back to a pharmacy, not in the bin
- Old cosmetics and half-used products
- Hair tools that don’t work
- Threadbare towels – animal shelters often want these
- Nearly-empty bottles you’ll never finish
Living areas
- DVDs, CDs, magazines
- Cables and chargers for devices you no longer own
- Remote controls for dead appliances
- Decor you keep because it was a gift
- Board games with missing pieces
- Old phones and tablets in drawers
Kids’ rooms
- Outgrown clothes and shoes
- Broken toys and incomplete sets
- School papers and artwork – photograph the ones that matter, keep a small box
- Outgrown sporting equipment
Home office
- Paperwork past its retention period – shred anything with personal or financial details rather than binning it
- Obsolete electronics, printers, monitors
- Dried-out pens, dead stationery
- Manuals for things you’ve replaced
Laundry
- Cleaning products you don’t use
- Old buckets, mops, worn cloths
- The bag of bags
Garage and shed
- Paint tins, solvents, oils, pool chemicals – hazardous waste, not bin waste
- Old and broken tools
- Timber offcuts “for a project”
- Jars of assorted screws and mystery hardware
- Camping gear unused for years
- Bikes nobody rides
- Car parts for a car you no longer own
Garden
- Cracked pots and seedling trays
- Dead plants
- Perished hoses and broken sprinklers
- Bags of ancient potting mix
- Broken outdoor furniture
- Prunings and green waste – keep these separate from general rubbish and the disposal is cheaper
What can't go in a bin
Set these aside as you go:
- Paint, solvents, oils, pool chemicals, pesticides – household hazardous waste drop-off, usually free for domestic amounts
- Gas bottles and aerosols – including empty-feeling ones
- Batteries – including anything with one sealed inside, like vapes, cordless tools and electric toothbrushes
- E-waste – TVs, computers, monitors. Banned from landfill in metropolitan Adelaide
- Medications – any pharmacy takes them back free
- Confidential paperwork – shred it
Our guide to what can and can’t go in a skip bin covers the full list.
Spring cleaning: same job, no deadline
Without a moving date, the job needs structure imposed on it, because otherwise it becomes a Saturday of standing in the garage moving things from one pile to another.
What works:
Book the bin first. A bin on the driveway with a collection date is the deadline you’re missing. It’s remarkable how much gets done when there’s a truck coming Friday.
Do one zone properly rather than four badly. A finished garage beats four half-sorted rooms.
Take the garden at the same time. Spring is when garden waste peaks in Adelaide – leaf drop cleared, hedges cut back, and for anyone on the Hills face or the fringe, fuel-load clearing before summer. Keep green waste in its own bin and it’s cheaper than mixing it with general rubbish.
Start with the garage or shed. Highest volume, easiest decisions, and visible progress on day one keeps the rest going.
What size bin do you need?
Rough guide for a full declutter:
Home | Typical bin |
One-bedroom unit | 3–4m³ |
Two to three bedroom house | 4–6m³ |
Family home with shed or garage | 6–9m³ |
Long-term home, decades of accumulation | 9m³, or two bins |
Almost everyone underestimates. Furniture doesn’t compact, and a second bin costs more than sizing up once. If you’re torn between two, take the larger one.
Breaking things down changes the answer considerably – flat-pack furniture dismantled, boxes collapsed, lounges cut down. Our guide to packing a skip bin properly covers how to fit close to twice as much in the same space.
Timing the bin
Moving: book it for the sorting weeks, not the packing week. You want it gone before the removalists need the driveway.
Spring clean: book it for a weekend you’ve actually blocked out, and take a longer hire if you’re working across two.
End of lease: allow time for the clean after the clear-out. The bin needs to be collected before the final inspection, not sitting on the driveway during it.
Frequently Asked Questions
When should I book a skip bin for moving house?
For the sorting weeks – roughly four weeks to two weeks before the move – so the sorting is finished before packing starts and the driveway is clear for the truck.
How long can I keep it?
Seven days is standard, with extensions available. For a decluttering job spread across two weekends, book longer upfront.
Can I put garden waste in with household rubbish?
You can, but you’ll pay general waste rates for all of it. A separate green waste bin is cheaper.
Do I need a permit?
Not on your own driveway or yard. On the road or nature strip, yes – see our guide to skip bin permits in Adelaide.
What about the stuff I want to sell?
Start that pile early. Selling takes weeks; binning takes an afternoon.
Ready to clear it out?
Tell us the size of the place and roughly what’s coming out, and we’ll size the bin and set a hire period that fits how you actually work.