- So many people start out with such
good intentions and you plan to declutter and you're like, this is a chance
for a fresh start. And we're like, this is gonna be so awesome. I'm gonna
declutter. I'm gonna be ruthless. But packing and moving takes like three
to four times as long as I think any of us anticipate. So often
we start out really well, but by the end we are just
shoving stuff into boxes. - Yep. - So I think you
are exactly right on. I think tip number one is to start early
with what, exactly what you're doing. And I think it's also important when
you're packing to make sure you have a donation box with you at all times, because it has to be as easy to
donate it as it is to put it in a packing box. So literally having both
the boxes with you when you go to pack. Because often that's what
happens, we're crunched on time, we're feeling stressed out so it's like, I'm just gonna throw it in the packing
box and I'll deal with it on the other end. But if we literally have a trash
bag and a donation box with us too, then at least it's as easy to
donate it as it is to pack it. Well, Cambriea, will you tell us a little bit about your
YouTube channel and about your family? - I run the channel Living With Cambriea, which is purely all about just
motivating moms. I'm a mom of three. I'm a stay-at-home mom. Well,
I hate saying stay-at-home mom, I'm a work-from-home mom and
just keeping your house in order when you've got kids to take to
school and toddlers running around, a husband that works 50 million hours
and all the things that come along with it. I have three kids, so my oldest is
Xander, he's actually nine years old, Bjorn, who is six, and then Freya is
my youngest. She is seventeen months. - Yeah, so you have a busy household. And this is a question
that comes up often, is tips for decluttering to move. So I'm glad that you're actually
in the process of packing to move because you are right in the
middle of this right now. So tell us about your upcoming move. - My husband has been in the military
for over 20 years now and is finally getting out. We're going through the last couple steps
and we are moving across the country out of Wisconsin into Florida
to get some warm weather. But we aren't planning on moving
until the kids are done with school, but starting now, we have been working
our way through the house room by room, packing what we can pack
and decluttering as much as possible. I think it's really
important to start early. - Yes. No, that's awesome, because what
happened the last time that you moved? - Uh, yeah. Last time I moved,
it was a huge rush. One, we weren't expecting to
move so quickly. And two, it was for my husband's civilian job, so we had movers come in and move
us and it was very tight frame. So now we're noticing as
we're moving now, going through some boxes that we had
never gone through that the packers moved last time, just a bunch of
stuff we don't even need. - And so what is the, what criteria
are you using right now to decide, am I gonna declutter this
or am I gonna pack it? - I am being very ruthless. So I
actually called a moving company. Figuring out what it costs
to move was a big motivator. If a large truck costs $5,000, but a small truck costs
$2,500, that's a lot of money. So thinking about that when I'm
going through it. My kids' furniture. Eventually we're going to be
donating all of that. One, it's from when I was a teenager, has been painted five
times and it's just not worth moving across country and
spending all that money to have it moved. I also think it's a
big deal, for starting early, is I always saw that
decluttering is a process. I don't know anyone that can declutter
a room to its fullest in one step. Where if you do a little bit this month
and then you go back and you're like, all right, I saved that, but I shouldn't
have, and you get rid of even more. - Yep. Yeah. That is so true,
isn't it? So as you've been going, are there any things, or any categories of things that have
been hanging you up that you're like, I just don't know if we're gonna
need this in the next house? - Biggest thing is furniture.
Those are my biggest thing. We haven't gotten to clothing yet, but I know that's gonna be another
big thing because we've got a lot of clothing, obviously, here in Wisconsin that we're not going
to need down there or I don't think we need, but who knows? But I have found, I used 1-800-GOT-JUNK for
the first time the other day. And they are amazing. They came, they grabbed everything I
wanted them to grab. And I even, cause we're really big into donating, like I don't want to see
anything just go into a landfill. Like I want it recycled, I want it donated.
If it's garbage, it's garbage but... and talking with them, they're
really cool. They're like, nope, we donate everything
that needs to be donated. They go through and scrap
the wood, to the metal, to like everything. - So they actually do
that? They'll sort it out? - Mmmhmm. - I didn't know that. - Yeah. - And along those same lines, another tip I heard from Dana from
A Slob Comes Clean, who moved recently, she said through moving stores, I'm not sure if it was
U-Haul or a different one, but you can buy a set of boxes
based on your house size. So if you're like, I have a
three-bedroom house or whatever, you can actually buy a set of boxes that
your house should be able to fit in. So what she did was she bought
a set of boxes and she said, this is all that we're packing.
So if it doesn't fit in here, we're not taking it. And so she
used the Container Concept to say, this is our limit. And so put in
the most important stuff first, but if it doesn't fit, we're not taking it and we'll
figure it out on the other side. And I thought that was a
really good idea. - Really good. I didn't even know that
was an option to get boxes like that, but that is really smart. - And again, you're investing
in buying the boxes. I mean, we try to reuse all the Amazon boxes
and everything, but I do think, like you said, there are some investments
that might be really worthwhile, like using 1-800-GOT-JUNK
or buying a set of boxes, knowing that in the long run it really
is gonna save us because we're not moving extra stuff. Not to mention the
mental, I mean, to get down there, like you said, you're unpacking boxes
still that you packed years ago. So to really, as a kindness to ourselves, to
move as little as possible. Another thing, as far as the clothing,
I would just set a limit for that too, for each person in the household, like
we're gonna bring this much for each one. I know with your kids spread out, you want to probably save some
clothes to pass on to kids too. But I think that's been the
biggest thing for me is to say, I have one tote of extra clothes for
each of the kids. I put in the favorites, the most high quality
pieces. But then beyond that, kids' clothing is actually fairly
easy to come by inexpensively. Man, especially when you get to Florida,
you could garage sale all the time. That's gonna be so nice. - Well, they grow out so fast also.
Honestly, when it comes to clothes, my husband's going to be the hardest
part. Because I've done really good. I have one little rack in
our closet full of clothes. He's got a full rack, a full
dresser, and the dresser that I had, that I have downsized and
I now have two drawers, he's taken the rest of the drawers. So he's the one I'm going to be
getting on the most about it. - Yeah. So do you think for
him if you were like, okay, you can bring whatever you want, but it has to fit in these
boxes or these totes. Do you think that would be helpful to
give him some kind of parameters or not necessarily? - Possibly. He's definitely
someone that I have been like, every couple of months we go through
is clothes. And he's getting better. Like the first time we did it, I think I got rid of two black garbage
bags and he got rid of half a black garbage bag. I'm like, you have five times the amount of clothes
that I do and I got rid of four times the amount that you did. But this
last time he did really good. And he also is realizing, okay, we're not gonna need all these giant
sweaters or the work button-ups, that you're not gonna be having the
same job. You don't need it down there. So I'm hoping. T-shirts are
his biggest battle, but man, do you know a guy that doesn't
have an issue with t-shirts? Cause I think it's every man out there. - I know, that seems to be common. That's kind of like their
sentimental thing of, whether it's from old sports
teams or different things, they seem to have a lot of memories
attached to those. And I think too, I think understanding that there's
probably gonna be some margin of error. None of us ever want to be wasteful, but it's really hard to know for sure
if you're gonna use something in the next house, especially if you're
not using it in this house. And I think sometimes we
glamorize it like, oh, well I might not have used this
in the last five years ever, but when I get to Florida,
I'm for sure gonna use it. And to really be realistic
with ourselves of like, if I'm not using it
currently in this house, unless I know for sure there's a place
to hang that picture on the wall or to put this nightstand or whatever,
to be willing to let go of it now, trusting that there's gonna
be some margin of error. I'm not gonna make perfect
decisions, but that's okay. And I think setting that threshold
for each of us, like, okay, maybe I'm okay spending a hundred dollars
when I get there on Marketplace to find new decorations or a new piece of
furniture for this space. But again, this idea that I would rather do that, and buy something specific
for the new space, than move everything down there and then
decide once we get down there, oh yeah, I guess I didn't actually
need this stuff anymore. - To get a new house, redecorate it, put your own brand new spin on a brand
new place. If you think about it, it really is a lot of fun to do
things like that. So really, yeah, I'm looking at artwork in my house that
I bought at Hobby Lobby for 10 bucks. Well, I could probably buy a new one
that fits the theme and the style and the new vibes down there and not
have to take up room in a box. - Yep, I think that's so good. And so when it comes to now
decluttering or packing kids' stuff, I know a lot of parents always are looking
for advice for simplifying toys and kids' stuff, have you had
difficulties with that with your kids? Are they pretty willing to part with
stuff? Or how has that been for them? - So I talk about this all
the time on my channel, cause that is the one question
parents have all the time. And first, I remind parents, one,
do your stuff first. Cause kids learn by example. But
two, we have more sentimental pull, usually, to our kids'
stuff than our kids do. So I started my kids really
young with decluttering. We do it about twice a year. And they do it with me and it's just
always one of those things of right before birthdays, "Hey, you're gonna
get some really cool new stuff. Let's get rid of all the stuff you
don't want." And there are times, like this last time I went
through the kids' stuff, I just did it a couple weeks ago.
And I did it without them to start, which I don't normally do, except there were board games that I know
were missing like three fourths of the things, but my kids didn't
want to get rid of 'em. So I had to do that
without them. But then I had them come back in
after school and go through the stuff. They got rid of another like 20
things, because I was like, oh, Bjorn just bought this at a rummage
sale this year. He's going to want it. And he's like, "No, I don't want that.
That can go." So starting them young, I feel like is really, really
important. And realizing that, I think that stuffed bear is probably
more of a sentimental thing to us than them. - That's so good. I'll never forget the first time I
really highly simplified our kids' toys was because
we were moving. And it was kind of one of the last
things I had gotten to decluttering. But we were going to list our townhouse
and our whole basement family was lined with toys. Because we had four kids,
like little kids, and that's what you do. And so I packed up like 90% of
them, while Tom took them away. And when they got home, I was prepared
to be like, "You guys, it's okay. Your toys are in boxes.
It's not a big deal. They're there when we
get to the new house, we'll unpack them and you can
have them all." They did not care. They walked in and our three-year-old was
like, "There's room to do gymnastics." And they just started playing
with the toys that were there. And it was then that I realized
that kids actually do better in really simple spaces with a few
toys, than with all these toys. And so moving can actually be such
a great time to declutter toys. Even if you do end up
boxing up a lot of them, don't unpack them until
they ask for it by name. And if they don't ask for it
in the first three months, when you get to where you're
going, just donate the whole box. Don't go through it again. Don't
ask them to look through it again. Just donate them all. And you
won't even miss them at all. - Yes. And that is so true when it
comes to kids enjoying their toys. They can actually find
their favorite Lego kit or whatever they're looking for. They enjoy them so much more when
it's not a toy box or shelves upon shelves of whatever. And I look at things
a little bit differently, cause I actually have a seizure disorder. Which my brain works
very similar to a kid, where I can get really
frazzled really easy. So I really understand that, like when
my house gets really overwhelmed, I can see it in my kids' eyes where
they want to play, but there's so much. Or they go into room
and just looking at it you can just see, this is too
much. That I can't handle this. So being able to recognize that
often kids' brains literally go on overload. We do that often
just in our kids' playrooms. - Yeah. That's so good
that you recognize that. I felt the same way that if it stresses
us out when we look at their room or their playroom, then it's
stressing them out too. They just don't always
know how to express that. So they express it by not playing
well, by fighting with their siblings, not getting engaged in the toys. So I think you are exactly
right on. Well, Cambriea, is there any other tips or
ideas you want to share about, that you're coming across as you're
decluttering to move before we go today? - I don't think so. I
think the biggest thing is, like we were saying in the
beginning, start early. If you can do one room a week
and give yourself weeks to do it, you're gonna
make it so much easier. And then when it comes to
actually packing-packing, doing that final finishing touches
will be so much easier and less stressful. Plus if you're trying
to sell a house, starting early, that way when you're staging, so much easier to sell when people can
come in and envision themselves in your home compared to you in your home. - You are so right on,
exactly. Well awesome. Well, I will encourage everyone to check out
your channel cause they can see you declutter but also all the cleaning I imagine you're
gonna be doing as you get your house ready to sell and move. So that's gonna be really fun
to follow along your journey. - Awesome. Thank you, and
thank you for having me on. - Yeah, thanks Cambriea.
We'll talk to you later. - All right, bye.
