Moving costs are calculated by weight and volume. Every box you carry down three flights of a Logan Square walk-up is a box you packed, taped, lifted, and will unpack on the other end. The cheapest, easiest way to make a move go smoothly is to move less stuff.
We clean a lot of homes before and after moves around Chicagoland, and the pattern is always the same. The people who sorted their belongings before packing are calm on move day. The people who threw everything in boxes and figured they’d deal with it later are still tripping over unopened cartons in September.
Here’s how to sort what you own, and what to do with each pile.
Start Six Weeks Out, Not Six Days
Decluttering takes longer than people expect, mostly because decisions are tiring. If you give yourself one weekend, you’ll get overwhelmed by Saturday afternoon and start shoving things in boxes just to be done.
Give yourself four to six weeks and work one room at a time. An hour a night is plenty. Start with the areas you care least about — the basement, the linen closet, the garage — because your judgment is sharper on things you have no attachment to. Save the sentimental stuff for last, when you’ve had practice making decisions.
Set up four zones somewhere out of the way: keep, donate, sell, trash. Actual physical zones with actual physical boundaries. Laundry baskets, contractor bags, a corner of the dining room. If everything stays in one undifferentiated heap, you haven’t decluttered, you’ve just relocated the mess.
What to Keep
The honest test isn’t “would I ever use this.” Almost anything could theoretically be used. The test is whether you’d pay to move it.
Ask yourself:
- Have I used this in the last year? Seasonal items get a pass — you’re not throwing out your snowblower in June. But that bread maker from 2019 has had plenty of chances.
- Does it fit the new place? A sectional that filled a Naperville family room will swallow a Lakeview one-bedroom. Measure your new rooms before you pay someone to haul furniture there. Same goes for curtains, rugs, and anything that was custom-fit to your current windows or floors.
- Would I buy it again today at full price? This one cuts through a lot of sunk-cost thinking.
- Is it genuinely irreplaceable? Photos, documents, heirlooms, kids’ artwork you actually care about. Keep these, and pack them yourself rather than handing them to movers.
Some things are worth keeping even if the answers are murky. Tools, basic hardware, a decent set of pots. Replacing them costs more than moving them.
What to Donate
Donate anything in good, usable condition that you don’t want and that isn’t worth the trouble of selling. This is the biggest pile for most people, and it’s the one that moves fastest.
What donation centers generally take: clean clothing without stains or holes, shoes with life left in them, working small appliances, dishes and glassware, books, linens, toys with all their pieces, furniture in solid condition.
What they generally don’t: mattresses, box springs, large console TVs, cribs and car seats (safety recalls), damaged upholstery, anything with a strong smell, opened toiletries, chipped or cracked dishes.
Around Chicagoland, you’ve got options. The Salvation Army and Goodwill have locations across the city and suburbs, and Salvation Army will often pick up larger furniture if you schedule ahead. Habitat for Humanity ReStores take building materials, appliances, cabinets, light fixtures, and furniture — good for anyone who’s been storing leftover tile or a spare vanity in the garage. Brown Elephant on Halsted and in Oak Park benefits Howard Brown Health and takes furniture and household goods. The Ark and Cradles to Crayons handle specific needs, and local Buy Nothing groups on Facebook will clear usable items off your porch within a day.
Two practical notes. First, call ahead or check the website — donation policies change, and some locations stop accepting furniture seasonally. Second, get a receipt if you itemize deductions. It takes ten seconds and it’s worth something at tax time.
What to Sell
Be realistic here. Selling takes time — photographing, listing, answering messages, dealing with people who don’t show up. It’s worth it for a few categories and not much else.
Worth selling:
- Furniture in genuinely good condition, especially anything mid-century, solid wood, or from a recognizable brand
- Electronics from the last few years
- Power tools
- Exercise equipment (people always want it in January)
- Instruments
- Anything specialty — camera gear, bikes, vinyl, collectibles
Not worth selling: most clothing, textbooks, older TVs, particle-board furniture, kitchen gadgets, kids’ clothes in small lots. You’ll spend three hours to make eleven dollars.
Facebook Marketplace moves furniture faster than anything else in this area. OfferUp works. Local consignment shops will take quality clothing and furniture, though they take a cut and may be picky. If you’ve got a lot to move and a yard or driveway, a weekend sale in spring or early fall clears volume quickly — just price things to sell, not to negotiate.
Set a deadline. Whatever hasn’t sold two weeks before the move goes to the donate pile. Otherwise you’ll end up moving the couch you swore you were selling.
What to Throw Away
Some things just need to go, and pretending otherwise wastes everyone’s time.
Straight to the trash: stained or torn textiles, broken items you were going to fix, expired food and medication, dried-out paint and craft supplies, old cosmetics, worn-out shoes, mystery cables, single socks, takeout containers, chipped dishes.
Recycling: cardboard, paper, clean plastics and glass per your municipality’s rules. Chicago and each suburb have their own guidelines, so check before you fill a cart with things that’ll get rejected.
Special handling required:
- Electronics — Illinois banned TVs, computers, monitors, and printers from landfills. Look up an e-waste collection event or drop-off site in your township. Best Buy takes some items year-round.
- Paint, chemicals, solvents, pesticides — household hazardous waste collection only. There’s a permanent facility in Naperville and one in Rockford, plus periodic one-day collections around the region. Don’t put these on the curb and don’t move them.
- Batteries and fluorescent bulbs — many hardware stores and libraries have collection bins.
- Old medications — most police stations have drop boxes.
- Mattresses — some haulers recycle them; otherwise it’s a bulk pickup, which usually requires scheduling and a sticker or fee depending on your town.
For anything big — old sectionals, treadmills, a basement full of accumulation — a junk removal service is money well spent. Two people and a truck can clear in ninety minutes what would take you three weekends and a rented van.
The Categories That Trip People Up
Paperwork. Most of it can go. Keep tax records for seven years, anything related to property, current insurance policies, birth certificates, passports, Social Security cards, medical records, and warranties for things you still own. Shred the rest — old bank statements, expired policies, utility bills from an apartment you left in 2014. Many banks and libraries hold free shred days.
Sentimental items. Give yourself a container limit. One bin for keepsakes, one for photos. If it doesn’t fit, something has to leave. Photograph bulky sentimental items — the kids’ art projects, the trophy — and keep the picture instead of the object. It sounds cold until you try it, and then it works.
The basement and garage. These are where the real volume lives. Paint cans, half-used bags of salt, extra tile, camping gear, holiday decorations, boxes never opened from the last move. If it hasn’t been touched since you moved in, it doesn’t need to come with you.
Cleaning supplies. Movers won’t take aerosols, bleach, or anything flammable. Use them up, give them to a neighbor, or dispose of them properly. Same with propane tanks — those are a hard no on any truck.
What Happens After the Sorting
Once the piles are gone, you’ll notice how much dust was sitting behind everything. Baseboards that haven’t seen a rag in years. The outline of a dresser on the carpet. This is normal, and it’s also the moment where a lot of people run out of steam.
If you’re renting, that dust is between you and your security deposit. Chicago-area landlords and property managers hold a high bar on move-out condition — inside the oven, inside the fridge, cabinet interiors, window tracks, light fixtures, closet shelves. If you’re selling, a clean empty house shows better and photographs better. And if you’re the one moving in, walking into a place that’s already been cleaned top to bottom makes the first night immeasurably better than scrubbing someone else’s bathtub at 10 p.m.
That’s the part we handle. Move-out cleans, move-in cleans, or both if you’re going from one place to another in Chicagoland. We work in empty homes, which means we can get to everything that was hidden under furniture for the last five years.
A Short Timeline
Six weeks out: Start with storage areas — basement, garage, attic, closets you avoid. Set up your four zones.
Four weeks out: List anything you’re selling. Schedule donation pickups for large furniture. Book your movers and your cleaners.
Three weeks out: Work through the main living areas. Handle paperwork and sentimental items. Start using up food, cleaning products, and toiletries.
Two weeks out: Sell deadline passes — unsold items go to donation. Arrange hazardous waste and e-waste disposal. Schedule bulk pickup if you need it.
One week out: Final donation runs. Pack the essentials box you’ll need on night one. Confirm move-out clean.
Move day: Everything you own goes on the truck, and it’s all stuff you chose to keep.
The goal isn’t to own nothing. It’s to move into your next place without dragging along the accumulated weight of the last one. Every box you don’t pack is one you don’t unpack, and every decision you make now is one you don’t have to make while standing in a new kitchen surrounded by cardboard.
When you’re ready for the cleaning part — the empty house, the deposit inspection, the fresh start — we’re in Chicagoland and we do this every week.
