Every box you pack is a box you have to carry, load, unload, unpack, and find a place for. Movers charge by the hour and by the truck size. Rental trucks charge by the mile. And the stuff you were “going to sort later” has a way of landing in the new garage and staying there for another ten years.
The single best thing you can do for your move is get rid of things before you pack, not after. Whether you’re moving from an apartment in Provo to a house in Saratoga Springs, or from a family home in Highland to something smaller in Lehi, here’s a room-by-room list of what to let go of — and how to actually get it out the door.
Start With a Simple Rule
Before you open a single closet, decide on one question you’ll ask about every item:
“Would I pay to move this?”
Because you will. Moving an average household in Utah County easily runs into the thousands, and every extra item adds weight, time, and space on the truck. If something isn’t worth a few dollars to move, it probably isn’t worth keeping.
A second helpful question: “Do I know where this goes in the new place?” If you can’t picture it there, that’s a strong sign.
Kitchen
Kitchens are full of duplicates and things we forgot we owned. Let go of:
- Extra mugs, water bottles, and plastic food containers (especially the ones without lids)
- Small appliances you haven’t used in a year — bread makers, juicers, the second slow cooker
- Expired pantry food, spices older than you’d like to admit, and half-used bottles
- Mismatched or chipped dishes
- Specialty bakeware you used once
Unopened, unexpired food can go to a local food pantry. Most everything else either goes to a thrift store or the trash.
Living Room and Family Room
Furniture is the biggest decision you’ll make, because it takes up the most room on the truck.
- Measure first. If the sectional won’t fit the new living room, don’t move it hoping it will.
- Let go of worn-out recliners, sagging couches, and particleboard bookshelves. Flat-pack furniture often doesn’t survive being disassembled and moved a second time.
- Old DVDs, CDs, and VHS tapes take up a surprising amount of space and have very little resale value today.
- Decor you’ve been storing “for the right spot” for years.
If you’re unsure what your furniture is worth, be realistic — most everyday furniture sells for far less than people expect, and some of it doesn’t sell at all.
Bedrooms and Closets
Clothing is easy to cut and heavy to move.
- Anything that hasn’t fit in a year or more
- Shoes that hurt
- Duplicate bedding and threadbare towels
- Mattresses that are sagging or near the end of their life — this is a great moment to replace instead of haul
- Kids’ outgrown clothes and toys (let older kids help decide; it goes better when they have a say)
Clean, wearable clothes are the easiest category to pass on. Deseret Industries and Savers both take clothing at locations around Utah County, including Orem, American Fork, and Lehi.
Garage, Shed, and Basement
This is where most Utah County households hit the wall. Garages and basements collect everything nobody wanted to make a decision about.
- Broken tools and lawn equipment you meant to fix
- Leftover building materials — tile, scrap lumber, extra flooring
- Old paint, oil, and chemicals (most moving companies won’t load these, so you have to deal with them anyway)
- Bikes, sports gear, and camping equipment no one has touched in years
- Holiday decorations you didn’t put up last season
- Old tires and car parts
Hazardous materials like paint and chemicals need special handling — they can’t go in your regular trash can, and they can’t ride in a moving truck. Plan for them early so they don’t become a last-day scramble.
Home Office and Paperwork
- Old electronics: dead printers, tangles of cords, laptops and phones you’ll never turn on again
- Paper files you no longer need (shred anything with personal information)
- Manuals for appliances you don’t own anymore
- Office furniture that won’t fit your new setup
Electronics should be recycled, not tossed. Just make sure you wipe or remove any drives first.
Give Yourself a Timeline
A purge done in a panic the night before the movers arrive turns into “just throw it all in a box.” Here’s a more realistic schedule:
- 6–8 weeks out: Walk the house and make the big furniture decisions. Measure the new place.
- 4–6 weeks out: Tackle the garage, basement, and storage areas first. They take the longest.
- 3–4 weeks out: Move through bedrooms, closets, and the kitchen.
- 2 weeks out: Schedule a pickup or haul-away for everything that’s leaving.
- Final week: Pack only what’s left — which should be a lot less than you started with.
If you’re on a tight timeline (a quick sale, a job change, a lease ending), compress the schedule but keep the order: hardest spaces first.
Where All That Stuff Actually Goes
Here’s the part people underestimate. Deciding to get rid of something is one thing. Getting it out of the house is another — especially when you’re already juggling a closing date, utility transfers, and a dozen other moving tasks.
Your realistic options:
- Sell it yourself. Worth it for a few higher-value items. Not worth it for a garage full of odds and ends.
- Drive loads to the thrift store or the transfer station yourself. Doable if you have a truck and several free Saturdays.
- Have someone pick it up. This is where a cleanout service saves your sanity.
How ClearSpace Can Help
ClearSpace Home Services helps Utah County and south valley families clear out before a move — from Eagle Mountain and Lehi to Orem, Provo, Draper, and Herriman.
- Free pickup: Our standard bin-drop pickup is free. We drop off bins, you fill them with the things you’re letting go of, and we pick them up.
- Donation Delivery (paid): We’ll haul your items and handle drop-off for you.
- Full Clean-Out (paid): For the garage, basement, or whole house you just don’t have time to face. We do the sorting and the heavy lifting.
Everything we collect is sorted. Items are resold, donated, recycled, or responsibly disposed of depending on condition. We’re a local for-profit business, not a charity, so we don’t issue tax receipts — but we do make sure your things go somewhere sensible instead of straight to the landfill.
Move Lighter
You don’t have to move everything you own just because you own it. A few focused weekends before moving day can mean a smaller truck, a faster unload, and a new home that actually feels new.
If you’re moving soon and want help clearing things out first, call or text us at 801.369.0337 or reach out through our contact page. We’ll help you figure out the easiest way to get it done.