In many ways the garage and the shed can be the most daunting areas to pack. Where as the chaos everywhere else tends to be at least moderately organised it is more likely that these spaces are pure chaos. These are the places that you dump things that you just don’t think you’ll need and the places that guests aren’t supposed to see, so it doesn’t matter what they look like until it comes time to move. At that point they become a nightmare so rather than leave them to the last minute deal with them early on to avoid them becoming bigger issues further down the line.

The first thing you need to explore is what you need and in order to do that you need to figure out what you actually have in these spaces. This means spending a day going through boxes and fighting of dust and cobwebs but it is the best way to ensure that you aren’t going to be taking anything that you don’t genuinely need. There is probably something in there from your auntie or some old Christmas presents that never actually saw the light of day so if they haven’t got a place in your new life get rid of them and get rid of them early. Once you have got rid of everything that you don’t need the space will look far less daunting.

In addition you need to think about what you are actually going to need. If you are downsizing are you really going to need that huge array of gardening tools for example? There is nearly always a chance to make some money out of these spaces so once you have a collection of things that aren’t going to your new place split that pile into two again. One pile is the stuff that you can give away, toss out or donate to a charity shop and the other would be the more valuable, generally electrical items that perhaps you could make a little bit of money from.

With the things that you are taking you need to be sensible and practical. Things which run on gasoline for example are unlikely to be taken by you removals company as they represent a huge insurance hazard. You may need to take them yourself or may just have to replace them later on but whatever you are going to do make sure you have a plan in place early because you don’t want to be messing about with flammable liquids when you are stressed. For lawn mowers and strimmers etc. you should drain them thoroughly several days in advance. If you have anything that has blades buy protective covers to ensure no damage to other possessions in transit. If you own a BBQ remove the gas tank and seal it well, then clean the grills and BBQ itself thoroughly with a hose.

For your tools the best thing is to organise them into lengths. Items of similar lengths can quite easily be strapped together using plastic tabs or some cord. For any dangerous edges use a combination of bubble wrap and cardboard as in transit these items can cause untold damage to other bits of furniture and can pierce your carefully packed boxes.

Once you have all of this done the odds are that you will be surprised at how little space the contents of those once daunting rooms will take up. The key here though is to get it done early. If you leave it to the last minute then you will find yourself in trouble and paying to transport a lot of stuff that either you don’t want or don’t have space for at your new home.