Moving to a new place is a great time to get a fresh start. When it’s time to pack up and move on, you have a few tough decisions to make. What do you take with you, and what do you leave behind? It doesn’t have to be so difficult. Here, we’ll take a look at how to purge things efficiently before moving, so you don’t have to drag everything you’ve ever owned around with you.

Clean Out the Closet

A great place to start looking for things to get rid of is your closet. Over time, we tend to collect a lot of clothing that we don’t really need or wear. If you’re ever unsure about whether you should get rid of something or not, ask yourself when the last time you wore it was. If it’s been a few months, you probably aren’t going to wear it again in the near future. Consider giving up your clothes for donation rather than the trash—just make sure that they are still in good condition before you do.

Create Different Zones

You want to be able to get through everything you own as quickly as possible. This is where your zones come in. Designate a few different zones in your home for different things—one for donations, one for taking with you, and one for the garbage. With these options laid out, you can spend less time trying to think about what you’ll do with each individual piece of your home.

Start as Early as You Can

Separating everything early on will take a ton of pressure off you before the big move. Giving yourself this extra time will allow you to be more thorough and efficient with your organizing. What you don’t want is for the moving day to sneak up on you and then have to rush around trying to figure out what needs to stay and what should go.

Be Ruthless

If you really want to pare down on the number of things you have to move, you’re going to have to get a little mean. Look at everything you are thinking about taking with you and be ruthless in interrogating whether or not you really need these items. Don’t keep things because you “might” use them; don’t keep things “just in case.” If you can’t think of an immediate use for it, the best thing to do is to donate it.

Now that you’ve seen how to purge things efficiently before moving, you can go into your move prepared to dial it back on what you’re taking with you. This may seem harsh, but you will definitely thank yourself for having been so efficient once you start moving everything into your new place.