No, PODS isn’t paying me anything to write this.  Regardless, we found the POD to be a critical part of our moving process.  It doesn’t need to be an actual POD, many companies offer storage boxes under different names.

But, the first thing to realize when you are going to sell your house or condo is that you need to clear it out.  Space, everyone wants to see space.  They want to see how the space might be used too, but they do not want to feel cramped.  So, in February we brought in a POD (with a mild winter this was manageable).

First to go was anything seasonal that would not be needed until next Fall – Christmas decorations, Halloween, and a lot of winter stuff.  The next category for us was kid stuff that was between kids – cribs (yes, we have two from the twins), bikes, strollers, clothes, and lots of large plastic stuff.  Third, we packed up most of our books (and we have a lot).  Books are time consuming to pack well and heavy so they go in small boxes that require many trips, i.e. expensive for movers to deal with.  They also generally go on bookshelves that go up towards the ceiling making the room look smaller.  So, into the POD went many boxes of books and most of our bookshelves.  Many of our bookshelves fold flat, and I found the paper pads to be very useful for wrapping them up.  I actually found these pads more useful than I had expected.  I highly recommend them if you’re packing things yourself.

Finally, we filled up the rest of the POD with whatever else we thought we could part with.  This included some of the pictures from the walls, some kitchen gear, and some tools/shelving from the garage.  This has left us with a house that looks less cluttered for potential buyers and is easier to keep super clean as there is just less stuff to get strewn about.  I highly recommend one.  (Admittedly we haven’t gotten our POD back; its at their storage facility until we get to the new house.  I reserve the right to change my opinion of them should things come back in less than optimal condition.)