Professional organizers are worth it if you have a reason (physical or emotional) that you can't do it yourself. My sister hired one to help with her pre-move purge because her partner emotionally couldn't let go of many of her things, and it did help with that; in other respects, my sister says she didn't think it would have been worthwhile. I didn't consult any authors, blogs, or websites, I just thought long and hard about what I was keeping and why (and my sister did the same).......Keeping it for an imagined but not imminent future was enough for me to either re-home it or trash it. I kept the things for the life I had at the time, not the life I wanted or thought I should have.

Photographs are the hardest, but we both made the tough decisions to keep one, and toss the rest (one from a party, one at that age, one from that vacation, one of that cousin, etc.)

"Keeping it for an imagined but not imminent future was enough for me to either re-home it or trash it. I kept the things for the life I had at the time, not the life I wanted or thought I should have."

This is spot-on advice for everyone, whether purging for a move or just hanging onto things because of "someday".

You say you have no immediate family, and you don't sound interested in hanging onto stuff. My advice? Rent a dumpster and throw the sh*t out -- the lot of it. Just get rid of it in one fell swoop and move on with the rest of your life, which you seem quite excited about. :0)

^#4 take pictures of the more important or sentimental things you chose to give up. (Really, do this. You can always delete the photo in a few years but sometimes you want to look at something that reminds you of a time or place.)
If you have family items, do you have cousins that might like them?

Two things . . .

On a practical level, Marie Kondo's book offers a methodology for systematically sorting through everything. You don't have to fully embrace her philosophy to benefit from her methods.

On an emotional level, when deciding what to keep and what to toss, consider my mother's wise advice -- "You've enjoyed it for a long time, now it's time for someone else to enjoy it." Liberating!

Good luck with your move.

Did something similar ( sort of ) a few years ago. Since we were moving to a much different home in size & style & also a desire to dispose of extraneous ”stuff”, we donated almost all of our furniture & accessories & art to our local American Cancer Society Discovery Shop. We gave friends & neighbors some items of furniture & art & just kept a few sentimental & valuable pieces of art & sculpture. Never have missed a single item. We discovered you can have ”memories” of things without actually possessing them. Good luck on the next chapter of your life !

FYI … none of our immediate family wanted our ”family heirlooms” …..

I just made a similar move. I have moved many times in my life, but I never realized how much harder a partial move is. I organized every room using red and green painter’s tape to signify what moved and what stayed behind. Even so, a few things were moved that had to be returned and a few other things didn’t get moved and are now lost to me forever. I also found that even with clear labeling, boxes would get labeled incorrectly based on the room from which they were packed versus the room for which they were intended. Make sure you separate the items you need for the first week and mark that with an ”open first” label. Also, ensure that when the boxes are stacked in the new place that labels are facing in a direction that you can read and not stacked so high that you cannot lift them down.

I found an estate sale/whole house clean-out service who came into the old place after the move and picked up, sold, donated or trashed everything left behind leaving me with an empty house to sell.

As far as using a professional organizer, I think that’s a personal choice based on your own physical and emotional organizational abilities. I used one several years before the move to help me go through my closets. I am quite capable of organizing and purging, but have some physical limitations. The organizer was most helpful in that respect because she hauled away whatever I didn’t want to a donation site.

I didn’t address family heirlooms. I don’t have many and only kept the items I could actively use with the exception of photographs and letters. Those, I have sorted through and have three small acid-free boxes to hold what I’m keeping.

How long does the process take? Again, that depends on how fast you work and how much you have to sort and organize. I took about two weeks before the move, but again, I had already spent three intense days with an organizer on the closets.

When I sold my house, I wasn't taking very much with me. I called my friends and told them to come over and take whatever they wanted. Clothes were all delivered to local homeless shelters. Some friends brought relatives and other friends. I didn't care. What was left was given to any charity who would pick up the remainders. The family wasn't really interested in "family heirlooms" or previously valuable "knick-knacks". It's hard to give away even Waterford crystal or Rosenthal china these days. Generational changes - they don't want it and there is a very limited secondary market for the pieces.

Took about two weeks to fully empty a four-bedroom house, with basement and attic.

Thanks everyone. This was all very helpful and it helped reading everyone's response through in one sitting lol. I get it in my head and now I have to get on with the toss. The most difficult stuff is 2 and 3 generations old - practically, I didn't even know these people.

As far as the things that are several generations old, consider setting those aside..photos, dry goods, smalls. There is a market for them. Check ebay or etsy to see how the vendors market them. You could spread out several alike things, take a photo, and sell them as a package.

That might help you, as those items are not going to the dumpster.