You are about to move and you know some of it should not come.
Do it before the survey, not after
Volume drives the quote. A survey that counts things you were always going to get rid of produces a quote for a bigger vehicle than you need, and you pay to transport things to a tip at the other end.
Even a rough pass before we visit changes the number. A thorough one changes it a lot.
Three piles, not two
Keep and bin is the instinct, and it is why so much usable furniture ends up in skips. The third pile is the important one.
- Coming with us — it has a place in the new house and you know where.
- Going on somewhere — usable, but not by you. Charity, reuse organisation, a friend, resale.
- Genuinely finished — broken, unsafe, or worn past use. This pile is smaller than you think.
The questions that actually settle it
People stall on sentiment and on "it might be useful". Two questions cut through most of it.
First: does it have a specific place in the new house? Not a vague one — an actual wall, an actual cupboard. Second: if it were not already yours, would you take it if it were offered free? If both answers are no, it belongs in the second pile.
For genuinely sentimental things, neither question applies and you should keep them. Sentiment is a legitimate reason. "It might be useful" is usually not.
The rooms people forget
Lofts, sheds, garages and under-stairs cupboards are where the volume hides, and they are the last places anyone opens. They are also where the awkward items live: paint, garden chemicals, gas bottles, old fuel.
None of those can travel with household goods. Open those spaces before the survey — not for our benefit, but because finding a can of two-stroke on the morning of the move is a problem with no good answer on the day.