Why the garage or shed deserves your attention first

Garages and sheds are where good intentions go to gather dust. They are the last space most of us tidy and the first place clutter quietly accumulates: half-used tins of paint, a strimmer that stopped working in 2019, three sets of rusty secateurs and a box of screws you have been meaning to sort since you moved in.

There is a practical reason to tackle this area before anything else. Removal firms generally quote on volume, and a packed garage can add a meaningful chunk to your bill. Heavy items such as toolboxes, tins of paint and bags of compost also add weight, which matters if you are hiring a van by the hour or driving it yourself. Clearing this space early gives you breathing room, saves money and means you are not shoving dusty boxes into the removal van at 7am on moving day.

Start with three piles and be honest about them

Give yourself four to six weeks before the move and work in small sections rather than emptying the whole garage onto the drive at once. A single shelf or bay per session is plenty. Sort everything into three groups:

• Keep — items you have used in the past year or know you will need at the new address.
• Donate or sell — working tools, bikes, garden furniture and decent garden tools are always wanted locally.
• Dispose of — broken, rusted, expired or simply never used.

The tricky part is the "just in case" pile. Ask yourself honestly whether you will ever use a part-used bag of cement that has gone hard, or a set of plastic edging strips for a garden you are leaving. Loose fixings, odd lengths of timber and leftover tiles are rarely worth the space they take up. Keep enough to hang a picture; let the rest go.

Bulky items that will not fit in a car can usually be collected by your local council's bulky waste service for a small fee, or taken to a household waste recycling centre. Book the tip slot early — they fill up at weekends.

Deal with paint, chemicals and hazardous waste properly

This is the part people get wrong, and it can cause real problems on moving day. Most removal firms will not carry hazardous materials, and you should not be tipping white spirit, weedkiller, antifreeze or pesticide down a drain.

• Old paint tins: liquid paint is accepted at most household waste recycling centres. If the tin is completely dried out, many councils allow it in general waste, but check yours first. Empty dry tins can go in metal recycling.
• Usable leftover paint: community paint reuse schemes accept part-used tins, and neighbours doing up a spare room may gladly take it.
• Chemicals and solvents: take them to a recycling centre that accepts hazardous household waste. Keep them in their original containers with labels intact.
• Gas bottles: barbecue cylinders and patio heater bottles should go back to a supplier or a retailer that exchanges them. Never travel with a full, unsecured gas bottle.
• Petrol and oil: drain the fuel from lawnmowers, strimmers and generators before the move. Run the mower until it stops, or syphon the tank into a suitable container and take it to the tip.

Once the chemicals are gone, the rest of the job feels much less daunting.

Clean, protect and pack your tools

Tools are heavy, awkward and prone to rust, so a little care now pays off later. Wipe down metal surfaces and apply a light coat of oil to spades, hoes, saws and anything with a bare steel finish. A wipe of an oily rag prevents rust during a damp week in storage or transit.

Group tools by type rather than by wherever they happened to live. Sockets and spanners go in their cases or roll up in an old towel and taped shut. Screws, nails and wall plugs are best decanted into clear jars or compartment boxes — a leaking bag of assorted fixings will scatter through everything else in the van.

Pack heavy items in small, strong double-walled boxes. An overfilled box of hammers and chisels is a genuine injury risk for removal crews, so keep these boxes to a weight you can lift comfortably yourself. Long-handled tools such as rakes, brooms and ladders should be bundled together with tape and labelled as one item. Never leave loose blades or sharp edges exposed.

Seasonal items, bikes and garden furniture

Christmas decorations, camping gear, patio cushions and winter sledges all need the same treatment: clean, dry and boxed. Damp patio furniture packed straight into a van will arrive smelling of mildew, so hose it down, dry it thoroughly in the sun and stack it with cloth or cardboard between surfaces to stop scratches.

Bikes should be cleaned and their chains oiled before transit. Deflate tyres very slightly if they will be stacked for a while, and remove any lights, pumps or bottles that could work loose. For anything you plan to store, hanging bikes from hooks rather than resting them on tyres keeps them in better shape.

Do not forget the shed itself. Once it is empty, sweep it out and check for damp, rodent droppings or rot — useful information if you are selling, and a chance to spot that missing drill bit you gave up on years ago.

Label everything with its destination, not its origin

The golden rule for packing is to label boxes with the room they are heading to, not the room they came from. Write "Garage — hand tools" or "Shed — camping" clearly in marker pen on at least two sides of every box. If the new house has both a garage and a shed, decide in advance which box goes where and stick to it. Colour-coded tape is quick and makes unloading far faster.

Keep a simple list on your phone of what is in each numbered box. It sounds fussy, but when you are hunting for the drill on day three, it saves opening twenty cartons. Anything you will need immediately — a basic tool kit, cleaning cloths, bin bags, a kettle — should travel with you rather than in the van.

Finally, be realistic about space. If the new shed is smaller, decide now what will not fit rather than paying to move it and then paying again to get rid of it. A tidy, well-labelled garage makes the whole move smoother, and you may even find you enjoy having a space where you can actually find the secateurs.