Are you thinking about downsizing your home? If you are, that’s a smart idea. However, knowing where to start is the hardest part. When it comes to decluttering your home and moving to a smaller house, the task can seem overwhelming.
Thankfully, there are some strategic steps that you can take to make things easier. With that said, take a look at the tips below on how to downsize your home.
1. Give Yourself Time
Believe it or not, decluttering and downsizing your home takes time! This is especially true if you have lots of belongings, or if your home is large. You do not want to start the decluttering process a week before your move-out date.
Start at least three months prior. This gives you time to go room by room and take it easy. Not to mention, you’ll probably have to clean out your basement and attic as well.
If you plan on having a yard sale or taking items to the Goodwill, that’s also a process. Planning a garage sale will likely take a week or more. But if you plan ahead and start the decluttering process long before your move-out date, it’ll eliminate stress.
Trust us, if you try to do this step close to your moving day, it’s going to create a hassle.
2. Decide What to Keep and What to Get Rid Of
This next step is crucial. You must consider the size of your new place to determine what to bring with you and what to get rid of. Of course, it’s hard to part with items that you’ve had for many years. But you want to go through the decluttering process with a goal in mind.
It’s in your best interest to only bring your necessities. Obviously, if there are family mementos or portraits from the old days, you don’t want to get rid of those. Those are sentimental things that hold a lot of value.
But items like old t-shirts, old toys, coffee mugs, and other things that you never use, they can go. If you want to earn some cash, then a yard sale is a great idea. It’ll give you the opportunity to get some money from your old belongings.
Not only that, a yard sale will make you feel a tad bit better about getting rid of your stuff— especially if you’re having a hard time letting it go. Also, if you have nice, name-brand shoes and clothing, there are shops that will buy your clothes from you.
Overall, your goal is to be practical with this step. Think about the items that you use frequently. For instance, if you always use your blender or coffee maker, then take that with you.
After all, you don’t want to spend money on new appliances that you already own.
3. Move Your Documents to a Digital File
The great thing about technology is that it helps to cut down on clutter. Do you have a large file cabinet full of bills, tax documents, and other important paperwork? Maybe you have receipts or warranties?
Whatever it is, you should move it to a digital file. There are ways in which you can scan documents and upload them onto a digital drive. That way, you’ll have access to it no matter what.
Going paperless will save you so much hassle when it’s time to haul everything to your new residence. Plus, this is a great way to ensure that you don’t throw away anything important.
You can also do this process with your photos, CDs, and DVDs. These days, movies and music are all enjoyed digitally. You can copy your movies onto your computer and save them to the cloud for later. If you own cassette tapes or DVDs, you can give them to a thrift store.
Uploading your photos is smart as well. Of course, it’s fun to look through photo albums and physical pictures, but anything can happen to them. They can get ruined or lost, and you don’t want that.
Therefore, you should make a digital copy! This is the perfect way to get rid of clutter, while also holding on to your memories.
4. Try Not to Rent a Storage Unit
You may be thinking of downsizing and decluttering by moving everything into a storage unit. Well, that’s not true decluttering. When you’re downsizing your home, you want to do just that.
Don’t create another space that will require cleaning and decluttering at a later time. Not to mention, storage lockers are expensive. You’ll end up paying monthly rent for items that you’ll probably never use again.
Instead of doing that, take the time to look through all your belongings and get rid of everything you don’t need. If you’re moving to a small apartment or moving to a smaller house for good, this step is important. Since you don’t plan to upgrade your life down the line, you won’t have the space for the items that you move to storage.
So why hold on to them?
But if you must use storage, that’s understandable. Everything isn’t always cut and dry, and sometimes storage is needed. With that said, check out this video from Storage Box.
The Steps to Downsizing Your Home
As you can see, downsizing your home is a lot of work. But if you follow the suggestions above, you’ll have an easier time decluttering and getting things organized. We hope these tips make the downsizing process a breeze.
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