Are you considering downsizing your home?
Whether you’re a senior, an empty nester, or simply someone who wants to lower their housing budget or live a more minimalist life, moving into a smaller home means reducing your belongings. Especially if (like most of us) you’ve accumulated a lot of clutter over the years.
Downsizing and decluttering can be quite a project, and it can feel overwhelming. Here’s a five step home downsizing plan to help you get started and stay organized throughout the process.
1. Make a Plan
Already have your new home picked out? Whether it’s during the walk through or after you close, take the time to measure the size of each room as well as the storage areas. This will give you an idea of how much space you’ll have so you know how much you can take with you when you move.
Then you’ll know how much you need to get rid of.
Next, make a plan for how you’ll sort through the clutter. Whether you work at it a certain number of hours per day, one room per week, or on another schedule, decide how and when you’ll tackle this project and put it on your calendar.
2. Sort Through Your Belongings Room by Room
You’ll have greater success with this project if you break it down into several smaller projects.
Work through one room at a time. As you sort through your belongings, ask yourself “Will I use it?” and maintain a strict “yes” or “no” policy. No “maybes” allowed! Holding yourself to this guideline will help you make firm decisions and sort through everything more quickly.
Then, sort everything into piles to:
- Keep
- Pass down to family or friends
- Sell
- Donate
- Throw out/recycle
3. Preserve Memories Digitally
Downsizing can be an emotional process—our homes, and everything in them, are full of memories. But with today’s technology, you can hang onto those memories without keeping all of your belongings in storage.
Photo albums (and those boxes of loose photos you’ve been meaning to put into albums) take up a lot of storage space. Digitizing your photos can reclaim that space for other needs, while still preserving the memories you want to keep.
You can use digitized photos as a slideshow for your computer screensaver or in a digital photo frame. That way, not only are you saving storage space, you’re actually viewing those photos more often than you would if they sat in a photo album.
4. Sell or Donate Anything You Don’t Want To Keep
Before you bring everything to the thrift store, try selling items that are in good condition at a garage sale or online on sites like Craigslist or Facebook Marketplace. This may seem like a hassle if you’re short on time, but it can leave you with a little extra cash for your move.
If you have higher-value items you don’t want to keep, have them appraised so you can get the full value from them when you sell.
Then, donate anything that doesn’t sell. Some organizations will offer home pick up services—check with them before piling everything into the car to haul yourself.
5. Organize What’s Left
Once you have your belongings pared down, it’s time to organize them.
If you’re packing to move right away, pack up items by room, labeling them as you go. On the label, include what’s in each box as well as the room it should go to when you get to your new home.
If you’re not moving quite yet, pack up anything you don’t need between now and moving day. Then organize anything you can’t pack yet so that it’s easy to do so when you’re ready. For example, use trays and boxes within drawers to organize small items so you can easily transfer them to packing boxes when the time comes.
We hope this plan makes downsizing your home less of a headache for you so you can focus on enjoying a new—less cluttered—stage of life.
Ready to shop for a smaller home? Contact the ResComPros team! Our experienced real estate agents would love to help you find the right home for your next season in life.