Organizing a Major Downsize: Where to Start

 

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Take the stress out of clearing out your home

Decluttering and clearing out your home can be cathartic, but it’s understandable to dread going through endless boxes and drawers and making multiple trips to rubbish dumps or landfill sites. To make downsizing easier and quicker, it’s an excellent idea to take the stress out of clearing out your home. Once you’ve decluttered and decided what you want to get rid of, look for a reputable local junk removal company to take furniture, electrical appliances and general waste away. You can research online, read client reviews and ask neighbors, friends or colleagues for recommendations to find the best services in your area. If you’re planning to sell or donate items, contact charities and nonprofits and arrange a pickup or drop-off date, plan a yard sale as soon as possible, or list your stuff online.

Declutter All at Once

Before you move, you should declutter your home and get rid of anything that you don't want to take with you. If you don't want to spend a long time picking through all your stuff and deciding what to keep and what to get rid of, consider just decluttering all at once. You could find estate sale companies that will help you to sell your stuff so that you can do it quickly and get good money for your things. It could be a good choice if you want to get rid of most or all of your things and start over.

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Decide What's Coming with You

If you are willing to sort through all of your things, you need to decide what's coming with you and what isn't. There's no point taking stuff to your new home if it's just going to sit in boxes until you finally get rid of it. It would just be a waste of time and money. So before you move, go through your things and decide what's coming with you and what isn't. Don't leave it until the last minute to get this done. It can sometimes be hard to let go of things, even if you don't need them anymore and they don't really have a lot of meaning to you.

Take the Chance to Buy New Things

You might be trying to get rid of things that you don't need, but downsizing can also be a good opportunity to get new things. Of course, you don't want to buy unnecessary clutter, but perhaps moving to a smaller home is the perfect excuse to get a new bed to replace an old one or buy some new furniture that's a better fit for your smaller home.

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Avoid Renting a Storage Unit

Sometimes you might see advice to rent a storage unit when you're downsizing. This can be a useful thing to do when you're trying to sort out your stuff, but it's probably not a good idea to do it long-term. If you keep stuff in a storage unit, are you going to get around to sorting through it? Will you ever really need to go and get stuff out of it? If it's just going to hold extra stuff forever, it might just be better to sell the things that you don't use.

Downsizing can be difficult, but you can make it easier by being a little tough with yourself to decide what to sell and what to keep.