6 Tips For Downsizing Your Home

 

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In this article we’ll take a look at some tips for downsizing your property and how to prepare for moving day. The best thing about downsizing is taking stock of every item you own and deciding whether it’s worth keeping or not. There may be certain things that no are no longer needed which means that you can give them a second life by donating them or selling them on. Certain things may have run their course and can be thrown away but always try to recycle or donate wherever it’s possible! 

 

1 - Plan Accordingly 

What I mean by this is to know the size and measurements of the new house. As you’re downsizing, there’s a good chance that certain items of furniture or appliances may not fit comfortably in the new place. It’s a great idea to have exact measurements to know which items will fit and which won’t. This also helps to inform your decluttering process; once you know the sizes it’ll be much easier to get rid of certain items or put them into storage. 

This process is also necessary for getting large furniture items through doorways and knowing how much space they may take up. Getting accurate measurements is so important when planning your downsizing and will help to inform the entire moving process.

 

2 - Declutter

As touched upon briefly earlier, downsizing creates the perfect opportunity to sort and declutter your household belongings and arrange for them to be kept, stored, donated or repurposed in whatever way! Usually there’s no impetus to go through and organise our entire collection of goods, tems and trinkets so this makes for a great opportunity that forces you to consider how much use you may or may not get from certain belongings. 

 

The best way to declutter is to methodically go through each room one by one and sort things into keep, donate or sell (for instance) and perhaps a couple other categories depending on circumstance. This process will take time so it’s a good idea to prepare a good few weeks in advance, especially if you’ll be using a storage solution or a professional removals service to transport and/or store your belongings. 

 

3 - Organise Documents

We all have stacks of paper documents and records that were once important but now may not even be relevant. While it is a daunting task, going through and either keeping or shredding/ destroying certain documents will be hugely helpful during the move. Just like decluttering, going through paper records might remind you of certain things be it sentimental or confidential that may be useful to keep but oftentimes, a lot can be gotten rid of. This is a great moment to go through and confirm if every paper record is essential or not. 

 

4 - Draw A Floor Plan

This is especially useful if you have a lot of items; a floor plan means you can then visualise what items go where. Even a rough floor plan means you can then add your furniture or appliances to the picture to get some idea of what will go where and if it’ll fit! The plan can then be used by the movers to place items in their correct place if you’re not there to direct the process. It’s an extra step that won’t always be necessary or practical but it does serve a purpose and can be hugely beneficial.

 

5 - Downsize your Clothing

It’s almost definitely a fact that everyone has too many items of clothing and a lot of it will be residing at the back of a wardrobe collecting dust. Moving house, whether downsizing or not, is a great excuse to cull unwanted or unworn clothes that could have a second life through donation or selling online.

It’s also quite refreshing to sort and be rid of old clothes that are no longer wanted or maybe don’t even fit. Donating clothes to charity is a wonderful way to get rid of certain clothes as you’re not creating more waste but hopefully giving them a second life and giving money to a charity through their sale - it’s win-win!

 

6 - Sell your Unwanted Furniture

Along with getting rid of/ donating/ selling your old clothes there’s another great opportunity to sell furniture or household appliances that you don’t want to take with you into the new home. It’s also a great excuse to use the money made from selling the old furniture to buy new items to furnish the new home with things that will suit the space. On the other hand, no doubt a lot of the appliances or certain pieces of furniture will be able to continue on into the new home. 

 

The moment of downsizing or moving home in general presents a great opportunity to take stock of what objects and things you want to keep and want can be left behind. In a way it’s quite therapeutic to let go of certain things but there’ll always be items that go with you everywhere no matter what. 

 

 Hopefully this list has given you some inspiration to consider what you really want to take and what can go on to have a second life elsewhere. Moving home is the perfect opportunity to consider this and to realise, perhaps, how much clutter there is that can be sorted and made more manageable.