10 Steps to Prep Your House to Downsize
Downsizing your house depends on the goals you aim to achieve at different stages of your life. It may appear overwhelming at first as you plan to reduce the amount of things you’ve acquired- including potentially a whole room’s worth of stuff.
However, if managed strategically, downsizing can be a fabulous way to inventory your life and retain only stuff you love. This then allows room for new friends, experiences, and more.
If you are preparing to downsize your house, here are some helpful steps to guide you in making the right choices.
#1. Plan Early and Pace Yourself
When considering how to prepare to move, it's important to start early. Change can be unsettling but it can become less overwhelming when you are in control of the transition process.
You should begin the downsizing process as soon as possible to give yourself enough time to thoroughly sort through the house. A general benchmark is to start at least three months before you plan to move or even earlier than that.
Planning early also helps you in reducing clutter you no longer need lying around your house. Some popular methods you could apply when organizing your house throughout the downsizing process include;
Four-Box Method: you can restrict your needs for a particular item by grouping them into four options. The options include; donate, keep, sell, and trash/recycle.
As much as possible, you should try to avoid piling things up in storage.
One-A-Day Method: you can apply the strategy of letting possessions go, 1-per-day or the number of stuff that corresponds with the current date.
Closet-Hanger Method: turn all closet hangers away from your direction. As you wear each item, face the hanger towards you. After 6 months, you should donate clothes that are facing away from you.
Chances are you do not really wear as many as you thought.
#2. Measure out Your New Space
To properly go through the downsizing process, you should have an idea of the size of the new space you want to fit into. If you already have a place in mind, then you should ideally know the shape and square footage of each room.
This will enable you to know which big furniture to get rid of before you move.
You might not have a new place yet or know the exact measurement of your new space. That shouldn’t be a problem as you should focus on reducing clutter and eliminating stuff you won’t need ahead.
#3. Focus on a Room at a Time
The mere thought of downsizing your house can be daunting, so it’s vital to take it a step at a time. It may be easier for you to complete the decluttering process if you break it down into more manageable projects.
You can create a workable plan like working on your space a room at a time to ensure you stay on track and do not get overwhelmed.
#4. Consider Your New Lifestyle
It's important to outline the kind of lifestyle you want to live resulting from your move. You should also consider what you stand to gain from the downsizing process. Begin by asking yourself questions like;
Why do I want to downsize my house?
What opportunities will downsizing create?
What are the first things to do when settled into my new space?
It’s vital to properly spell out your intentions ahead of time to have a clearer view of what will and will not fit into your new lifestyle.
#5. Divide and Give Out Sentimental Stuff
As you declutter your space, you are bound to run into items that hold a lot of sentimental value. In this case, you can divide them and offer them up to your friends and family, especially if it's an item you want to keep within a close circle.
If you can’t help missing those items, a helpful idea is to take pictures of them and store them in an album for memory’s sake.
#6. Donate or Sell Non-sentimental Property
You can make a quick and rational decision to sell off those items that have little or no sentimental attachment to you. There are lots of marketplaces online where you can make these easy and fast transitions. You may consider the following online marketplaces:
You can then use the money to pay for important stuff like moving costs. You could also satisfy your sense of goodwill by donating stuff you don’t need to charity where they will be needed more.
#7. Digitize As You organize
During the process of reducing clutter in your home, you will come across a lot of documents and papers which you’ve had for ages. Go through them properly and select the ones you have online access to, then shred them to create space.
You can also scan old documents and store them in neat files and back up important life documents on separate drives. For certificates, ensure you have an organized drawer you can store them in and access them whenever you need to.
#8. Repurpose Items
Some items won't necessarily fit into your new lifestyle as they are. This is when you can repurpose their functions.
For example, framing important pieces and hanging them on your wall, turning your old toy chest into makeshift seats.
#9. Get Help If Needed
It’s normal to feel stressed and overwhelmed when reducing clutter and downsizing your house. You should get the help of friends or even professional organizing agencies to do a thorough and efficient job for you.
#10. Maintain a Positive and Excited Attitude During the Process
Downsizing means letting go of stuff, sometimes even those that mean a lot to you. However, it’s important to keep up a cheerful attitude through it all.
Having a moody demeanor does no one any good and just makes the whole process more prolonged.
Conclusion
Having to reduce your possessions doesn’t always have to feel good especially to those who are natural collectors. However, you can look at it from the perspective of having less to maintain and repair over time, hence saving money.
When downsizing your home, ensure to follow these given tips for an effortless and organized process.