4 Tips for Downsizing Your Home
If you are planning on moving to a smaller home, you will need to do some downsizing. While it can be difficult going through your belongings and deciding what to give away or sell, it is an important part of the process. Here are some tips for downsizing your home prior to the move.
Start Sorting Through Storage
You likely have areas of your home where the majority of the belongings are being stored in cardboard boxes or plastic bins. This often includes the basement, attic, and garage. These are good places to start since many of these items you might already be willing to give away. If you don't use the items regularly, consider donating them or selling them in order to begin downsizing. While you might want to keep holiday decorations in your storage areas, keeping boxes of your children's clothing may not be necessary. You might also find larger items, such as furniture you have been holding onto, that you can get rid of.
Get Rid of Non-Sentimental Items
When you start looking through furniture and items inside the bedrooms, living room, and other rooms of your home, begin by sorting through your belongings and getting rid of items that have no sentimental value. While your large sectional sofa might be fairly new, it probably doesn't have much sentimental value yet and takes up a lot of living room space, so that is a good thing to begin with. Do this with every room of your home, choosing large items that are unnecessary or that no family member has an emotional attachment with.
Consider Getting Self-Storage
There might be things you can't fit in your new home but that you don't want to part with. For example, your baby's crib might no longer be necessary, but perhaps you aren't quite ready to give it away. In this case, it is a good idea to get a self-storage unit and have the movers move the crib and other items to the unit. This allows you to hold onto items you can't bear to part with, without it taking up too much space in your new, smaller home. However, don't try to store everything in the unit. You still need to downsize and try to get rid of what you can. That way, you're not trying to figure out how to deal with it later.
Give Items to Family and Friends First
If you have emotional attachment to items that you can't fit in storage, but also can't have in your new home, consider giving them to friends and family members. That way, you know these items or furniture pieces are being used by someone you know. You might even see your grandmother's rocking chair or your old bed frame again when you visit.
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