The Ultimate Guide To Downsizing Your Home

There’s a reason the tiny home trend has become more popular in recent years: many have realized that bigger isn’t always better. Once you get the hang of living in a smaller space and minimizing your belongings, you’ll understand why numerous individuals have chosen to downsize. Whatever your motivation or purpose for it is, downsizing may be one of the best decisions you’ll ever make in your life. 

It can be quite a challenge at first, especially if you’re used to having a large house and a lot of material possessions. It may also be difficult to determine what you should let go of and where to start. But once you get everything in order, you can downsize efficiently and live a less stressful and clutter-free life.

To help you out, here’s a simple guide you can refer to should you decide to move to a smaller place of residence:

Sort Through Your Belongings

The first step in downsizing is going through everything you own. You’re cutting down on square footage, so it follows that you’ll have to cut down on the things you’ll bring with you to your new home. Sorting through your possessions can help you identify what you’ll keep, donate, throw away, and sell.

It’s best to keep only the ones that are either useful or truly special to you. Move to your new property with those belongings you’re certain can turn your house into a home. Depending on the size of your next house, your goal should be to let go of at least 50% of your current items.

Rent A Storage Space

If after checking your belongings you still find a lot of things you absolutely have to keep, that’s when renting a storage unit from providers like TheStorageLocker.com comes in. Your home is not a warehouse, so don’t treat it like one. There are many self-storage facilities you can turn to, and since their units come in different sizes, you’re bound to find an option that can hold all of your excess items.

Renting a storage space will allow you to give your things a safe ‘home’ away from your real home. For instance, you have some pieces of furniture you want to hand down to your grown children, but they’re not due to visit until the end of the year. Rather than have those take over much-needed space in your downsized home, you can place them in a storage unit until they can be taken away.

Focus On One Room At A Time

A good way to declutter your home when downsizing is to do so at a comfortable pace. Don’t pressure yourself to finish cleaning out your entire property in one day. Concentrate on one room per day so you can thoroughly think about what you should do with each item you find.

This method also gives you enough time to manage what you’re going to sell and give away. Once you have a good number of items in those piles, you can start selling them and delivering them to the charity of your choice or to friends and family members. You don’t have to deal with a mountain of items, which is what you’ll end up with if you declutter the entire house in one go.

Measure Your New Home

The key to moving into and living in a smaller house is taking proper measurements of the property. That way, you’ll know how big your furniture needs to be. If you have old pieces you intend to bring with you, check their dimensions to find out whether they can still fit in your new home. Otherwise, you might realize at the last minute that your favorite sofa’s too wide for your small living room or the frame of your bed won’t even fit through the front door.

If you have big pieces of furniture in your current home, you have to be prepared to let go of some of them. Keep in mind that less is more.

Stop Acquiring New Things

Once you downsize, you have to learn to live a minimalist lifestyle. This means buying new things far less often. Don’t purchase something just because it’s on sale.

If you want to buy an item, it’s good practice to follow this system: for every new thing you bring home, you should be willing to let go of another item you already have. Also, give yourself time to assess whether or not the thing you’re after is something you really need and can use for a long time.

Conclusion

Living in a large house is a dream for many, but some individuals are better off having a smaller place. These include empty nesters whose kids have grown up and have long moved out. There are also homeowners who find that their family’s too small for their property, much of which is underutilized.

Decluttering and preparing to downsize can be overwhelming, but they don’t have to be. The tips above will allow you to get started as soon as possible and carry out each step in a highly efficient manner.

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