Have all the children finally left to start their own lives? Do you find yourself no longer needing as much space as your current home provides? If so, then it’s time to downsize!
Downsizing your home can save you money in the long run and offers you something that’s better suited for your current lifestyle needs. Knowing how to downsize your home is the next step to take. If you’re going to move into a smaller place, then you’ll need to start downsizing now to ensure all your personal belongings will fit in your new home.
Downsizing your home and decluttering isn’t always the easiest task, however. Although it seems simple enough to get rid of anything you don’t need, once you begin the process it can become overwhelming. To get through the process without feeling overwhelmed with anxiety or stress, there are a few simple things you can do.
Continue reading below to learn what the steps to downsize your home are!
1. Start Organizing and Decluttering Now
When’s your moving date? Do you have a date set in place? You want to be sure to give yourself at least 3 months before your move date to organize and declutter everything. Getting a dumpster rental in front of your house allows you to work at your own pace.
If you don’t have a move date yet, then it’s still a good idea to start now. You can never start too soon. Sometimes, you don’t realize how big a project is until you start it.
Starting early will help relieve some of that stress and anxiety. This allows you to take your time without feeling rushed. You can begin organizing and decluttering by choosing one room to start in.
Then, go room by room. You want to be sure to go through every single item in your home to determine if it’s coming with you to the new one or not. Start placing items you won’t need before the move into packing boxes with labels.
2. Create a Give-Away Plan
As you begin to go through your items, create a give-away plan. What will you do with the items you no longer need or want? You have a few different options.
You can donate options, give to loved ones, sell them, or throw them away. Start building the different piles of items so everything’s organized. You can even rent a dumpster if you have a lot of throw-away items.
If you can have all items you no longer want either sold, trashed, or given away before the move, then you’ll be on the right track.
3. Make the Switch to Digital
Another great way to downsize is to switch to digital. Anything that can be made into a digital copy, do so. You can digitalize many things and transfer them to a hard drive.
It’s always best to have a backup as well, so be sure to save it on your computer as well in a digital file or on another hard drive. Photos, videos, movies, and even paper documents can all be transferred to digital files, which will save you space. Just be sure to do it right and make copies of everything for safekeeping.
4. Invest in Multi-Purpose Furniture Items
Your current home might have space for an oversized sofa, but your new home might not. Now is the time to sell any large pieces of furniture and invest in smaller, multi-purpose pieces instead. You can find beds with drawers underneath, coffee tables with storage under the pull-out top, and many other furniture items that also act as storage.
This type of furniture will save you room in your new home without making you sacrifice storage space or comfort.
5. Utilize Vertical Storage Solutions
In a smaller home, you may need to start coming up with storage hack ideas. One great way to save space with storage is to think vertically. For example, you can purchase a vertical shoe rack either for the back of your closet door or one that stands on its own.
Start thinking of vertical bookshelves for books and other various items. There are also shelves that fit into corners of the walls that either stand on their own or are installed into the walls using screws or nails. These are awesome as well because they allow you to get use out of space you normally wouldn’t.
6. Know the Dimensions of the New Place
A great tip to keep in mind before you start buying new furniture for your home or deciding what to bring with you is to know the dimensions of the new place. Not measuring the rooms in the new home can be disastrous. This is a mistake you don’t want to make.
Know how much space you’re working with to determine what will fit and what won’t. If you can do this ahead of time, then you’ll save yourself a lot of headaches. The last thing you want to do is try to fit your couch into the new living room when it simply won’t fit.
Get rid of that couch now and purchase a smaller one that can be delivered right to the new place!
7. Sell Your Current Home
Once you’ve organized, decluttered, and removed unwanted items from your home, it’s time to sell! No one wants to pay two mortgages at once, so ensuring your home is sold is essential. A good way to get your current home sold fast is to sell to cash buyers like Sell Now Homebuyers.
Cash buyers will have money in hand, simplifying the process by skipping over the need for a lender. They also typically buy homes in their current condition, which saves time and money for many sellers.
Downsizing Your Home Has Never Been Easier
Downsizing your home when you no longer need the amount of space you currently have is one of the best ways to save money and make your new lifestyle more convenient. Use the tips given above to make the process simpler and less stressful for everyone.
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