Tips For Downsizing Your Home
Moving into a smaller house can be quite overwhelming, especially when you need to give up some of your belongings. You don’t simply get rid of your stuff. How do you decide what to bring with you and what to leave behind? What to do with the excess stuff? These questions may put a lot of pressure to your relocation. To help you avoid the hassle and stress, we’ve compiled a couple of useful tips.
Change your mindset
Yes, you are moving house to a tiny place, but that shouldn’t necessarily be a bad thing. There are many benefits to downsizing. First, you will have fewer expenses for upkeep and utilities. Condos and other types of housing provide access to facilities such as a swimming pool, fitness etc. Furthermore, the urban living spaces are usually closer to important business, leisure and culture areas. You will be within a walking distance from restaurants, shopping centre and other events. Your commute time will also be reduced considerably. Focus on the positive ways in which downsizing will affect your life.
Revaluate your needs
Relocating to a smaller place will make you rethink the concept of “less is more”. There is sufficient difference between needs and wants. For example, if everything you owned was lost in a fire, what would you replace? These are probably the things you will need in your new home. Set up your priorities carefully and be realistic. Living with less stuff can even be somewhat liberating.
Take an inventory
Use the time for packing and getting ready for the relocation to remove clutter items. Start by getting rid of the obvious stuff such as broken appliances, outdated clothes and other unnecessary household goods that flood your basement, attic or other storage area. Once you start de-cluttering and see how freeing the whole process is, you will get motivated to continue.
The next step is to identify any duplicate or “just in case” items. When you live in a house you have plenty of storage space to stash stuff that you may use someday. In a smaller place every inch matters and you need to be practical about the things you store.
Clear out the clutter
Once you piled up all the clutter items, you need to decide what to do with them. You have several options to deal with the unwanted stuff. Objects that are beyond repair can be easily recycled or thrown away. If you think that some of your goods can still be used, let your family or friends have them. In case you are in a hurry and you want everything off your hands now, you can donate your excess items. If you have the time and the patience, you can sell your unwanted stuff online or at large garage sale. You have some belongings that you really want to keep, but you don’t have the space? You can consider renting a storage unit.
Have plenty of storage options
Once you are done with the house removal, ensure that you have enough storage space. Pick double duty furniture, wall-mounted shelving and under-the-bed solutions. When it comes to small spaces, you need to think out of the box. Make use of the vertical space, the ceiling and even the floor. There are numerous storage ideas on the internet.
Downsizing should not necessarily be a stressful experience. The key is to stay organized and to be mindful about what enters your space.