Taking the Stress Out of Downsizing
Downsizing and moving into a smaller Albuquerque home might be a good option for you for a number of reasons. Having an empty nest is a good reason. Families with children still at home often make the decision to downsize in order to save money on their mortgage and to have less upkeep and maintenance. You have less time to enjoy your life if you spend all of your free time maintaining a larger home than you need.
When you downsize to a smaller home, you can declutter and enjoy lower utility bills. Living in a smaller home requires you to think about your priorities and get rid of things that aren’t needed.
If you plan to downsize, decluttering and preparing can be intimidating, and the following are some tips to take some of the stress out of it.
Be Strategic
The biggest items in your current home are probably the first things you'll consider when you downsize. It's not worth your time to guess what will fit or not with furniture and large items.
Instead, create a floor plan for your new home, then map out a grid for your furnishings to determine what will fit and how. It's incredibly easy to do this using apps.
You’ll feel more confident in your decisions as far as what you keep and throw away if you measure first. If there are rooms in your current home that you won’t have at all in your new home, get rid of everything from those if you can. For example, if you’re not going to have a guestroom, start eliminating the items in your current guestroom first.
Take Inventory
You're going to have to get rid of things if you're moving to a smaller home. Having less clutter and a more simplified living space is one of the benefits of downsizing.
Start by taking inventory of what you have versus what you need. You can begin weeding out the things you’re certain you want to get rid of, such as duplicate items.
Start Small
Create a downsizing plan, and start small. Don’t overwhelm yourself with the most challenging parts of your house first.
For example, begin with your laundry room or perhaps a small closet. Don’t start with your garage or your basement first—those can be the biggest projects to take on.
Start Clearing Things Out
You can begin the process of clearing out your belongings once you have a general idea of how much space you have in your new home.
Make four piles. Don't give yourself the option of a maybe pile.
The first pile will consist of giveaways. Don't save too many items in these piles. These are the things you're going to give to family and friends. Many of the things you plan to give loved ones may not be useful or valuable to them.
The next pile will be donations. If something is in bad shape, don’t put it in the donate pile because it probably won’t be accepted.
Your third pile can be more valuable items that you plan to sell.
Finally, your fourth pile heads to the dump.
Find Help
You should find someone who doesn't have an emotional attachment to what you do to assist you with the process. You have to take the emotionality out of downsizing, and a third-party can guide you in that direction.
Perhaps you should get help getting rid of things if you're having trouble. In that case, resist the urge to micromanage what they give away or discard.
Finally, try to make downsizing as fast a process as you can. You don’t want to give yourself too much time to think on things because you might come up with some reason for keeping items that you really shouldn’t.
Get it done and move the items out as soon as possible.
Downsizing can be very emotional for many reasons, but create a plan for yourself and stick to it. Change is hard for most people but can bring wonderful benefits at the same time so focus on that rather than focusing on the feeling of giving something up.
