Downsizing your home can be a challenging and emotional process especially if you are a sentimental one who likes having keepsakes or just someone who keeps things for the sake of using them in the future only to end up collecting dust or stored at the deepest end of your belongings, never to be used ever, and eventually forgetting about it.
Isn’t that painfully true? Well, this situation can be a problem if you are planning to move to another house and lot for sale or worse, someplace with less space than your previous home, such as a condo for sale. But there is no need to worry as this article may be helpful to your dilemma.
Without Further Ado, Here Are Some Downsizing Tips to Help You Have a Successfully Refreshing Start On Your New Home as Well as Some Benefits of Downsizing a Home.
Visit your new space and make a plan.
Visiting your new place is important to know the scale of how bigger or how smaller space you would have. This helps you evaluate whether everything you own will fit or if you need to declutter and let go of some stuff to bring fewer belongings. This is also an opportunity to assess if you can bring all your furniture in or if it would fit a certain spot you visualize it to be on. Generally, this helps you prepare and plan out your entire moving process and determine how much empty space you still have to fill.
Take note that it can be an arduous process as you may not be able to decide and construct a conducive plan in just one sitting so make sure that you do this ahead of time so you would not be rushed when the moving day comes.
Sort your belongings using the Konmari Method
photo from culturainquieta.com
Made famous by Marie Kondo, the Konmari Method is a simple yet effective tidying technique where you choose to keep items that speak to your heart or spark joy in your life instead of picking which ones to discard. In the first step, you have to gather everything out in categories–for instance, clothes can be divided into shirts, cardigans or sweaters, jeans, skirts, shorts, and so on. Categorizing things inside the house before sorting through them makes you see everything you own of the same stuff, and this allows you to be more objective about which ones to keep and which ones to finally let go of. Once everything has been taken out, it is time to decide which ones spark joy and which ones that does not. If it no longer speaks to your heart, then thank them for their service, then let them go. You can give them away to other family members or friends, sell home items that can be sold, donate them to those who might need them, those that can be revamped can be given to recycling companies, and those that cannot be used anymore can be discarded or thrown in the trash.
Doing this not only helps homeowners to downsize and utilize living space but also allows them to save money. Most of the time, people tend to forget about things they already own because some items can be neglected which only ends up as additional clutter. Other times, a certain piece may be outdated to your style but then time goes by and you go back to like it, and you may forget that you own something of the same kind and purchase another one. Sorting through your belongings allows you to rediscover everything otherwise forgotten, leave those that you no longer need, and keep the ones you love.
As Marie Kondo said, “Life truly begins only after you have put your house in order.”
Four Box Method
photo from thetinylife.com
Similar to the Konmari Method, the Four Box Method is another way of decluttering. Here, you have to gather four bins, each labeled as Keep/Relocate, Give Away, Storage, and Garbage. This simplifies all your belongings into these four categories. To downsize your house and lot for sale efficiently, focus on tackling one room or space at a time. If you are keeping an item that goes into its existing home or needs to be placed someplace else, put it in the Keep/Relocate bin. Meanwhile, things you do not want to keep can be placed into the other three bins so you have to carefully decide the best thing to do with them. Ultimately, this is decided based on the condition of the item and the energy you have in finding it a new home. If it is still in mint condition, you can either sell it and enjoy an increased cash flow or give it away to family or friends. If you do not want to go through the hassle of selling, donating it gives you less responsibility and a smaller workload on finding the item a new home. Moving is already stressful, so donating can be a less stressful way of downsizing.
Moreover, for seasonal items such as seasonal clothes, decor, or equipment, the storage bin is where it goes. Otherwise, for items beyond recycling or repair, they go to the garbage bin. The trick to keeping downsized living arrangements is frequent maintenance. Schedule maintenance every few months after you have thoroughly cleaned your house to stay on top of it.
Assess what you actually need
Aside from choosing what items spark joy, the most important thing is to assess what you actually need. There may be times when you need to give up things you really like because it does not serve any purpose in your life. Although it may be hard, practicality comes first, especially when you become a homeowner and you are moving into smaller homes such as a condo for sale. If it has a sentimental value, similar to the aforementioned, you can pass them away to family or friends. This way, you can still see the item every once in a while and you also get to enjoy seeing it being used. Remember that practicality comes first. Check whether you really need the item in your life. If not, perhaps it is time to find a new owner that would utilize it better than you.
Downsizing has many benefits. Lifestyle changes like this can take up a lot of your time spent maintaining your home. Although it can be quite stressful at first, it can make your small home feel cozy as you are surrounded by things that give you joy. It also put your mind at ease knowing you have greater flexibility when moving to a smaller home. Once you have mastered the art of downsizing, spending time in your current home will be more fun, giving more rest to your restless mind knowing you have your house and lot for sale sorted out.
Related Blog: Organizing Your Condo Unit for the New Year
