If you’re downsizing your property, the chances are you’ll have too many possessions to fit into the home you’re moving to. While this may be stressful initially, it’s actually the perfect opportunity to reduce the number of belongings you have and, in turn, get your family organised.
It’s not as daunting as you may think, so take a look through our top tips to help you downsize for a fuss-free house move.
Do a thorough declutter
Not only will a thorough ‘spring clean’ and declutter be extremely therapeutic, but it will also help you organise your belongings condensing two jobs into one. Take each room as it comes and organize your things into ‘keep’, ‘sell’, ‘charity‘ and ‘throw’ piles (use sticky notes for larger items) and keep a notepad with you to note down what’s in each room.
These lists will help you know what’s in each room, and therefore how many boxes you need to get before the time comes. While making notes of what’s in each room is something that’s quite small, it will make a huge difference when it comes to packing. The act of putting things into categories will help with that organisation and really help to reduce the number of things you take with you to your new home.
Be firm with yourself
We understand that suggesting you ‘have a declutter’ is far easier said than done – but you have to be firm with yourself when it comes to streamlining your belongings. To help you achieve this, you can use the ‘one-year rule’. This is best applied to clothing, but can also apply to other items.
Using clothing as an example is a great base to work from because over the period of a year you will have experienced all seasons and all weathers. Therefore if you haven’t worn an item of this time for over a year, the chances are it can be thrown away, sent to charity or sold online. Use this rule as a base to work from with the more difficult decisions and it will make the process far easier.
Store it
If after this declutter you have things you don’t want to or can’t part with but know you won’t have enough space in your new house for, storage is a fantastic option. It’s understandable that you won’t want to part with sentimental items or pieces of value, and this is absolutely where storage can help you out. It’s a flexible option for what could otherwise be a difficult situation.
Storage is also fabulous if you have a gap in between moving from property to property. A circumstance such as this leaves you with nowhere to keep your things, so a storage unit offers the perfect solution and takes all the stress out of the situation. Most storage facilities have the option of 24-hour access and are constantly monitored by CCTV and great security. You’ll have the convenience of being able to access your belongings whenever you want to and the peace of mind that they’ll all be kept safe and secure.
Hopefully, these three very simple steps will help to strip the stress out of your home downsize. Make the process of streamlining your belongings as smooth as possible by taking our top tips.
