When you have a move coming up, it’s wise to try to downsize and declutter your home as much as possible.
For most people, certain items come into their home that they don’t actually want or love. So when you’re preparing for a move is the perfect time to reassess what you possess and how it fits into your life. Especially if you’re going to be moving from a larger home to a smaller home, like if you’re downsizing to an apartment or moving into an assisted living facility, you’ll likely need to eliminate a lot of your belongings if you want everything to fit.
To help you in going through this process, here are three tips for downsizing and decluttering prior to moving.
Come At It With A Plan
If you begin your journey with downsizing by simply trying to pick some things to get rid of while you’re trying to pack up your home, you likely won’t be able to achieve the results that you’re needing or looking for. Rather, you have to come up with a plan that will help make your downsizing most effective.
To do this, consider quantifying how much you need to downsize by and what your guidelines will be for downsizing. You can start with taking steps like getting rid of items you haven’t used in the last year or only keeping a certain number of a type of item. These guidelines can help make your choices clearer when emotions might start to get in the way.
Downsize Based On Your Lifestyle
Something else that can be helpful to keep in mind as you’re downsizing is the lifestyle that you’ll be trying to fit into now that you’re moving to a new place.
For example, if you’re moving somewhere with vastly different weather than you’re used to, you might be able to get rid of a lot of different items that you simply won’t have any use for anymore. Or if there are items from your past that you’re ready to move on from, getting rid of those things now could be a great idea.
Create A Cutoff Year For Paperwork
Paperwork is one thing that many people have a hard time letting go of, especially if they’re worried that they might eventually need these items at some point in the future.
To help with this kind of downsizing, it can be useful to convert things to digital files if you’re worried about needing the information in the future but not needing the actual physical copy. Another option is to just pick a cutoff year for paperwork and toss everything that’s older than that year.
If you need some help as you’re about to take on a big downsizing and decluttering task before moving, consider using the tips mentioned above to help you learn how this can best be done.
