Top Helpful Downsizing Tips Before You Move

Moving to a new place is exciting, but if you aren’t condensing every room, you’ll have issues fitting everything inside. Here’s our guide with the top helpful downsizing tips before you move.

Take Photos Before Downsizing

Before you move anything, you should take photos of items you go through to help select what to keep later. This technique helps you determine your things’ worth to you—you should keep what your eyes land on the most.

Split Items Into Piles

When purging a home, you must separate everything from room to room. That way, you won’t make any accidental tosses. Start by going to each area of the home and splitting things into piles. Your piles should represent what to keep, donate, or sell.

Based on what you pick, you’ll have a better way of knowing what you no longer feel attached to or don’t mind selling or giving away. Additionally, if you have items worth money, this can help you decide whether to hold onto them to grow their monetary value or sell them right away.

Don’t Save Too Much

Since you’re moving to a new place, it’s better to part with more than what you need. After all, you can place other things into storage. However, it’s best not to keep too many items, especially if they’re huge.

Start the Downsizing Process Now

Now’s the best time to downsize your home. As you prepare to move, it’s a good idea to start early. That way, you have an idea of what’s helpful to bring with you to your new place.

Whether you’re looking at clothes or kitchen appliances, you should ensure that you only keep a certain amount. In other words, give yourself a maximum number of clothing articles, furniture pieces, and other things to keep.

Then, divide that number by how many people live with you. You’ll each have a set number of items for every room to bring to the new house.

While planning your decluttering, you might need to rent a dumpster to clear out the clutter. Right before renting, you should know that there are a few things to consider before picking a dumpster size, such as how much waste you’re planning to throw out.

As you get into the new home, you should take note of these top helpful tips for downsizing before you move. Take a moment to look at every room, and then decide on your piles. After that, you’ll have a better idea of what to bring with you.

Guest Post - How to Downsize from a House and Get Adjusted to Apartment Living

While owning a large house might be a dream for many Americans, having so much square footage can be incredibly challenging as well. From empty rooms and high monthly bills to constant household maintenance, large homes can come with quite steep costs. 

For that reason, an increasing number of homeowners are deciding to downsize, but aren’t quite sure how to navigate this drastic and often overwhelming change. If you’re having similar issues as well, here are some helpful tips that will allow you to downsize from a house and easily get adjusted to apartment living:

Begin by decluttering your belongings

Downsizing to an apartment will inevitably mean you’ll have to learn how to live with less and get rid of some of your belongings in an effort to fit into a smaller space. For that reason, planning and preparing for a household move in advance, even before starting an apartment search, is always advised. Begin by decluttering your entire home, and then immediately throw out, donate, or sell anything you don’t need or use anymore. 

Whether it’s clothing items or unutilized equipment, removing unnecessary items from your home will allow you to realize that you don’t really need all that living space when it’s not filled up with clutter and chaos.

Prepare for the move in advance

In an effort to make moving houses easy, it might also be helpful to downsize ahead of time. Apart from throwing out any unnecessary belongings, this could also mean letting go of any large pieces of furniture or otherwise big and bulky items that aren’t likely to fit inside an apartment. This will allow you to adjust to smaller living before you move out, and it might even make the final move that much quicker and easier, knowing you have significantly fewer large and heavy items to transport.

Consider whether you wish to buy or rent

Once you’ve done the initial preparations, the next step would be to decide whether you want to buy or rent your apartment. While owning a home might be a dream for many, apartments can come at surprisingly high costs, including mortgage, insurance, and maintenance rates, all of which can be particularly daunting if you don’t own the house you currently live in, and can’t put the sales money towards your new home. 

In places like Texas, where the prices of apartments are currently on the rise, many people tend to look for beautiful Brownsville apartments for rent in order to overcome this hurdle. Coming in stunning complexes, convenient locations, and no additional homeowner costs, such apartments are truly the perfect solution for downsizing.

Think about the necessary requirements

In case you’re looking for a condo in larger cities like New York or Los Angeles, on the other hand, there are a number of additional aspects you might want to consider when searching for the perfect home. For example, if having outdoor space and access to a pool is something you don’t want to compromise on when downsizing, you need to include these amenities in your search in order to find the right apartment, as such complexes can be difficult to come across. 

Similarly, if you need additional personal, office, and storage space, or you even plan on expanding your family in the future, these are all important details to keep in mind when choosing the most appropriate apartment size and floor plan.

Finalize the move to your new place

After you’ve found your dream apartment, it will be time to sign the lease. But before you do so, it’s recommended to carefully review the documents and pay special attention to aspects such as the rent price, security deposit, and utilities, as well as any maintenance and damages policies, to ensure everything is as agreed. When you’re finally ready to move in, a professional moving company could be of great help, but you also might be able to complete the move by yourself, especially if your decluttering efforts were successful.

Make your apartment feel like home

Whether you are renting or even buying your new condo, making the space feel comfortable and inviting, without being overly stuffed, could be one of the biggest challenges you face when downsizing. When it comes to furnishing and decorating an apartment, size should be your main priority. Simply carefully measuring the rooms and potential furniture will be enough to help you select the ideal pieces for a smaller space. 

To make your apartment feel homier, personalization will be key. From bright wall colors and printed cushions to natural materials and textured rugs, there are many ways you could add more interest and dimension to your new space, easily making it feel like home.

Wrapping up

Even though downsizing could present a challenge for many homeowners, living in an apartment can actually give you newfound happiness and freedom, without mortgages and house maintenance weighing you down. And as long as you utilize the helpful tips mentioned above, downsizing might actually be a less stressful and more enjoyable experience as well.

About the author: Mike Johnston is an experienced blogger and editor with a background in creative writing and digital media. He’s a regular contributor to the ‘Smooth Decorator’ blog and numerous other online publications where he writes primarily about home improvement, interior design, and sustainable living.

Must-Know Downsizing Tips for Your Move to a Smaller Home

If you are looking for downsizing tips for your move to a smaller home, you've come to the right place. Whether you're moving to a condo, apartment, townhouse, or a family home with less square footage, we fully understand how stressful and challenging this process might be. Therefore, we've gathered helpful information to help you prepare and go through this significant transition more easily.

Downsizing tips for your move to a smaller home

Moving to a smaller living space is a major transition that will impact your lifestyle and probably cause a rollercoaster of emotions. To help you deal with it in the easiest way possible, we've prepared useful tips and advice. 

Start preparing early 

A last-minute move is never a good idea. So, as soon as you know that you will be moving to a new home, start preparing both mentally and physically.

Mentally prepare for downsizing to a smaller home

As moving to a smaller home can be a huge change and a stressful experience, it's essential to mentally prepare for what's coming:

• Know why you're downsizing - Whenever you feel overwhelmed and emotional about the change that's awaiting you, remember the reason why you're doing it. Whether you are retired, want to save money, or lower your environmental footprint, let it be your primary motivation to handle the emotional side of the process.

• Focus on the positive sides - Whenever you feel unsure about your decision, a good way to increase your level of excitement is to remember the benefits of downsizing. You wouldn't decide to downsize if it wasn't for your best interests, right? Moving to a smaller place will give you an opportunity to save money, create a healthier home, help the environment or spend less time on maintenance.

Set your budget

There is no question about it - you will indeed be saving money when moving to a smaller home. However, you still need to keep in mind that downsizing comes with expenses, both obvious and hidden ones. 

First of all, think about the potential expenses related to your new home. For example, there could be repairs you need to handle, or property taxes might be higher. Additionally, as you'll be downsizing your living space, you might need to rent storage to keep your excess things. 

You also have to factor in the costs of your relocation. The relocation team from movage-moving.com advised that setting the proper budget for moving can save you a lot of headaches during the process.

Consider the available space

Before packing anything from your old home, consider the available space in your new one. This way, you'll know exactly how much you can pack without the risk of moving into your new home and not having enough space for everything you brought. The key to successful downsizing is always having in mind the square footage you have available.

Declutter

As you'll be moving to a smaller living space, you won't have enough room for all of your things. So to prepare for the move in the best way, you should go through your belongings and declutter.

There are many decluttering methods you can use to make the process quicker and easier. In our opinion, the simplest option is to sort your things into four piles:

• Keep only things you truly need and have space for in your new home.

• Donate or sell anything that's still in good condition but that you don't want to use anymore or can't fit in your new living space.

• Toss or recycle everything that's unusable, broken, or stained. 

• Store the things you want to keep but have no room for in your new home (for example, camping equipment or luggage). 

The most challenging part is probably decluttering your furniture. If something definitely can't fit in your new home, make sure to sell or toss it, depending on its condition. Some pieces of your furniture can be repurposed, so make sure to thoroughly think of ways to use them before putting them for sale.

Many people find it very difficult to declutter their kitchen appliances, especially if they were very expensive. However, if they're collecting dust and not being used regularly, they will only take up room in your new, smaller home. Selling them or donating is probably a better idea.

Maximize the space in your new home

When moving to a smaller home, you want to maximize every square foot of space. Here are some of the options you can consider:

• Wall-mounted storage or floating shelves are a great choice because they don't use any floor space. 

• Think vertically and use the space above the doors for additional storage. You can also order custom closets or shelves that go from floor to ceiling.

• Boost kitchen storage by using simple tricks. For example, you can add hooks to the bottoms of your cabinets to hold mugs. Also, don't forget to use the space above your fridge or the tops of your cabinets. 

• Buying multifunctional furniture can help you save space. For instance, you can buy a Murphy bed or invest in an ottoman with storage space below the seating.

• Think about installing sliding doors as they don't require as much floor space as traditional doors. 

There are also plenty of tricks to make any small space seem bigger. For instance, if you paint the walls in a light color, you will not only make your rooms seem wider, but you'll also liven up your new home. Or you can strategically place mirrors as they can make any room look larger and more open.

Final thoughts

We hope you found our downsizing tips for your move to a smaller home helpful and that we could make this transition easier and simpler for you. Best of luck with your move!

Book Review - Downsize: Living Large in a Small House

For those people thinking of downsizing to a small home, Sheri Koones has written a book for you! The book, Downsize: Living Large in a Small House is geared to empty nesters although many younger people are downsizing as well. Large homes come with high costs and huge time commitments in order to maintain them appropriately. Homeowners find themselves with less quality time to spend with family and friends. Many new homeowners and empty nesters want a more care free way of life. They want to spend their time traveling and experiencing new things. Ms. Koones herself downsized to a 1,400 sq ft. house. Her house is now convenient to town and close to shopping, restaurants and movies. She says she wishes she had made the move years earlier.  After having success with her own move, the author interviewed over 30 homeowners all over the United States and Canada. All the houses in the book are 2,000 sq ft or less.

There are beautiful detailed photographs of each home as well as floor plans to go with them. Each house has small square footage as opposed to traditional large homes. As a result, the energy costs are lower. Many have the master bedroom on the main floor (popular with older homeowners who are hoping to stay in their homes as long as possible.) Another commonality is the homes have a good amount of natural lighting, creative storage, minimal hallways, multipurpose rooms, furnishings with added storage, pocket doors, porches and patios to name a few. 

Ms. Koones states that “everyone I interviewed for this book was delighted to be downsizing. They used words such as “liberated,” having rid themselves of all the stuff or baggage that had loaded them down for years.” 

Most of the people interviewed had energy efficiency as a priority when building or updating their small house. Some were built with LEED standards. Houses were built with solar energy, HVAC systems that are more efficient and LED lighting and energy efficient appliances. Each house in the book is listed with the green features it is built with.

Of course, decluttering and purging is always difficult. Especially for multi-generational families. Many baby boomers have keepsakes, furniture, china and artwork stored from their parents and other relatives. On top of that they have their children’s things in the house as well. It can be overwhelming to start purging, and once started hard to know what to do with the sell, consign, donate and trash. As Ms. Koones suggests, certainly there are books and reference materials to help you declutter. Another option from our standpoint is to hire a professional organizer. Professional organizers have the tools and resources to help you figure out how to rid yourself of items you will not need in your new home. A professional organizer can make a long tiring process streamlined and stress free.

In the end, the author states that small does not necessarily mean less comfortable or less attractive. Many homeowners of the new homes said the current designs reflect their aesthetics better than the house they had lived in previously.  This lovely photographed book illustrates that small houses can be easy to take care of, more cost affordable, energy efficient, comfortable and beautiful at the same time.

Congratulations to Ms. Koones on a well written book reminding us that big is not necessarily better.

Downsize: Living Large in a Small House

By Sheri Koones

Buy on Amazon