Downsizing Tips Make Your Move Easier

Downsizing / Rightsizing Tips

After choosing your new home, the thought of downsizing all of your belongings to fit into your new home can be overwhelming.

We discuss the three most common problem areas and provide some tips on how to sort through your belongings. Once the sorting is complete, you have eliminated one of the tasks that may have you overwhelmed.

The one common thing that most of us do is if we have space, we fill it. We do this in every part of our homes. When you read further, you will realize that a small percentage of your belongings is essential to your everyday living. Many of the items are of no value to you at all.

During downsizing, there are three common problem areas.

Kitchen Items
Decorative Items
Hanging Closet Clothes

How Many Pots and Pans Do You Really Need?

Meal preparation from this point on will require fewer pots/pans, and chances are you can eliminate all the larger ones. Most of my past clients report that the only pots and pans they use are a small frying pan and a pot to heat up soup/pasta in, and they wish they only brought those two items.

Top-Shelf Can Go...

The easiest portion of kitchen items to eliminate is the top shelf in all the upper cabinets, including above the refrigerator. There is a reason; they are rarely used; the items have ended up there in the first place.

Cups, Glasses, and Place Settings

Most of us are creatures of habit, including what cups and dishes we use. We use the same few things over and over again. When you have a considerable amount of space in the kitchen, we tend to buy larger sets of glasses and coffee mugs, and most of them go unused.

Downsizing is the time to liberate yourself from all the items that are collecting dust. It is ok to break sets up, and the magic number to bring is sets of six.

Cups line up three per row in most standard cabinets, but nine would be the preferred number if you must take more.

Plates are less critical as they stack and take up the same space, whether you bring 4 or 12.

The Kitchen Pantry, Drawers, and the Rest

If you have a pantry, it’s time to put on the readers and start looking at expiration dates. Throw out the expired items and the items that are just taking space.

Let’s talk drawers for a minute. Chances are your new home has less drawer space. Pick out your four favorite dish towels and let the others go because chances are, they haven’t seen the light of day in some time anyways. Pick out your assortment of Ziploc baggies, tin foil, saran wrap, etc.

It is noteworthy that you are entering into a phase of life where you buy items as you need them, and bulk purchasing is no more.

We all have the drawers we keep our spatulas and other cooking utensils, and if you thinned out the pots/pans correctly, then most of this drawer can disappear as well.

Eliminate most of your spices as well, it is liklely, that most of them have already expired.

An easy way to sort and downsize the kitchen cabinets is to put the items you want to take on the bottom one or two shelves and the things you don’t want to take on the upper shelves.

What Decorative Items Should You Take?

Decorative items are the second problem area to address. Most clients move from much larger homes to smaller ones and have lived in these homes for decades. During that time, they accumulated many decorative items.

Once you have picked out what furniture is going to the new home, the process of deciding what to take becomes easier. All the furniture that didn’t make the cut to be brought to your new home probably has decorative items on or displayed in it.

Please remember that all your built-ins, mantle, etc. are not going to exist in your new home either. It’s time to sort within your existing home.

Please focus on the furniture that is going with you and take out the items that are not important and replace them with the things that are. These items will come from the furniture and built-ins not going. It is a fun and liberating process.

It is time to hand pick what you cherish and get rid of all the filler stuff that you own because once again, if you have space, you fill it.

You are moving to a house with less wall space as well, so it’s time to pick out what art and wall hangings you treasure the most.

Downsizing The Closet Clothes

The third area to address is your clothes hanging in your current closets. The theme continues that if you have space, you fill it.

Chances are you are moving from a home with many extra closets that your new home will not have.

Measure how many linear feet you have in your new home to set the benchmark. Remember that a portion of your new closet can be double rodded, giving you additional linear feet.

Please do not double rod all of your new closets as you own a portion of clothing that requires the full length.

Once you start this process, you will learn we are creatures of habit by nature, and there is a large portion of clothes you have not worn in years and probably will never wear again. Try them on and see if they even fit you still or if you even like them anymore.

Questions?

I hope these downsizing tips have helped, and if you need further ideas or help, feel free to contact us as we are in this with you, and it is our job to take the overwhelming out of your move.