The day has finally come. You’ve packed up your office, attended your retirement party and said goodbye to your coworkers. Now as you stand at the threshold of your beloved home, it hits you. It’s time to downsize. While moving to a new house may be intimidating on its own, downsizing may take its own physical and emotional toll. Try the following suggestions from Phoenix, Arizona moving companies in order to ensure your downsizing goes smoothly.
1. Find Your Motivation
Perhaps the hardest part of downsizing is the emotional struggle that comes with leaving some of your stuff behind. Whether it’s being donated, thrown away or sent to other family members’ homes—letting go of your things is a necessary yet difficult step when moving into a smaller establishment.
So start this journey by considering your motivation in downsizing. Whether it’s due to your health, finances, or you just want a change in perspective, clearly consider your purposes for this move. Knowing your motivation will help you through the emotional turmoil of letting go.
2. Consider Your New Space
If you’ve already set your heart on a new home, take the time to consider the amount of space available. Skip the mental preparation and instead pull out a tape measure and think about the reality of your current furniture fitting in your new domicile.
Knowing that your queen size bed with two dressers and a dressing table won’t fit into the bedroom ahead of time will help you decide what items to keep.
3. Declutter in Stages
In 7 Tricks for Downsizing Your Clutter by Tom Sightings, Sightings states, “It’s entirely possible you can’t cut to the bone on the first go-round. Sometimes decluttering goes in stages.” In fact, don’t expect to declutter overnight.
It probably took decades to achieve the amount of furniture, clothing, and knickknacks currently in your home. It’s okay to take a few weeks or even months decluttering as you prepare for your move.
4. Yes and No, but No Maybe
When going through your items, keep your decisions to ‘yes’ and ‘no.’ Yes, you want to keep that sofa, but no. You don’t need that extra rocking chair. According to Caring.com, open-ended choices will lead to increased stress levels. Plus a ‘maybe’ simply delays the inevitable.
5. Consider Digitizing Your Memories
Depending upon the amount of downsizing needed, you may want to consider digitizing your photos, documents and paper memories.
You can hire a professional service for this task, or you can ask a family member to help you scan and sort through your memories. This will free up valuable space that bulky photo albums and document boxes may take up later.
6. Get Rid of Duplicates
It’s inevitable in a busy household. You will have duplicate pots and pans, plates, books, even memorabilia in your collections. Now is the time to discard or donate duplicates of items. No one needs two identical throw blankets or three can openers.
7. Keep Your Favorites
While it may seem obvious, give yourself leeway to keep a few of your favorite things. If it’s a collection, you may want to choose one or two representations to bring along, but in the end—you still need to keep some of your favorite belongings.
8. Ask for Help
Ask for help from friends, family members, or hire professionals. Moving during any point in your life is tiring, stressful and can be overwhelming. There is no reason to do this alone.
Downsizing for a move after retirement can be difficult. Yet it can also be refreshing and inspiring as you start along a new path in life. Using the tips suggested, you will be able to downsize successfully before moving into your new home.