Sooner or later, the majority of us will face it: Downsizing.
After helping many families navigate their downsizing process since 2012, we have created a tested and practical method.
These are some steps that we recommend following to make your downsizing journey stress-free.
Awareness & Visualization
We always recommend taking a moment to become aware of your current situation, how much your home has served you and facilitated your life for so many years, and understanding the reasons why you are downsizing. Doing this will put you in a state of gratefulness.
Downsizing can be a very emotional process and you DESERVE time to cope with those emotions.
Visualizing your new reality in your new home is very important and empowering. Downsizing can be sad and challenging, that’s why taking time to think about the activities you want to do and how you want to feel in your new space will help you ease the process of finding your new home and deciding what to take with you.
Embracing the changes and finding new purpose and motivations are key elements that will help you in your downsizing journey. If you need motivation and ideas, you can explore Hygge, Minimalism, Wabi-Sabi, and Swedish Death Cleaning.
If you just retired, you can read a post that will help you simplify your life in this new stage. Click here to read it.
Click here to watch videos to help you get inspired 🙂
Finding Your New Home
With all the information you may have by now after visualizing your new home and thinking about the lifestyle you want to have, you may have a clear idea of what you are looking for. You can get some tips here.
Another key factor is thinking about location, how close you want to be to family, friends, services you can walk to.
For example, if you want a simpler life, where you can close the door and go traveling for months at the time, you may want to choose a home that can facilitate that (no requirement from you to cut the grass, shovel the snow, water the garden…)
If you LOVE gardening, and that’s one of your priorities because spending time in your beautiful garden keeps you active, motivated, and focused, then moving into a home with no place to garden may be a mistake. Or maybe you can explore having access to a community garden, or using a portion of a neighbor’s backyard (we do that 🙂 )
As you see, a lot of great questions are coming up, questions that will help you design the life that you want to live. And, ultimately, finding a home that can facilitate just that for you.
Going Through Your Treasures
Going through your belongings can be the most overwhelming step of the downsizing process.
There could be a lot of emotions and memories around your belongings. This is why you DESERVE time to go through them respectfully, and it’s ok if you require help to do this. Let me repeat that: It’s OK if you require help.
Hopefully, you have had time to do the prior two steps. You will find that the process of going through your stuff is way easier when you have clarity about where you want to go.
After helping many families and individuals go through this process, we have found a method that is very effective and will help you deal with your belongings with ease.
These are the steps that we recommend you to follow:
Measure your new home: Measure every room in your new home, so that you can make realistic decisions about what fits and what doesn’t. Having a blueprint is very helpful to play around with layouts ideas.
Assess how much you have: Have a walk through your current home, go into every space, look at what you have, how you feel, become aware of all the items that live in your current home. This step will help you have an overall realistic idea of all your belongings.
Decide what you will take: Focus on what you will need and want and decide what you will take with you to your new home. Make sure that everything you are taking fits your new space. You could mark all these items with masking tape, colored stickers, or make a list. (To avoid feeling overwhelmed, it’s very important to focus on what you will take with you first, then deal with the rest after). These are some tips to help you declutter.
Emotional Items: You may run into specific items that are very challenging to deal with. It’s normal, and we recommend not starting with these items. Get started dealing and deciding about items and categories that you feel confident. By doing this, you are flexing the decision-making muscle and that will help you make better and more confident decisions later on. We are trained in mental health first aid to be able to help you through this emotional process.
Dealing with unwanted items: Now you are left with “all the rest”. These are the steps we recommend to give a new life to the items that you no longer need and clear your current home:
1) Storing someone else’s stuff: Contact the person, ask if they want it and set a clear deadline for pickup.
2) Giving items to family and friends: Contact them and ask if they want it. Set a clear deadline for pickup. Respect their wish if they don’t want them.
3) Private Selling: If you have expectations about getting a specific amount of money for your items, the best route is private selling. Keep in mind that it will require your time and storage space.
4) Consignment: Certain items may be eligible to be consigned. Check with your local consigners, send them some photos and measurements and they will let you know if they can accept them.
5) Auction: This is a great option when you have a lot of stuff, you don’t want to bother spending time doing it, and you have a deadline. You can do an in-home auction, where they come to your home, catalog everything and facilitate the whole process for you. They will get a commission of the sales, it normally ranges between 25% and 50% depending on the auction company.
6) Donation: Any item that is not broken or soiled can be donated. There are many thrift stores and organizations that may accept donations in your area.
7) Recycling and waste: This should be the last option. Renting a bin and dumping everything inside is something that happens very often in our community, and we want to change that. Our landfill is very full, and you may feel way better knowing that your treasures are going to serve a new family.
This is why we don’t recommend storage units.
Moving & Settling In Your New Home
After doing the steps above, moving and settling in your new home will be fast and easy.
Many times we receive calls of families that are facing this stage and are on “crisis mode” because they didn’t have the time, they didn’t prioritize it, or they didn’t know how to do the steps above. They are facing an overwhelming task and they are very stressed. This is why we write content like this, to make sure that you don’t see yourself in that situation.
These are some tips for moving with less stress.
Beautifying Your New Home
This is the most fun for most! Once everything is in its place, it’s time to display the things that you love and make your new space your home where you feel great and inspired.
Conclusion
Be proactive and follow these steps to make your downsizing process easy and stress-free.
If you don’t take the time before to plan and organize your downsizing project, you may find yourself in a very overwhelming and stressful situation, with no time to react, having to pay more money, and having to make rushed decisions. It’s not worth it!
If you are a real estate agent, please make sure that your clients are aware of all this info. We have had many clients how told us “I wish my real estate agent had told me about services like this”. They explained how stressful and emotionally painful the process of downsizing was. They don’t have great memories of it. You can help future clients have a great experience. They deserve it.
We hope all this info helps you ease up your downsizing journey. We wish you the best on your new journey. It’s going to be great!
If you are feeling overwhelmed and need help navigating the process we are here to help you. Contact us to learn how we can help you facilitate all this process for you.
Please share this info with family and friends to help them downsize with ease 🙂
Learn why it’s easier with an organizer.
