Ready to Downsize? Take These 10 Tips
Moving to Cypress and Ready to Downsize? Take These 10 Tips
Are you ready to move to a smaller home? Whether it’s because you’re an empty-nester now or just because you want to have less stuff in your life, downsizing is a process. It takes time and effort on your part. Before you can call in the best Cypress moving company to do the actual moving process, you’ll need to sort through your stuff. Here’s how:
Decide which furniture to keep
When it comes to downsizing, start with the biggest stuff – your furniture. You won’t really know what to keep and what to replace until you have measurements. Take measurements of your new home, and then lay out the furniture room by room. You can do this with graph paper and a pencil, or you can use an online program. This will let you know whether you need to replace your furniture, or just get rid of a few unnecessary pieces.
2. Sort storage areas
If you’re downsizing to a home with less storage space, you’ll want to start there. Begin by sorting through all the stuff you’ve collected in your attic, spare bedroom, or garage over the years. Be realistic about what you can keep, and focus even on downsizing things like holiday decorations and seasonal items.
3. Get rid of clutter
If you’ve lived in your home for a number of years, chances are that you have some clutter you could get rid of – even if your large home doesn’t look cluttered. Remember, it’s much easier for a smaller space to look cluttered, so try to keep decorative items to a minimum. You can always add more items later if your new, small home looks a little bare.
4. Next work on personal items
You may have less closet space in your new home. If this is the case, you’ll want to downsize your closets, too. Sort through clothing, shoes, and other personal items. Your goal is to only keep items that you have worn in the past few months, and a handful of special occasion only items, like an evening gown you wear every couple of years.
5. Pack keepers first
When it comes to packing, the best option is to start with packing the things you know you’ll keep first. These are items you use daily or that you know you’ll use to decorate your new home. Getting these items in boxes and out of the way gives you an idea of how much more downsizing you need to do before moving day.
6. Look into storage units
Still have too much stuff left over but can’t decide what to keep? Now may be a good time to look into storage units. Many Cypress movers, in fact, offer portable storage units, which are super convenient. Put your “extra” stuff into a storage unit, and plan to unpack it slowly over the course of a few months in your new home. Anything left over after this period can be donated, as you know you don’t really need it any more.
7. Call in your family
What do you do with sentimental items that you just don’t have room for in your new home? Call in your family members. Chances are that your kids and grandkids will take a few of the sentimental family items that you no longer have space for. This saves you guilt from selling these items to a stranger, while making sure you don’t cram too much junk into your new home.
8. Host a garage sale
Once you’ve done all your sorting, you might consider hosting a garage sale. Yes, they can be a bit of a hassle. But they’re also a great way to get rid of things you don’t need any more while making a bit of cash to offset moving expenses.
9. Arrange for pickup of donations
Go ahead and plan to donate everything left over from your garage sale. Most of the time, the Salvation Army and other ministries will pick up donations for free. Just be sure to call ahead to schedule them, as they’re often quite busy and will require a scheduled pick up.
10. Let movers do the rest
Just getting through downsizing steps one through nine takes lots of time and effort on your part, so now is the time to call in the professionals. Now that you’ve downsized your stuff, your move will be quite affordable. So let the best Cypress moving company come in to do the rest of the work for you.