5 Top Tips for Downsizing Your Home
There are many reasons you might be downsizing your home. You might just need less space, or you might want to save money. Downsizing your home can be a great way of reducing the time and cost that goes into bigger properties. If you don’t need lots of space, living in a smaller home can also be much less stressful when you have less to deal with.
Whatever your reason for downsizing, we’ve found some top tips to effectively declutter before you downsize, so you’ll be ready for your move.
Start Decluttering in Plenty of Time
Decluttering your home can be overwhelming, so you’ll want to give yourself plenty of time to work through it at a pace that you’re comfortable with. You’ll want to start at least three months before you’re due to move, but you can never really start too early! Ideally, you’ll have the majority of the decluttering done before the last month prior to your move, so you can focus on the admin that comes with moving knowing that the decluttering has been dealt with.
It might be helpful to start thinking about the bigger pieces of furniture, like beds and sofas, first. This way, if you come across any delays then you won’t have to waste money moving these bigger items to your new property.
Get Clear Measurements of Your New Home
You’ll need to have a clear idea of how big each room is in your new home, so you know exactly what furniture will fit in it. Inspect the floorplan and, if possible, take your own measurements if you have an opportunity to walk around before you move in officially. This way you’ll know whether your current sofa, bed, or dining table will fit in the new place, or whether you’ll need to purchase something new.
If you find that you have to buy new furniture to fit in the new rooms, you might find it beneficial to wait until you’ve moved in, if possible. This will save any mistakes with sizes, as you’ll know precisely what space you have and what will fit.
Work Through Room by Room
Break down your decluttering so you can just take one room at a time. Decluttering a whole house is overwhelming, so this can help to make it less intimidating. It can help to make a schedule for when you will take on each room, but you shouldn’t worry too much if you don’t stick to this too rigidly.
You might find that some rooms take longer than others. If you have a lot of clothes, you might need some time to sort through them to only bring the items that you’ll want to wear again. If you have a lot of kitchen and cooking items, you might find it takes a bit more time to work out what you can fit in the new kitchen and what you could probably do without.
It can be helpful to make an inventory of all your belongings before you start packing. This can help to clearly see what you have, what will need to be moved with you, and what you need to get rid of.
Set Your Rules for Unwanted Items
Once you know what items you’ll be keeping and what you no longer need, you’ll want to work out what you can do with the unwanted items. The options you have will be:
- Donate/sell
- Pass on to loved ones
- Trash/recycle
If you have pieces of furniture or other items that are still in good working order, but just aren’t what you need anymore, you can donate them to charity or sell them to someone else. If you have sentimental items that you don’t want to keep yourself, you could ask your loved ones if they want to keep hold of them instead.
Sometimes you’ll have items that hold no sentimental value and won’t be of use to anyone else. In this instance, you’ll want to put them in the rubbish or have them recycled. If you have particularly large items or a lot of items that need to be trashed, it might be easier to hire house clearance professionals to help you.
At Away With It, we offer house clearance in Essex and the surrounding areas, making your house decluttering easy and hassle-free. We can take all types of junk from all types of property and can help to clear away one item or a whole household’s worth. We also recycle 80% of the waste that we remove, through donating the items or taking it to the right licences recycling centre.
Think About Your New Lifestyle
When you’re deciding what you want and need in your new property, you shouldn’t just think about the space you’ll have. You should also think about your new lifestyle and what you’ll want from your new home. It may be that you have items that will fit but that you actually don’t use anymore. Or it may be that you have some items that can be replaced with a more practical and useful alternative.
As you declutter your home, you should think about why you’re downsizing and what your goals are for your new home. If you’re looking to spend less time maintaining your new home, get rid of items that require more maintenance. If you want more space, find alternative items that have multiple uses, and get rid of those items that only have one purpose. When you have a clear idea of what you want from your life in your new home, you’ll be able to easily decide what needs to go and what can stay.
If you’re downsizing your home or just wanting to declutter your current home so you have more space, Away With It can help. We offer Essex house clearance and house clearance across the surrounding areas. We’re fully licensed and insured waste carriers, offering a professional service in Essex and across London. Contact us to speak to our friendly and knowledgeable team about how we can help with your house clearance today.
