Tips to Downsize Your Home
Lock Box Self Storage
June 20th, 2023
In a day and age filled with stuff, many people downsize to gain control over their lives. It’s an excellent choice to lower a financial burden and lower your well-being mentally. However, it’s tricky to know where to start. What should you know when moving to a smaller location?
If you’re interested in learning more about the best way to downsize your home, you’ve come to the right place. Read on to learn more about the best tips to consider when thinking seriously about downsizing your home, from things to consider to places to put priceless valuables. If too much stuff stresses you out, downsizing could be the thing for you.
Helpful Tips to Downsize Your Home from a Storage Facility
Start Now
One of the most critical things to remember is that you should start now. Downsizing isn’t something that will happen in a day - you need to start thinking about it far before you move into a smaller home. Look at everything you have and think about how long it will take to go through everything and remove unwanted belongings.
Here are a few things you should consider ahead of time:
- Make a timeline of events to estimate when certain things will occur.
- Consider what you need and what you don’t need.
- Recruit family and friends to help.
- Consider a professional service to assist with moving. You may also want to use a moving truck.
These will help you feel better when downsizing comes around.
The sooner you start, the easier it will be to downsize when you finally find the right home for your current state in life. Reflect, think, and ensure you are making rational choices before shifting to a much smaller location.
Inventory Every Item
The next step in your downsizing process is to inventory every item you own. People are often surprised with how many things they have accumulated over time. Go through every single item and document it to make packing much easier once you know what you need and what you do not need.
Some excellent ways you can document include:
- Writing items down on paper.
- Jotting down notes on your phone.
- Sorting items into piles and labeling them.
Inventory will take work, but it will be worth it at the end of the day.
Go through items you love, items you need, and items you don’t need to bring to your new location. Consider how long it’s been since you used the things and what you would do with it daily. It might be surprising how many items you’ve held for no reason.
Consider Essentials
As you go through everything, consider your essentials. What are the items you can’t live without? What do you use every single day? What would you miss if you gave them away?
Some items might feel like essentials, but they aren’t. Many decorations, toys, or collections are unnecessary and will take up room. Take your time with each item to determine if it’s worth it to lug into your new home and set up.
Use Storage Space to The Max
If you find any storage spaces in your new home, take advantage of them when possible. Put things in alcoves, store them in containers, add shelves, and take any opportunity to put items up high or behind a door. You’d be surprised by how much storage even the smallest home has.
If your home has no storage space, invest in cheap drawers and unique storage opportunities to reduce the use of floor space. Try combined options, such as footrests with a hollow storage shell inside.
Go One Room at A Time
The best way to go through your stuff is to pick through your house one room at a time. While you work through your rooms, select items that matter and things that don’t matter. Consider what you need and can live without once you shift to your new home.
It’s easiest to sort your things into three piles:
- Keep
- Get Rid Of
- Put In Storage
These will clarify what you should do with all items in every room.
Sorting through each room at a time will give you a game plan and make it easier to accomplish the seemingly monumental task of cleaning out your house. Once your area is done, all it takes is a simple check to feel like you’re getting things done.
Digitize and Remove Duplicates
We live in a modern age when it’s possible to move many things online instead of leaving them as thick books or stacks of paper. Whenever you can, copy items and transfer them online to reduce what you should keep in your home.
The more you move online, the more room you will have in your new, smaller home. Items like photos, movies, and receipts are easiest to transfer to the internet.
Keep an eye out for duplicates in your collection. If you have two of anything, you should throw out one. You never really need two of one thing.
Plan For Removal
Once you have your items to get rid of, it’s critical to know what you’re going to do with these products. Are you going to throw them away? Will you donate them to a thrift store? What do you want to do with your items?
A few popular choices include:
- Recycling
- Donations
- Yard sales
- Dumpsters or other disposal systems
- Donating to loved ones
There are many places you can take your unwanted belongings.
Plan where you want to drop your unwanted ahead of time. It will help you have a direction in mind, beneficial if you need to do something like schedule a garage sale.
Need A Storage Unit To Help Downsize?
If you’re interested in downsizing your home and need a place to keep your extra stuff, check out Lock Box Self Storage. Our storage units in Juliet, Tennessee, offer multiple affordable options for storage, from climate controlled to drive-up selections. We are here to keep your stuff safe and make any transition smooth. Book a unit online or give us a call at (615)758-3433.