Whether you’re trying to save money, at a time in your life where you don’t need as much home anymore, or simply want to simplify your life, there are plenty of reasons to downsize your home. Once you make the decision to downsize your home, you also have to downsize your belongings; after all, what furnished a three-bedroom home with a garage and yard won’t fit in a one-bedroom condo. This can prove difficult to some, so here are some tips to get you started.
1. Start Early
As long as you’re working within your own timeframe, give yourself at least four months before your target move date. Looking for a new home, packing, and moving takes a lot of physical—and mental—effort. If you’re stressed out, you may make rash decisions you’ll end up regretting when it comes to downsizing your possessions. Make sure you give yourself enough time to be confident in your decisions.
2. Go Digital
Do you have a towering bookshelf gathering dust? A movie and TV show collection you never seem to touch? Boxes of pictures and photo albums you don’t want to lose for sentimental reasons, but rarely look at? Save the space and still keep your things by going digital. Scan those pictures, download eBooks, and upload those DVDs and Blu-Rays to the Cloud for the best of both worlds.
3. Pass It Forward
Just because you can’t take all of your belongings with you doesn’t mean they can’t live a second life in another home. Give your friends and family a chance to look at the items you’re not keeping and to take home what catches their eye. Just remember: Once it’s theirs, it’s theirs to do with what they wish. Don’t demand to knows its whereabouts next time you’re over for dinner.
4. Remember You’re Not a Bed and Breakfast
If you live alone or share a room with your partner and have no other household members, there’s no reason for you to pay for a second bedroom. If you have occasional overnight guests, many sleeper couches are just as comfortable as traditional beds and only need to be converted when it’s lights out
5. Play Favorites
Sure, you may like the variety of 12 sets of sheets and blankets, or the look of three different sets of mixing bowls, or the decision between of a single cup, full pot, or French press cup of coffee, but do you need all these options? Decide which ones you gravitate toward more often and streamline the rest.
6. Say “Yes” to Amenities
Do you need extra space in your home for your treadmill and elliptical machine, a game room with billiards and darts, or a huge yard that requires equipment and tools to maintain? Simplify your home—and life—by downsizing to a community or apartment complex that provides these amenities and handles the yardwork and gardening so you don’t have to.
Now you’re ready to downsize your home—but what about the things you couldn’t downsize out of your life too? Don’t worry, you can still scale back and keep the things most important to you by relocating them to an affordable, secure, climate-controlled storage unit. Contact the professionals at Secure Self Storage to get started.