A Comprehensive Guide To Downsizing Your Home

As we get older, we realize that most of the things we have accumulated during our lives are unnecessary. The random teapot that has been sitting in your basement cupboard for seven years can probably be thrown out now.

However, it is much easier said than done to purge your household of all the unnecessary items built up in one way or another. You might need the extra nudge or a comprehensive guide to help you.

WomanlyLive is here to be the helping hand that you need to get your downsizing boots on.

Sell Or Donate

Before starting downsizing, you need to pick out places that you will sell or donate items to. Do your research beforehand and find causes that you are passionate about and would like to support or places where you will get the most value for your items.

Doing this will ensure that once the items leave your house, they never come back. You will be able to take them and leave them at your chosen organizations so that you don’t come home with anything and feel tempted to keep them.

Get Advice

Doing anything significant like downsizing is a daunting task and can sometimes feel like the most major task in the world. However, many people have done it who could help you to complete the task.

Phone a friend who has recently downsized or seek advice on community chat groups to know precisely what you are getting into and what you need to do to complete the tasks. Being armed with knowledge from all around can only make the process easier for you.

Multipurpose

Each time you consider an item, consider whether you will be able to use it for multiple things. Having multipurpose items around the house makes it much easier to downsize as one item can help you in many areas.

Doing this will ensure that you get rid of every item that does what the multipurpose item can do, and then you will end up with far fewer single-use items and far more space around your house.

Be Kind

Downsizing can be challenging, especially for those who have lived with the items so long that they have formed an emotional attachment to them, so it is essential to be kind to yourself when downsizing.

Getting rid of precious items simply because you don’t have the space for them can be a horrible feeling, and you must make sure that you take regular breaks and remind yourself why you are doing this.

Think About The Future

While it can be difficult to downsize, you should always remind yourself about the ultimate goal of downsizing. Most times, you are downsizing so that your life can be more accessible and happier.

Keeping the future in mind will make the downsizing a little easier because you will know that it is for a good cause, and you will ultimately feel much happier once it is all over and you have the life that you wished for, clean and clutter-free.

Get Opinions

If you are unsure about the value of an item, get opinions from objective parties. This does not only mean that you should get a professional’s opinion on old art pieces; it can mean that you ask friends and family whether or not you should be keeping your graduation cap.

Doing this will allow you to evaluate which items are essential and which items you can do without and which of the items has actual sentimental value that would justify you keeping them in the downsize.

Categorize

Downsizing a home can be an enormous task and should therefore not be done all at once. It will be tempting to sort through your entire home in one fell swoop, but you should try to sort your items by category.

Start with your most essential items, such as the living room and bedrooms, and then work your way down to smaller items like the kitchen and basement, where most of our useless items usually accumulate.

Replacements

Once you have decided which of your items will be going in the downsizing, take a second look at them and decide which items would be easy to replace and which would be almost impossible to replace.

You should be realistic about this process, though. While it probably won’t be easy to replace a walkman, you also probably will never require one again, and you can safely throw it out or donate it.