Downsizing Without Regret – 10 Tips for Moving into a Smaller Space
Moving into a smaller home can lead to a lot of anxiety and stress because you are facing the challenge of creating a new living space with limited room for furniture, decorations, and the rest of your things. Trying to fit your big home into your new smaller home can be difficult, but coming up with a plan before you move can help you downsize without regret. Here are 10 tips for moving into a smaller place:
Plan Ahead
Don’t wait. Waiting can increase your stress tenfold. Start planning your downsize early and set weekly goals. It’s important that everyone in the family is on the same page when it comes time to make the move.
Lifestyle Needs
Think about what lifestyle needs you want to continue your move forward. You need to ask yourself some questions. Does your new home have room for oversized furniture? Do you think you should keep something just because you spent a lot of money on it? How much smaller is your home? Changing your lifestyle can be hard, but it can also be fun to shake things up.
Purpose
A big mistake you can make while downsizing is keeping everything and just taking it with you. However, not everything you have still has a purpose. Some items you have only have the purpose of collecting dust. Find the things that have a purpose and take photographs of everything else to preserve memories, and save space.
Make a List
Something that can really help you decide the purpose of your things is to go through every room and write a list of haves and have-nots. On the haves side, you should only write things that you absolutely need.
Declutter
Go through your stuff and decide what you don’t need, especially in the clothes and shoes department. In a smaller home, you’re going to have a smaller closet and less space for all your clothes. Going through your clothes and getting rid of things you don’t wear often will free up some space.
Keep Clutter Out
Nothing overpowers a smaller house like clutter. It may not seem like a lot of stuff in your big home, but in a smaller space, all that stuff can seem like a mountain. Using smart storage solutions in your smaller home can make it appear bigger than it is. For example, you can use a tablecloth over a table as a way to hide things.
Compare Dimensions
To see what will fit in your new home, it can be a good idea to compare dimensions, especially in your living rooms and bedrooms. This can help you decide if your current furniture will work or if you will have to invest in something smaller.
Quality Over Quantity
In a smaller space, quality over quantity is key. Choose one piece of furniture that makes a statement rather than trying to cram different pieces of furniture into a small room. When choosing this one piece of furniture look for something that has multiple uses. For example, a couch that has a sofa bed in it for guests with an ottoman that has storage.
Color-Coded System
When packing up all your belongings, you can make your move easier by color-coding the boxes so you know what room each box belongs in.
Hire a Professional
Moving into a smaller space means that you will be getting rid of a lot of stuff. All this stuff has to go somewhere. Hiring Go Junk Free America can help you remove all the stuff you aren’t taking to your new home. You can be happy knowing that your stuff is gone and you’ll have free space in your new home, but you can also be happy knowing that the stuff we pick up will be donated to charities. Give us a call today at (323) 633-0610.
