HomeTips for Downsizing Your Home
You've worked hard and have built a legacy, living and making memories in your current home. However, over time things have started to change. Routine maintenance has become too expensive and overwhelming, yard work is taking up too much time, and you have too many belongings and space just for your needs. Now that the kids are out of the house and you are entering the next chapter of your life, retirement should be a stress-free and enjoyable season. But with all the work a big house demands, how can you kick back and relax? The answer is to downsize into a smaller, more manageable home.
Downsizing makes sense when you enter a stage of life when you don't need a lot of belongings, space, or yard area anymore. This is your chance to eat out, travel, and be unburdened by the many responsibilities that kept you stationary during your younger years. When you declutter, you can move into a smaller home quickly. Since you can't take everything with you, this guide will show you how to successfully downsize your home and enter the next chapter of your life.
Take It Slow
When you look at your house as a whole, it can seem overwhelming to try and sort through your belongings. But if you start slowly, you can get rid of items you don't need and donate items gradually. This relaxed pace benefits your mental health and emotional well-being and ensures you don't rush and throw away valuable sentimental objects. It also makes sense to pack up things gradually if you work without much help.
Measure your New Home
If your current house is around 3,000 square feet, and you want to downsize into something around 1,300 square feet, you will need to get rid of a significant amount of furniture. Accents necessary to fill the space in a larger home, such as extra shelving, curio cabinets, large dining sets, chaise lounges, and other luxury items aren't necessary for a smaller home to function.
You can sell these items to obtain more compact and space-saving solutions like a smaller kitchen table and a loveseat with some hidden storage. Use the dimensions of your new home to ensure that all the furniture that you want to bring into it will fit. For example, in a 15 x 15 living room, a large sectional will take up most of the space. Instead, you should find creative ways to incorporate seating that doesn't swallow the room.
Work Room by Room
Larger homes contain more furniture and belongings that will not fit in a smaller house. This means that it's time to sort which items are must-haves in your next home — and what's gotta go. Things that you should keep include:
- Milestone sentimental belongings that you can't live without.
- Essential living room furniture, such as a sofa or recliner.
- Bed frames, mattresses, and enough seasonal bedding.
- The kitchen appliances and cookware that you consistently use.
- Artwork and decor that would fit nicely into your next home.
- Storage solutions like ottomans, bookshelves, and fabric bins in cubbies to save space in your smaller home.
- Essential gear for hobbies, such as musical instruments or a sewing machine.
Remember to pace yourself and to stop whenever the task gets overwhelming. This buys you enough time to gather boxes to put in items that you want to donate to charity or to discard belongings that others can't use.
- Tip: Having a yard sale is a great way to cash in on downsizing. This reduces your number of trips to Goodwill or the dump and is a great way to give your belongings new life.
Decide What's Important for Your New Lifestyle
As you move on to the next chapter of your life, you must decide what is important to you. These values will influence what you bring with you. For example, do you plan on mowing your lawn, or do you want to hire help? In this case, you won't need to bring your fancy riding mower. If deep cleaning is too much strain on your body, you don't need to keep many cleaning products with you if you hire periodic housekeeping help.
If a hobby brings you joy, definitely make space for it. You will need to pass the time in your smaller house in meaningful ways, and there's nothing better than to continue to be creative and do life-bringing activities. Whether you like to knit, watch movies, or play a musical instrument, you should designate some space for these activities that enrich your life.
Be Prepared to Make Hard Decisions
You may need to make some tough choices when it comes to sentimental items. While some sentimental items can be discreetly kept in a box and stored in a closet, others might take up too much space in your new home. For example, perhaps a classic vehicle that you have treasured for years won't fit in your smaller garage. Or, you have a vast collection of collectible figurines that you don't have space to display in your new home.
If you absolutely cannot part with something that takes up space, then something else has to give. But suppose you already have trouble fitting essentials into your new home, such as a bed, television, and kitchen appliances. In that case, some sentimental items need to be given away or sold.
Want to Have the Best of Both Worlds? Use Storage Rental Units.
If you want to keep your home free from clutter but can't part ways with some treasures from your past, you can always store them in a storage rental unit. This keeps your belongings near your house, where you can safely access them 24/7. Therefore, if you want to keep your classic vehicle for the annual car show or sell your action figure collection piece by piece, you can take the time urgency out of the equation with this convenience.
What is the best age to downsize your home?
The best answer to this question is “it depends” since there are all sorts of factors that can affect this. Some people wait until all or most of their kids grow up and move out and then they won’t need as much space. Their kids could be in their late teens or mid-20s when this happens, especially if they attend college or join the military for a few years. But your age for downsizing might depend on when you had kids, which could be your teens, 20s, 30s or even 40s. Another possible answer could be “when you’re done with work,” which could be late 50s to early to mid-60s for most people. Having extra time will provide you more opportunity during the day to go through items, pack boxes, and prepare the next home for your arrival. Reaching retirement age also might change your financial situation and make a move more of a priority. Some may say “when you still have the strength to move” which depends on your personal fitness being able to haul boxes back and forth. Of course, there are movers who can help with these things. Another variable is where you’re moving to: some retirement communities may have age restrictions, such as residents must be at least 55 years old. Certainly you can work on creating your downsizing plan for a few years so you’ll be ready when all the pieces come together.
How do you know when it is time to downsize?
If you have newly vacant and unused space from fewer people living there, it might be time to move. Empty rooms can cost money for heating/cooling, and a larger footprint may mean higher property taxes in some communities. Likewise, if you decide you have too much stuff and you’re not opposed to getting rid of a lot of it except the essentials, starting fresh in a smaller space could be another motivator (with the possibility of off-site storage, of course.) Safety could be a concern – having a multi-level home might have been fine earlier in life but as you age, it might be to your advantage to have a smaller one-level home or apartment. If it’s becoming more of a challenge to go up and down stairs, it might be time to relocate. You also might be getting tired of yard maintenance, so the thought of moving to a place where these tasks are taken care of, or at least a smaller footprint, might be appealing.
Is it worth it to downsize?
Downsizing could have financial benefits. You’ll have less space to keep heated in the winter or cool in the summer, so potentially lower utility bills. You may have less property to pay for. In a good housing market, you could sell your larger home for a good chunk of change, buy a smaller place with some of the proceeds, and have some extra to put aside for future financial needs. You’ll have less home to maintain, which could also be a good thing if it’s becoming more difficult to perform interior or exterior cleaning on a regular basis. Although the process of purging can be challenging, especially if there are years of accumulation, it may provide a feeling of freedom. Your kids also might appreciate this since it will be less for them to deal with when dealing with your estate in the future.
How to downsize for a move
Creating a strategy for downsizing is a smarter idea than trying to tackle everything at once. If you’ve already found a new place and are selling your current place, you can find out your final move-out date and work backwards. Set goals for daily progress, like going through a room a day. If you’re unsure whether to keep or dispose of certain items, divide them into piles. One pile can be “unsure/others to decide,” and if they can’t decide in time for your deadline, you can consider putting the items in storage. Include a goal list for you along with one for other family members and even professionals such as movers and cleaners.
How to downsize your belongings
It’s easy to get distracted going through certain items, especially if you haven’t seen them for awhile or you may have sentimental attachments to them. To speed up the process, you might want to consider partnering with someone, such as a friend who may not have the same attachments or memories as you do when deciding to keep something or toss it. They can help keep you on task as well as decide which pile an item belongs. It also helps when packing to clearly label boxes in several places on the outside. This will make it easy to move out and move in in the new place.
How do downsize your home for retirement?
Because downsizing is becoming fairly common in our economy, this means that there are plenty of people around who can provide some pointers or even an extra set of hands. Once you’ve decided that it’s time to move, it helps to make a map of what’s in each room. This can tell what types of products are in here, which will be useful when packing and deciding what goes where.
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