3 Tips for Downsizing Your Home

Downsizing to a smaller home provides a wealth of opportunities for homeowners who realize they no longer need or want to take care of a large property. Additionally, when selling the larger property, it's important to stage your home properly to sell by not having a lot of clutter and things that take away from the look and feel of the home. However, the process of downsizing can be a difficult task to tackle. That's why it's helpful to have an organized plan in place before getting started. There are tips to make it easier to downsize.

Create an Inventory

If the attic, basement, and closets are packed with items that have accumulated over the years, taking an inventory can make it easier to decide what can stay and what can go. It's not unusual for homeowners to find they have an extra slow cooker in the attic or a broken blender they never repaired. Not only does this give homeowners an easy way to take stock of their possessions, it's also a good way to make going through everything far less emotional.

After taking the inventory of items, consider donating or selling the items in a garage sale. A good rule of thumb is that if you havn't used or even seen the item for one to two years, it's time for someone to enjoy it.

Ask for Help

If making a list of items is still proving to be too emotional, consider asking a friend or family member to either help decide which items should go and which ones to keep. The keep request should also come with a reasonable deadline so the homeowner eventually finds a way to either throw away, sell, or donate everything else they have decided to discard.

Sometimes, renting a storage facility can assist in downsizing. Though one needs to be careful not to simply move the items they had and want to keep from one place to another while not downsizing anything.

Have a Yard or Garage Sale

While having a yard sale can be time-consuming, it's another way to refocus the mind on the practical side of downsizing rather than the emotional, which can make it easier to handle the transition. Sell the largest items first so you're not carting around extra beds or dressers. Yard sales give homeowners a chance to reap even more financial benefits of scaling back their lifestyle. The extra money can eventually come in handy for all sorts of things.

Successful downsizing of items is a journey for all Monrovia homeowners, one that may with at least a small sense of loss for what was. However, concentrating on the benefits of downsizing and focusing on the organizational aspects can make it easy to go from one home to the next.