Choosing to downsize your Lancaster home or at least your possessions can be beneficial no matter your stage in life. Having a ton of extra stuff can bog you down and actually leave you feeling overwhelmed. Below, we provide some tips on how to best downsize your house.
As the years go by, it’s easy to find yourself with more and more stuff. Most of us have closets, basements, attics, and sometimes even usable rooms filled with things that we don’t need, don’t use, and probably don’t even want. Freeing up space in your home not only makes it look better, but also feel so much better too. If you’re considering downsizing, we hope that our tips below will help get you moving in the right direction.
Tip #1 – Get To Organizing
Before you can even think about moving, you’re going to need to take sometime to organize in order to even assess what you have. Grouping like items like clothing, photos, books, kitchen-ware, etc. can be helpful in making an initial assessment of what you have. This will also make packing and moving a bit more streamlined when the time comes. Make sure that if you’re doing some packing as you organize that you’re labeling all your boxes as well!
Tip #2 – Look Through All The Boxes
Sometimes our stuff finds its way into boxes and never leaves. In some cases boxes haven’t even been unpacked from previous moves which makes it pretty certain that you probably don’t need the contents. You may run across keepsakes that you didn’t remember you had or that you still want to keep, and keeping one or two is OK. That said, it’s important to use this as an easy test to see what you use and what you can get rid of.
Tip #3 – Utilize the Year Rule
You might have heard this trick for your closets. Turn all the hangers backward, and anything still backward in a year should be given away. This can work for things as well especially if you’re being honest with yourself. The kitchen can be another place where things accumulate that never get used. Make sure that you’re really taking the time and letting go of the things you don’t want or use.
Tip #4 – Assess Your Furniture
Furniture is big, bulky, and takes up a ton of space. It’s also not expecially easy to get rid of, so it often sticks with us for longer than it should. Do you need the huge sectional sofa in the basement? Is the giant hutch still a necessity? Some of these items could be sold or at least given away to someone that could use them. This can be a win-win for both you and the new owner as you free up valuable space in your current house or new house.
Tip #5 – Use the Power of Technology
Paper files and documents, physical pictures, and even owner manuals are quickly becoming a thing of the past. Almost every owners manual can easily be found online. Work to upload and digitize all of your pictures and important documents. This should be done anyway for your security and helps tremendously in decluttering. Now is the time to recycle all of that paper that you no longer need!
Tip #6 – Give it away or Find a New Use
You likely have many things you are keeping due to sentimental value. While it is more than ok to hang on to some of this stuff, having too much can weigh you down. Maybe your kids or grandkids would love to have your old Chrismas ornaments that are lying around in the closet. Things such as old toys, clothes, and artworks can find new homes with people you love. This way you can find joy in knowing they are being used and loved, without taking up storage space in your house.
Tip #7 – Say No to Redundancy in Stuff
Do you need 4 wine bottle openers to crack open your occasional bottle? Do you need 3 vacuum cleaners or will a single well working one do? There are many instances where we’ve accumulated duplicates of things throughout the years. Take an inventory and keep your favorites and be realistic about what you can sell or give away.