It may be that the kids have left home or that you’re simply trying to live with less, in a smaller space, to save money. Whatever your reasons for downsizing are, you can make a bigger success of it by following these tips.
Make a thorough inventory of your possessions
In order to downsize, you’ll almost certainly have to part with some of your belongings, so go through everything and decide whether to keep, bin or donate things.
This can be the hardest part of downsizing, though, because possessions carry a lot of memories and emotions. It’s important to recognise whether you need an item or whether you want it because of the associations it carries. It’s the not-quite-essential items with associations that are the trickiest because some of them will have to go.
One idea is to distribute a few of them among friends and family so they’re still in circulation. Take some photos and send them to F&F to see which ones get snapped up.
Get rid of duplicates
This is one of the easiest tasks. If you have four different sets of salad servers, pare them down to your favourite two. Do the same with wine glasses, chairs, picnic blankets and jars of paprika until you’ve created an impressively large pile, which can then go to charity or F&F.
Have a yard giveaway
Some things aren’t going to sell and aren’t worth the effort of listing on a freebie site, even. However, lots of people can’t resist a roadside giveaway, so kick your items to the kerb (with a “Free to a Good Home” sign) and most of them will be gone in a day or two. Job done.
Get creative with storage space
There’s bound to be a few things that you can’t part with, even if they’re not necessary, so buy some new items of furniture with built-in storage so that you’re still able to fit into your smaller new space.
Put your best items and possessions in your new cupboards and closets
Fill up your new storage space with your best possessions so that you know you’re using the space you’ll have to its best advantage. If you find you’re left with less-than-optimal stuff that doesn’t fit in, then you know you have further to go with your decluttering.
Measure twice, throw out once
You might find that the dimensions of your new place make decisions for you when it comes to keeping or discarding furniture and other items. If your corner sofa simply won’t fit, then you know what to do.
