At Mountain Movers, we understand that the process of moving might seem complicated. However, it doesn’t have to be! With proper preparation and the right mindset, you can sort through your belongings and downsize with ease. Because our mission statement is to provide a seamless and satisfying moving experience, we want our clients to be familiar with how to do that in an effective manner.
To make sure you’re not overwhelmed by the prospect of downsizing your home, we’ve made this list of 6 Helpful Tips for Downsizing:
1. Take Inventory
The first thing that anybody should do when moving is to take inventory of everything they own. This can often be an extensive process, but it’s well worth it. To effectively take inventory of all of your possessions, create a type of document where you can keep track of everything. If the object in question has a serial code, consider writing that down as well to make sure that you can verify its worth or whether or not it’s discontinued through online searching.
We recommend creating a spreadsheet through an online service such as Google Docs. By doing this, you’ll be able to access your spreadsheet from anywhere and also keep a copy uploaded to a server. While it’s possible to lose a physical journal that you’ve used to keep track of your objects with, losing an online spreadsheet is difficult, decreasing your chances of having to start from scratch again. You can also completely reformat and adjust your spreadsheet with ease, allowing you to change the way you categorize your inventory without having to completely redesign it.
2. Get Rid of Excess
When taking inventory of all of the objects in your house, it’s important to make sure that you don’t have too much excess with you. For example, if you’re somebody who tends to hold onto things, you want to make sure that everything you’re keeping has a specific purpose or sentimental memory. Even in situations where something has a sentimental memory, though, it’s important to know when to let go.
An easier form of excess to identify can be when you have more than one of a certain object. Do you have too many forks? What about spare brooms? Though it can be helpful to have duplicates of certain objects in the event that one breaks, you should have a grasp on which duplicates are redundant.
Another way to come to terms with your excess is to pass on objects to their owners. If you’re a couple that is moving from a family-sized house to a smaller one due to not having kids that live with you anymore, you should go through the empty bedrooms and see if there are any objects that your kids might want to take with them. After all, you don’t want to be holding onto objects that aren’t significant to your children anymore, so it might be useful to give them the choice to decide for themselves. By letting them decide what they want to keep and what they want to get rid of, you can make your moving process easier.
3. Have a Yard Sale
Once you’ve identified things that aren’t important to your lifestyle, having a yard sale is a great way to test the waters and see if you need to get rid of anything. By setting up shop outside your house one day and seeing if anybody is interested in your items, you can get an idea of which things will be hard to get rid of and which things were easy to forget. On top of all of this, it’s also possible to earn money by having a yard sale, giving you more money to spend on actually moving!
Of course, having a yard sale is a lot of work on its own, so we recommend that you take your time with it if interested. Ideally you should start weeks in advance so you have proper time to promote the event itself. Though there will likely be people driving by your house and stopping, the most successful yard sales are accomplished through careful planning and promotion. If you have friends who are willing to help out, ask them to put up flyers around their workplaces and social media accounts. Then you can start setting up your yard, picking out objects to sell and getting ready to sell them. By the time the day comes, you’ll be well prepared.
Once you’re done with your yard sale, you can then focus on moving. This can also be helpful for identifying objects that you don’t need—things that don’t sell during the yard sale are probably also things you don’t need, so feel free to get rid of them.
If you happen to have a lot of records that you need to get rid of, consider reaching out to local record collectors or record store. Not only will they be able to help you determine if your records are worth significant amounts of money, but they’ll likely also be interested in purchasing your record collection in bulk.
4. Keep Measurements
When changing your home, it’s important to keep track of proper measurements for both your new home and the furniture you’re trying to move into it. This is because you don’t want to waste time moving something from one home to another only to find out that it doesn’t fit after all. We recommend keeping measurement data on your inventory sheet so you can be aware of which things will take up certain amounts of space. If you’re working with a professional moving company, they can also help give input on which things you should take with you and which things are worth leaving behind.
5. Acquire a Storage Space if Necessary
Though we might like to take everything with us, sometimes it isn’t possible. At the same time, it’s common to also have many things you simply can’t part with. If you’re somebody who feels caught in-between these two sentiments, perhaps it’s most effective for you to acquire a storage space. By using a storage space, you can put away sentimental objects without having to clutter up your new living space. Storage units are also great places to put family relics that have no other place with the intention of eventually passing them onto children or other family members. A storage unit can also just be a place you need to put your old bed that you’re not content with letting go of just yet! Though it might seem like storage units are price prohibitive, they’re more affordable than you might think—we recommend you look into local options and see if there’s a unit that’s right for you!
6. Don’t Be Afraid to Ask for Help
One of the most important things to remember when moving is that it is a difficult process. Though this might seem like an obvious thing, sometimes it’s easy to be overwhelmed and forget that it’s possible to ask for help. This is why we recommend asking someone for help, whether it be family, friends or a local moving organization. This can include taking inventory, removing objects from your house or even delivering food while you’re deep in the moving process.
If you want to effectively ask for help, we recommend that you partition your work. For example, perhaps taking inventory and deciding what needs to go is already so time-consuming. In this situation, you might need to hire a moving company to help get everything out of the house even if you’re not taking it with you. Having someone there to remove the physical challenge can be a great way to free your mind and prevent the entire process from feeling too stressful.
What did you think of our list? Are you planning on applying any of these tips when you need to downsize? Do you have any of your own preferences? Let us know what you think! If you ever need assistance from a local moving organization, always remember that Mountain Movers is just a phone call away! With the right help, your move will be a quick and seamless process!