Downsizing your life can be incredibly liberating, but you can only achieve it by shedding many of the possessions you’ve accumulated over a lifetime.
Living with fewer responsibilities is the goal of many aged mid-50s and above who decide to downsize once their children have grown up and there’s no need to maintain a large family home.
Downsizing can be the beginning of one of the most amazing times of your life, but it isn’t achieved without some emotional challenges.
As an experienced local real estate agent, I’ve helped many couples in this situation.
Finding the right property and achieving the greatest value for your family home are critical to any downsizing strategy.
But the job is never done until you reduce your possessions so you can live comfortably in a smaller home and many couples find this the most challenging part of downsizing.
So, if you’re thinking of taking a similar path, here’s 12 useful tips to help you purge your possessions.
- Give yourself a deadline – Discarding your possessions is difficult but don’t drag out the process because the longer it takes, the harder it will become and the less you’re likely to get rid of.
- Get organized – When downsizing, it’s a great idea to sort through your possessions either by category or room. You can choose to reduce the number of books, go through the utensils drawer in the kitchen, or move from room to room. But, do not move to the next category or room until you have finished the current one.
- Love what you keep – There’s no value in hanging onto possessions that mean little to you, which you never use, or which won’t work with the decor of your new home. If you don’t love, don’t keep it.
- Make piles – You don’t need to throw everything away. You can sell many items, offer others to family and friends, or donate them to charity. So, make piles as you go to indicate the possible destination for each item.
- No maybes – A successful throw-out means you can’t take prisoners. So, don’t have a “maybe” pile. We’re at the pointy end here – it’s “in” or it’s “out”. This is especially true when it comes to your wardrobe.
- Include family – Make sure your family has the opportunity to use anything that you wish to throw out. Furniture is expensive and perhaps someone can make use of your couch or a couple of wing-back chairs that no longer have room in your life. But don’t be offended if they decline.
- Tough love – Don’t keep anything that might be sentimental to others but has no value to you. Give everyone in the family an opportunity to lay claim to possessions that they love. That includes sporting trophies from the kids or old toys. Seriously, where will you put them in your new home?
- Drop-dead deadline – Let your family know that they must lay claim to any unwanted possessions by a specific date. After that, those items are history. It’s the only way. You’re not running a storage unit for your adult children.
- Ease into it – It’s a good idea to do a few simple tasks first. For example, go through the linen closet and throw out old towels and sheets. Practice on the easy items before moving to the tough stuff.
- Fashion victim – Clothes are one of the hardest categories to purge. Think about what you can mix and match, and keep timeless pieces. Anything that you haven’t worn for more than a year or two should be expendable.
- One of everything – This is tougher than Noah’s Ark. Implement a policy in which you keep only one item rather than two. This is an excellent discipline for kitchen equipment.
- Take photos – There’s no harm in taking photos of some of the more treasured items you throw out, in case you have regrets later.
If I can help you create your downsizing strategy, I’d be delighted to hear from you. There are many options to explore at this exciting stage of life and and having helped many others, I’m sure I can be of assistance to you.