How to Downsize Your Home but Not Your Stuff
There comes a time in every homeowner’s life where your current home becomes much too big for your needs or lifestyle. Whether it’s from having a newly empty-nest, retirement, or even for health reasons, there are plenty of reasons why you may consider downsizing into a smaller home.
As we all know, moving is an incredibly stressful experience. On top of organizing moving truck rentals, packing and unpacking all your possessions, living out of boxes, etc., you’ll also now have to figure out what you want to keep, and what you don’t, since you’ll be losing a lot of your extra space.
Luckily, for you we’ll walk through how you can hang onto all your cherished possessions even after you’ve downsized into a smaller home.
Assess Your Needs
If you’re currently in the process of downsizing you have likely already considered this step, but for those who haven’t it’s very important that you assess your current needs and situation before downsizing. Figuring out what’s important to you or what you will need in your home beforehand will help ensure that you make the best choice for your future.
Physical Requirements
In some cases, the choice to downsize into a smaller home is often coupled with physical limitations. Whether you’re getting older and aren’t able to take care of that massive lawn or you’re looking to avoid those large staircases, you should be mindful of any future challenges that may arise when you’re looking into a new home.
Extra Rooms
Another thing to consider is whether or not you’ll need extra guest rooms in your home after your move. This is something that many parents look for after their kids have all moved away since you never know when they’ll want to visit overnight or move back in with you (hopefully not)!
Additionally, if you’re not an empty-nester, an extra room can still be a great place for other visitors or even just for your indoor hobbies!
Location
Location, location, location. That seems to be what everyone talks about when it comes to real-estate and they’re right. However, in this case you’ll want to consider the nearby amenities such as shopping, grocery stores, hospitals or clinics (especially if you have any health concerns), and family members. Choosing the right location will be instrumental in ensuring that you can enjoy your home for years to come.
Decide What You Want to Keep (at Home)
Now that you’ve assessed your needs and know what you’re looking for in your new home, you’ll now be faced with the task of choosing what you want to keep and bring over with you. This can be an extremely stressful experience as you’ve likely spent your entire life acquiring your things or have sentimental memories attached to them. However, it is important that you’re able to decide what you want to keep/have room for in your new home beforehand.
We recommend that when sorting through your belongings you move them into 3 categories; things you will take with you, things you can get rid of, and things you want to keep but won’t have room for. While the first two categories make sense – what should you do with the things you won’t have room for?
Extra Storage
There are plenty of ways that you can find some extra storage space during your move – whether it’s from just getting a new dresser in your bedroom or closet, investing in compact or multifunctional furniture to help save some space in your rooms, or adding in closet organizers, there are plenty of ways you can still hang onto your things without cluttering up your new home.
For those large items or pieces of furniture that, of course, won’t fit in a closet organizer you can also opt to put them into storage to save them for a friend or family member or until you’ve decided what to do with them on a later date. At Go Mini’s we can bring a portable storage container to you so that you can load all of your extra furniture at your own pace. Then we can store it for you in our secure facility until you’re ready for it again – learn more here.
Simplified Moving
Whether you’re downsizing due to health reasons, downsizing your home for retirement, or you are downsizing for less space, one thing you’ll want to consider is how you’ll move. As mentioned in the section above, having to get rid of your belongings can be a stressful endeavor and sorting through them can take more time than you have. For this reason, we recommend using a portable moving container for your next move.
At Go Mini’s we provide the most convenient storage solution available. Our mobile storage and moving containers can be delivered directly to your home and placed on your driveway so that you can pack and load your things at your own pace. Instead of rushing to make decisions based on an hourly moving truck rental, you can keep it for as long as you need and then when you’re done loading it, we’ll take it to our secure facility until you’re ready for it again or we can move it to your new home for you. To learn more about our portable storage and moving container rentals or service areas, visit us online or give us a call.
