Perhaps your children have graduated college and are out of the house for good; or maybe you’re ready to forgo that spacious suburban lifestyle in favor of an apartment that offers the benefits of big city entertainment. No matter what your reason for downsizing might be, it’s not unusual, at one point in time or another, to move from a larger place of residence to one that is smaller.
In certain situations, downsizing actually makes a lot of sense. For starters, the smaller your living space is, the easier your new home should be to maintain. Trading a larger home for a smaller one should also result in lower utility bills as well, after all, the less space you have to cool and heat, the less money you’ll have to fork over each month to cover your energy costs.
While moving from a larger home to a smaller one does come with certain advantages, the act of downsizing can pose quite the challenge from a moving perspective, particularly when it comes to packing. Unless you’re willing to load up your new living space with stacked furniture and mounds of boxes, you’re going to need to come up with a system for where to physically put your stuff. As the marketing coordinator of Hughes Relocation Services, Inc., an Ocala, Florida moving company offering everything from professional packing services to secure storage facilities, Bobby Hughes has helped numerous clients deal with the difficulties involved in downsizing. Hughes suggests that anyone faced with this very prospect do the following to make the process much easier:
Take inventory and prioritize: Moving from a larger space to a smaller one is all about prioritizing. If you’re going from a four bedroom, two-story house to a one-bedroom condo, then clearly some of your belongings and furniture items just aren’t going to fit. For this reason, it’s important to take inventory of what you have in order to figure out which items you truly need and want in your new abode. You may start out thinking that you just can’t part with your handcrafted living room side tables, but after taking inventory, you may come to realize that if given the choice between those tables and your wine fridge, you’d much rather opt for the latter.
Find furniture that fits: If you’re moving from a larger home to one that is more compact, then you’re likely to find that some of the individual rooms in your new place are also going to be smaller. As such, you may not be able to fit some of your oversized furniture pieces in your new space. Rather than run into a problem on the day of your move, take measurements beforehand and make sure that any item you’re planning to transport will actually fit through the doors and into the area designated for it.
Look into storage options: As you take stock of the possessions you’ve accumulated over the years, you’re likely to come across items that you can’t necessarily fit into your new home, but that you don’t actually want to throw out or give away. If this becomes the case, then you’ll need to look into temporary storage options until you’re able to come up with a more permanent plan for your prized yet superfluous belongings. If your moving company offers storage facilities for situations such as these, then that may be wise option. Most storage units are climate-controlled and monitored for security purposes, so if you decide to go this route, then you’ll be able to rest assured that your property will be safe until you figure out what to do with it for the long haul. Another option is to ask a friend or family member with a basement to house some of your belongings until you come up with a better solution.
Donate or sell what you can: Moving from a larger home to a smaller one can be a great way to save money, so why not continue this trend by selling some of the items that aren’t high on your list of priorities? If you don’t have the time to market your belongings, then consider donating them to charity, especially if they are in decent condition – you’ll be helping the less fortunate while making your move a lot quicker and easier.
Don’t be afraid to throw things out: Sometimes, the only solution to having too much stuff for a downsizing move is to toss out the items that won’t fit in your new place but aren’t worth selling, donating, or storing. It’s natural to feel sad or uneasy about the notion of throwing out things that you otherwise may have opted to keep, but chances are that once you’re settled into your new home, you won’t even notice that they’re gone.
