You may remember back to the times when you were buying your first home, starting a family, and beginning to acquire things like furniture and household goods. Eventually, you may have upgraded to a larger space, grew the family more, and maybe even acquired family pets.

Now that the kids have moved out of the house and you’ve become empty nesters, you may look at your house full of memories as a place that is just too large for only two of you. If you don’t think it’s worth it to maintain such a large space meant for a growing family, you may be ready to downsize into a smaller retirement home.

When you’re ready to move into a smaller space, you’ll have to be prepared to downsize your belongings and the things you want to keep going forward. Take a look at this guide to helping you downsize now that you’re a new empty-nester.

Decluttering each room

The best way to start is to declutter each room of your house. Downsizing one room at a time will make it feel like less of a daunting task and more manageable of one. Try to start small by going through each room to see what you’re going to want to keep and what you’re ready to part with.

It tends to be easiest to start with the extra spaces specifically in your peripheral, including the attic, the garage, sheds, and cellars. It will be easy to look at the items in these rooms before you start tackling your living space, office, kitchen, bedroom, and bathrooms.

What to do with the excess

Once you’ve started creating a pile of things you’re ready to part with, you’ll have to determine what you’re going to do with all of these things. Are you going to pass on items to your children? Would these items make a good donation?

Perhaps some of it is simply trash. Many people take the time to host a garage sale seeing that they have enough items worth selling, such as old children’s toys and antiques. Make a pile of the items that will be gifted to family members, a pile for selling or donating, and a pile of trash.

Why downsizing makes sense

Now that you’ve reached this point, you may start to feel one of two ways. You may either begin to feel a relief that you have less stuff to worry about or you may start to feel sad and unwilling to part with your belongings.

Keeping in mind the benefits of downsizing in the back of your mind will help you along the process. The best thing you can do is consider what the future will hold for you if you make each step to own fewer things.

When you’re ready to downsize, you’ll get to manage a much smaller space than you’re used to which means less time spent cleaning, repairing, and organizing, and more time enjoying relatives and retirement.

This will also equate to less money spent on your home since your mortgage or rent will decrease, as well as your utilities, taxes, and maintenance costs. This smaller space will help you tremendously too if you struggle with mobility, but if not, the money you’ll save or recover from a smaller property may finally pay for that vacation to Europe you’ve been dreaming of.

Think about the future

Make sure your downsizing tasks consider what you’ll need in your future. While you may have done well at lessening the belongings in your house, you need to think about what your next house or chapter in life will look like and how much of what is left is needed for it. Do you need supplies for three bathrooms or will you be downsizing to 1 and ½?

Will your favorite dining table fit in your new table or will you be working with something that can only accommodate a breakfast nook? Do you need your desk and office chair in your new space or will you be less likely to have an office space or even need one? Consider your future plans in the process of downsizing your stuff.

Decluttering in order to downsize may feel scary, but you’ll feel so much lighter once you get going. Have fun in this process and look forward to your upcoming move into a new and smaller space! Of course, when you are ready, call The Professional Moving Specialists and we'll help get you going!