Moving Tips for Those Who Are Downsizing
In Downsizing, the recent movie starring Matt Damon, the main character undergoes a process called downsizing in which his body is shrunk to about five inches tall. Thankfully, when most people talk about downsizing, they’re referring to a reduction in their living space, not their body. Moving to a smaller home is not nearly as challenging as adapting to a tiny body, but it does have its difficulties. The following tips will help you out as you move into a smaller home.
Follow a Step-by-Step Pare-Down Process
One of the most important aspects of moving into a smaller space is getting rid of anything you don’t need. Unfortunately, a lot of people approach this haphazardly and end up keeping things they don’t need and throwing away items they could have used. Here’s a more organized, step-by-step approach to paring down your possessions.
- Make a list of your essential must-haves that you cannot do without. Keep those things.
- Throw away anything that is garbage, broken, or otherwise unable to be used by someone else.
- Sort through your items and donate or sell any duplicates.
- Keep a box in the corner of your room as you pack so you can toss any other unneeded items inside as you pack.
- Keep another box in the corner of your new home so you can toss additional unneeded items as you unpack.
Some people rent a storage unit for their extra items when downsizing, but they often end up forgetting about and never actually using or needing the items in storage. Only rent a storage unit as a last resort.
Measure Everything
The furniture that looks great and fits into your current home may not fit into your new, smaller home. Even if it fits, it may look awkwardly large in the space. Before you transport anything, measure all of your furniture. Measure the length, height, width, and also a diagonal length. Also measure the doorways in your new home to ensure the furniture will fit through the doorways. Donate or sell anything that won’t fit.
Also, make a floor plan of your new home and draw in where each piece of furniture will be placed. If you have furniture there won’t be space for, sell those pieces of furniture before you move. You do not want to spend time and money moving a sofa or dresser, only to find it won’t fit in your new home.
Sort Boxes Immediately When You Move In
One challenge of moving into a smaller home is that the area tends to fill with boxes quickly. Smaller doorways are also harder to navigate when moving boxes and furniture from room to room. So as you pack, color code your boxes so you know which boxes belong in which rooms. Then, as you unpack, put the boxes in their respective rooms rather than piling them in one place. This saves you having to move them through the house again later.
Be Careful Who You Ask to Help
Having friends come help you move and unpack can certainly make the process faster and more enjoyable. However, when you are moving into a smaller home, you don’t want too large of a moving team. Have 10 friends over, and they’ll spend more time tripping and running into each other than unpacking.
Ask just three or four really reliable friends to help you. If you have other friends come forward and ask to help, see if they would be willing to come back a few days after the initial move and help you clean, decorate, or get rid of boxes. This way, everyone will have plenty of space to move around during the unpacking process.
Downsizing is quite the process, but just be thankful it’s the size of your home that is changing – not the size of your body. If you need assistance with your move, contact Mr. Move It All for a free moving quote.
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