Know where you’re going!

It’s important to plan things out. You don’t want to be in a situation where you arrive at the new place and realize you still have too many things. Try to have the approximate size of the new space mapped out, room by room. Start by assessing the furniture situation; which ones are absolutely needed first, then making sure they fit in the space. Be ready to accept that some of it just isn’t going to fit. The idea isn’t to get all of it in but to get what you need and to be comfortable. Once that’s complete, then you could put your energy into decluttering the rest of your items.

The new you!

Ask yourself; what are you hoping to gain from downsizing? Imagine the type of lifestyle you’re looking to have once you’ve moved and how you want to live in the space. For example, those figurines you might have been collecting many years ago are lovely, but do you want to continue spending hours dusting them? Or would you rather have more time for social activities?

Really digging into the reason for downsizing can help more than you know. Whether it’s so you can travel more, spend more time with loved ones, get back to old hobbies you’ve forgotten about, keeping your vision in mind will help you stick to the plan, it’ll help you truly form that new life you’re wanting to accomplish and it can even spark some excitement.

No one wants to follow rules, make it fun!

Create your main piles: Keep and Pass Down. Then you can categorize by Sell, Donate, Recycle, Garbage, Hazmat. Some things will be easy to sort into these categories. Start with those. Once you get to the harder items try our Downsizing flowchart to determine what you’ll be keeping or passing down vs. what you won’t be keeping.

You might find yourself stuck with a “maybe pile” at this stage. That’s ok! This process could be really hard. We know! Try this:

• Keep flowing your items through the chart, you’ll see as the days, weeks, months go by, your attachment will level off and you’ll be more objective.

• Ask yourself the simple but effective question: have I used it in the last 6 months? Last year? Last 3 years? If the answer is no, be honest with yourself, do you REALLY need it?

The last thing you want is to move a bunch of boxes that you won’t even open. As a military family, we sometimes move every 1-5 years. Oftentimes, as we’re packing for the new place, we encounter a box that hasn’t even been opened. That’s a pretty good sign that we don’t need those items anymore, so maybe your items haven’t been sitting in a box in an obscure corner, but the same concept applies!

DON’T DO IT!

Finally, if this process is too overwhelming; because you’re grieving, dealing with a stressful life event, have too much on the go as is, or just rather be doing literally anything but downsizing. Don’t do it! The process can be significantly simplified if you need it to be. Pick the things that you love and leave the rest for Alivio Solution to figure out. Sometimes eliminating the stress of knowing you have to do it yourself, allocating just one weekend to decide on the items you’re keeping, without using up the brain space to sort through the rest, can give you the clarity and objectivity you need to get through it relatively painlessly. Visit our Packages page to see how we can help.

Not sure if you need help or not? That’s ok! Contact us for a free consult and we’ll walk you through your options so you can get the peace of mind you need to move forward with confidence.