3 Easy Downsizing Steps

How to get Started Downsizing?

Hi, I am Christina Swain with The Swain Team. It can take a long time to downsize and often, my clients have lived in their home for years. They become overwhelmed by the whole idea of downsizing and the project gets put on hold. Let’s face it, downsizing can be a daunting task.

Let’s break it down into 3 easy steps to make it a little easier:

Tackle one room at a time Breaking an overwhelming task down into smaller manageable tasks will help motivate you.
Sort your belongings Will you use it? It’s easy to convince yourself you might still wear that 10-year-old shirt with the tags still on someday. But if you haven’t used it in the past year, it’s likely you never will.

Also, get rid of multiples. Do you have multiple coffee pots, or several sets of china? You don’t need to keep both.

As you sort, follow a strict yes/no policy —no “maybes” allowed. Make a “yes” pile and a “no” pile, and force yourself to choose.

You may further break up the “no” pile to include various piles such as: family members, donate, and a garage sale pile.

3. Preserve Memories For most of my clients who have lived in their home for years, the sentimental attachment to their home is hard to get past. Downsizing is a great time to take those photo albums and digitize them. Give the photo albums to the kids. And take time with friends and family to share the digitized photos as well.

Downsizing is an emotional process. You will discover items you haven’t seen in years. Give yourself some time to reminisce. Take with you what is truly valuable — only you can decide what you can not do without.

If you are planning a move in the next months to few years, reach out to me for a free copy of my Book – “How to Net the Most when You Sell Your Home.” Until next time, I am Christina Swain with The Swain Team