|
 Are you or a loved one faced with the challenge of downsizing? Perhaps the time has come to move to a smaller home or assisted living facility? Whatever the reason, many people are faced with the challenge of sorting through and cleaning out most of their belongings. The daunting task of sorting belongings, finding a home for those you cannot move, organizing the move, unpacking, and finally getting settled into your new, albeit smaller home can be overwhelming.
There are three choices when it comes to downsizing. You can do it yourself (or allow family members to help you), hire someone to do the downsizing for you, or do a combination of self and assisted downsizing. If you plan on hiring someone to help you downsize, there are many services available. Resources such as senior move managers and other organizational professionals can be invaluable. Most of us, however, will plan on either downsizing ourselves or having some partial assistance to help us complete the task.
First, let’s tackle the procedure for downsizing. Most important, estimate how much space you will have in your new home. Obviously, you can take more furniture and other items to a retirement community home than you can into a room at a nursing home. Once you have an estimate on space issues, figure that you are overestimating the space by about 20%. You will actually have less space than you think! Nothing is worse than living in an overcrowded dwelling!
Ok, you have your space estimate. Choose your furniture for function as well as form. Try to make the best use of your space with these larger pieces of furniture. As painful as it is now to get rid of that behemoth tiger maple wardrobe, you may be thankful that you have not crammed it into your 10’ X 10’ master bedroom! Consult family members and friends to see if they would like these pieces. For valuable furniture, estate liquidators or antique dealers/liquidators are a great resource: a reputable dealer can get you top dollar. You can also call local consignment shops to sell nice furniture. Who wouldn’t like to start out their new living quarters with some extra money? If you can’t or don’t want to sell your furniture, many charities enjoy donations of nice furniture and some will even pick it up for you.
Now that we have pared down the large pieces, we are down to the toughest part of downsizing: those well-loved knick-knacks and collectibles, as well as just plain old clutter. Sad to say, most of these items are beloved only by you. Although you treasure them, others may not. The trick is to ask yourself if you can’t live without the item. This works for clothes, artwork, area rugs, shoes, books, really just about anything! I usually start with three boxes and a trash bag. One box I label with a black marker as “Charity”, one gets labeled “Give Away”, and one “Keep”. Of course, the trash bag speaks for itself. This is also the time to consider whether or not you would like to have a yard sale. If so, you’ll need a box (or several) labeled “Yard Sale”. To encourage yourself, remember that every item you can give away, sell, or trash is one less thing you’ll have to move and unpack in your new place!
Sorting can be boring! One way to break up the monotony of sorting is to set a timer. That way you break up a room into bite sized chunks, and you won’t feel so overwhelmed. Maybe you want to work on this 15 minutes a day? Perhaps you can devote an entire hour? Choose an increment of time, set that egg timer, and get to work!
Ask yourself the following questions:
- Have I used/worn/read it this year?
- Do I like/love it?
- Will I wear/use/read it again?
- Does it need repair?
- Is it valuable?
- Does someone else in my circle of family/friends love it?
- Is it ugly?
You get the idea by now, I’m sure. Choose wisely what you place in the “Keep” box!
After you have completed your allotted time, you can close up the boxes. Leave them in the room if it is unused, if not, move them to the garage or another unused room. Work on one room at a time in manageable increments until it is complete. When the room is complete, look in your “Keep” Box, remove a few more items; be ruthless. Put those items into one of your other boxes or bags. You can now pack up this smallish box of “Keepers” and that room is packed!! Put this box in a safe place!
Move from room to room after each is completed. Don’t forget to sort through your attic, basement, or shed. Make sure you consider yard furniture and décor pieces: be thorough! You will be surprised at how quickly it goes. Sort carefully and you will be surprised at how many unused/unnecessary items you currently own. Remember, you may no longer need or want it, but someone else might!
Now comes the assistance part. You have done a phenomenal job of decluttering & sorting. Pat yourself on the back. However, now you may have some heavy boxes of things that are marked “Charity” or “Give Away”. You may have also have several Hefty Bags to get rid of. You have a choice. You can heft these boxes out to your car; make several trips to local charity, the landfill, friends or family, the library (they love good used books), etc. You can try to fit that gargantuan tiger maple wardrobe into your Honda, and try not to herniate any more disks in your back. You can take advantage of your friends and ask them to help you schlep all this around. A good alternative is to call in the assistance of a junk removal company. One well known company, 1-800-GOT-JUNK? is noted for doing an exceptional job of removing items that you may no longer want. While you sit on your favorite chair (marked “Keep”), these friendly, uniformed people will do all the heavy lifting for you in no time flat. They will even remove the stained plaid sofa your basset hound used to sleep on or the old mattresses that you don’t know what to do with. That ancient avocado refrigerator in your garage? Gone, in a single phone call. Items marked “Charity” will go to charity, items for the landfill will go there. These folks arrive on time in clean, shiny trucks, and remove your junk with a smile. When they are done, they’ll even sweep up the mess.
Ahhh! Now, you can invite your friends and family to come into your now spacious, clutter-free home to choose from the “Give Away” Boxes.
Think how easy this next move is going to be, with a little planning and a little help
1-800-GOT-JUNK? | To book an appointment call 1-800-468-5865 or on-line at http://www.1800gotjunk.com/ |
