Moving to a smaller home poses one big challenge: What do you do with all your stuff? When you’re downsizing, it can be difficult to decide what to keep and what to eliminate, especially when many of your belongings may be valuable or hold special meaning to your family.
Whether you’re downsizing to save money, be closer to grandchildren, or live in a maintenance-free condo with an ocean view, assessing what you truly need — and what your smaller home can accommodate — is essential to making your move easier.
By reducing the number of your possessions before you move, you can make the moving process more efficient, affordable and manageable. You’ll also reduce the amount of time it takes to get settled in your new home.
But where should you begin? In this article, we’ll walk you through all the steps of downsizing, from decluttering your home to making a floor plan of your new space.
We know this can be an emotionally taxing and physically exhausting process. Our professional downsizing tips are designed to help you minimize stress, stay organized and understand how to downsize efficiently.
Why is Downsizing Beneficial?
For anyone looking to save money, time and hassle, moving to a smaller space can offer benefits on all three fronts. When you downsize to a smaller home, you’ll have fewer rooms to clean, less space to heat and cool and, oftentimes, lower maintenance expenses and taxes.
Moving to a smaller home can also mean fewer things to worry about. You might have only one AC unit to worry about, instead of two. Giving up a yard can mean eliminating raking, mowing and gutter cleaning. You might share the expenses of costly building repairs like roof replacement and exterior painting. Living in a smaller space will also reduce your energy consumption, which will save you money and help reduce your carbon footprint.
Letting go of things you no longer need can feel liberating, and it will make it easier to keep your new home organized. Even if you’re not joining the tiny house movement, there are plenty of benefits from reducing your square footage. Here’s how to make a smaller space work for you.
Creating Your Downsizing Plan
If you’ve decided to downsize, it’s important to create a clear plan so you’ll know what you need in your new space and what you’ll do with items you won’t be taking with you.
1. Identify Your New Space and Limitations
Embrace your inner designer. Ask if there is an architectural floor plan for your new place or create one on your own. Measure each room, noting where doors and windows are located, and make a simple, scale line drawing on the computer or on graph paper. Create rough templates for your furniture (or download them) and try arranging them in each room. Do you have enough space to walk around your dining table? What about that armchair you have in your study? Will your area rug still fit in your bedroom, or does it work better in the living room?
You may find that you can eliminate freestanding storage pieces like large wardrobes or entertainment centers. Or you might use the sleeper sofa from your living room in a guest room instead of a full-size bed, so the room can double as your office.
Wall-mounted shelving systems can also come in handy, from bedrooms to basements. Some even offer drawers and cabinets, so you can tuck away items you don’t want on display. You may want to invest in attractive baskets and bins to store smaller items, like pet toys, office supplies or fashion accessories. If they are durable and have lids, you can pack your items directly in the bins, making them move-in ready.
2. Start Early and Set a Timeline
Like so many things in life, getting a head start means reducing stress down the road. If you have the luxury of a longer timeline, we advise beginning the downsizing process 2-3 months before your moving day. Setting monthly, weekly and daily goals can make the moving process more manageable.
Start with hard deadlines — like when you must vacate your current house — and work your way back. Find obvious trouble areas in your house like garages, attics and mudrooms and make a calendar for decluttering them. Removing unwanted items before you secure a moving quote can help you keep costs down.
Make a room-by-room list of any items you must hold out until moving day, like mattresses, pet food bowls, etc. Determine dates by which you’ll pack away essential things like bedside lamps, glassware, pots and pans.
Bonus tips: Create a cloud-based moving folder to keep everything organized. Your contract with the moving company, your packing list, a task list, etc. This will allow other members of your family to see what tasks you’ve assigned them and to check them off when they’re complete. Make sure you protect this with a password.
If your move requires an overnight stay on the road, scope out the hotel options early, especially if you need pet-friendly accommodations. Book refundable rooms in advance and pad your travel time. It may be hard to get out the door early and put in a six-seven hour drive, like you might for a vacation. If you anticipate having a lot of cleaning or packing to do on moving day, it can be more restful to book a hotel room near your house or stay with friends for the last night or two you’ll be in town.
Follow this moving checklist to keep yourself on track.
3. Set Clear Decluttering Goals
One of the most important steps to downsizing is decluttering. Defining specific, achievable goals for yourself will reduce headaches and heartbreaks by paving a clear path for a successful move.
Using a floor plan of your new space as a guide, assess what percentage of your belongings will reasonably fit into each room in your new home. Do you have 25% less space? 50% less? Use these numbers to assess how many books, sweaters, place settings, etc. you can bring with you.
When you’ve completed a major task, be sure to reward yourself for a job well done. Have one of those ice cream bars in your freezer. After all, you can’t take it with you, so you’re really doing yourself a favor.
4. Make a List of Essentials
When you’re ready to begin decluttering, begin by purging the obvious: Identify things you already know you don’t want or need and decide how to get rid of them. Start with big items like furniture and rugs and work your way down to smaller things, like kitchenware, clothing and paper goods.
- Anything in good condition can potentially be given away or sold. Make a list of these items, identifying intended recipients or retailers/charities and confirm when they will take them. Don’t assume your grandchild wants your old doll collection or that the thrift store will accept your floral sofa.
- Anything that is in poor condition should be disposed of properly. Schedule a bulk pickup or dumpster delivery with your refuse service or contact a junk removal company for anything you can’t handle on your own.
- See below for tips on selling, donating and disposing of household items.
How do you know what to take and what to leave behind?
When you reach the harder stage — paring down things you wish you could keep — ask yourself how often you use something. How important is it to keep this in your family or circle of friends? Rank items according to their utilitarian, monetary and/or sentimental value to help you eliminate less important things first. Prioritizing functionality in your new space is critical to effectively downsizing. Be sure to use a floor plan of your new home as a guide.
Move through your house room by room, closet by closet and drawer by drawer. Make piles for Keep, Donate, Sell and Discard. Use removable stickies to label items you cannot deal with immediately. Just remember that the sooner you remove items from your house, the better.
- Reusable bins are handy to pack things like toiletries, cleaning products and even clothing.
- Setting up a staging area in a garage for items to be given away or sold can help you keep your house organized and prepare for a garage sale, if you’ll be hosting one.
As you work, keep your spirits up by listening to your favorite podcast or streaming your favorite TV series. This is the time to indulge in all your favorite snacks, too.
How to Downsize Room by Room
Just as each space in your house has a designated purpose, each space will also necessitate a slightly different approach to decluttering and downsizing. Follow these tips to work your way through your house efficiently and effectively.
Living Room
The living room is one of the most-used areas of the home, and it’s often the most cluttered with things that don’t belong. Begin by recycling all those old catalogs and magazines, and repatriate items that belong elsewhere in the house, like the 18 pairs of shoes that have accumulated by the front door.
Then, address the elephant in the room: The furniture. Will your entire sectional sofa fit in your new place? What about your coffee table, entertainment center and curtains? If you’ve been looking for an excuse to part ways with that recliner you’ve always hated, take it. If your new house won’t have a guest room, you might consider trading in a regular sofa for a fold-out loveseat, or investing in a multi-functional pieces, like an ottoman with a storage compartment.
Also take an inventory of the more decorative items in your living room: Candle holders, knick-knacks, artwork, etc. Your new living room will feel more inviting if it isn’t crammed to the brim with stuff. Live, laugh, love … and let it go.
Dining Room
The dining rooms of America are filled with much-loved and underused heirlooms — family china, sets of silver and crystal, tea pot collections and holiday decor. If you don’t have room for that antique hutch or its contents, but want to avoid selling them to a dealer, get in touch with family and friends ASAP to make sure they want them and arrange a time for them to retrieve them — the sooner, the better. For things your inner circle doesn’t want, contact local and online consignment stores (see below for advice).
Remember that personal styles vary drastically — not everyone can have an eye like yours — and the valuation of collectibles can vary wildly. Some items may be harder to find a buyer for than others, even if you still love them and paid handsomely for them. Try not to take it personally if someone doesn’t have a need for your things.
Kitchen
The kitchen is a notorious repository for the outdated and the duplicated. If you’ve never gotten around to using that beautiful pasta maker, that stand mixer or those fluted cake pans, sell them or give them away — some lucky chef will treasure them. If you’ve got a mismatched set of glasses and dishes, now’s the time to also part with those. If you have too many dishes — say, an everyday set and one for special occasions — you may want to choose between the two. And there’s nothing that says you can’t be fancy every day in your new place, so keep the one that you love best — as long as it’s dishwasher safe!
One of the biggest hassles in the kitchen is moving with perishable goods. Try to creatively use all you can before moving, especially the contents of your fridge and freezer. Packing a cooler full of condiments may be doable, but don’t try and make a cross-country journey with a box of popsicles. Throw a no-frills, raid-the-fridge party for your neighbors and let them take things home that you can’t consume before you move. Unopened, unexpired dry and canned goods can be donated to food pantries.
Bedrooms
Bedrooms can be one of the hardest rooms in the house to pare down. Between sentimental favorites like prom dresses and bridal gowns to expensive footwear and work clothes, it’s easy to amass a collection of beloved garments. If your new place forces you to thin your collection, take stock of what you can use again and what you really can’t bear to live without. Maybe you can get away with 1-2 pairs of dressy shoes. Perhaps some of your bulky sweaters can be given away. If you have more than 1-2 sets of ratty work clothes for painting and yardwork, cull those first. Hold onto your most versatile items and let the rarely used find a good home elsewhere.
This also holds true for bedding and linens. Make sure you keep two good sets of sheets and towels, but you should think hard about holding onto little-used quilts, down comforters or larges stashes of old towels that are only good for rags.
Bathrooms
Moving is often the best thing that can happen to your bathroom. This is the excuse you have been waiting for to discard expired medications and beauty products that never suited you. Be brutal about what you hold onto — you do not need to move with seven half-filled bottles of shampoo from the early aughts! Unopened, unexpired toiletries can be donated to shelters, including those tiny hotel soaps and mini tubes of toothpaste from your dentist.
Where to Donate, Sell or Recycle Unwanted Items
No one has ever moved without having to get rid of some of their belongings. But not all belongings are created equal. Some items are good candidates for donations, others only have a future in the landfill or recycling bin, and some items aren’t suitable for either.
If you know you will have a lot of items to throw away, schedule a dumpster to be delivered to your house. If you only have a few items, some municipalities offer bulk pickup services, so you might be able to put that one cat-scratched sofa on the curb. Find a secure shredding service that you can take old documents to.
See how to cut down on your moving costs.
Donating to Charities
If you have usable household goods that you have been unable to sell or give away to friends and family, charities can be your failsafe. Call your local organizations ahead of time to see what items accept, and ask if they can schedule a pickup for large items, like furniture and appliances
Goodwill generally accepts everything from clothing to furniture, and the handy drop-off bins can be great for those last few things you forgot in your closet.
Furniture Banks accept… furniture … and they rehome items to those in need. See if there is a local chapter that will pick up your spare bed or the dining set you don’t have a spot for in your new place.
Habitat for Humanity’s ReStores accept types of items other charities are unable to handle, like building materials. This can be especially handy when you move into your new home and find that you’d like to change out things like doors, ceiling fans or cabinet hardware to something more in line with your own tastes. Before you load up your goods, check your local ReStore to make sure they will accept that jar of hardware or those old storm windows before you load them into your car.
Charitable consignment stores like the NCJW Resale Shop are great destinations for higher-end items. You’ll know that a local fashionista is sporting that vintage handbag or designer gown you loved in your 20s.
Some artsier areas have craft consignments stores, so if you need to get rid of your fabrics, knitting needles and embroidery threads, see if you have a place that will take these items. Schools will also sometimes accept donations of craft goods.
Today’s shopping mantra also holds true for donating, though: Go local. Check for local-only organizations and shelters in your area to see what they need. Women’s and children’s shelters often need to outfit whole apartments or houses for families, so they may be interested in your extra set of flatware, your spare bedroom set and your ceiling fan.
Selling Valuable Items
Items that could be happily used by someone else should be re-homed. Check with local consignment shops to see what they accept and what their terms are. Resellers, like eBay, Facebook Marketplace, BuyNothing and Craigslist are also handy. Use caution when giving out your personal information or when meeting up for a sale.
A good old-fashioned garage sale is still one of the simplest ways to have unwanted items taken off your hands. Price things to move — remember, you’ll have to pay to put those on the moving truck. Conclude your event by mid-afternoon so that you can pack any remaining items into a vehicle and drop them off at a thrift store.
Recycling and Eco-Friendly Disposal
Anything that has seen better days should be properly disposed of. That includes worn-out sofas, unusable building materials, old paint, non-functioning lithium batteries, etc. Be sure to comply with all local ordinances before you put anything in the garbage or recycling bin.
What about sensitive documents? Your employer or community center might offer free shredding services, so ask if this is an option. If not, find a secure shredding service that you can bring boxes to, or ask if they have a mobile service that will come to your house.
For batteries, light bulbs, or electronics, check with your local recycling center or municipality to see what they will accept and when. They should be able to offer instructions on how to properly dispose of paint and solvents.
Office supply and electronics retailers often accept things like empty print cartridges, broken cell phones and other small devices. Some items may require a fee for disposal, like televisions and monitors.
Local utilities sometimes accept old refrigerators because it is more energy-efficient to retire them.
Old bedframes and other metals can usually be picked up by a scrapper for free, or you can drop these off at a local scrap yard.
How to Pack Efficiently While Downsizing
After you’ve decluttered your house, you’ll already have gone a long way toward packing your belongings. You’ll better understand what will go where in your new place, and there will be far fewer things to pack, too.
You can save additional room by using vacuum-seal bags for bulky items, like comforters and winter clothes. Organizing basement/garage items into waterproof storage bins will mean never having to unpack them at your new place.
If the process feels overwhelming, leave it to the experts. United Van Lines’ full-service moving packages can include professional packing and unpacking services.
Simplify Your Moving Experience with United Van Lines
Although the prospect of downsizing can be daunting, the process is an opportunity to simplify and start anew. It’s okay to have mixed feelings about this step. Finding things to look forward to about your next home will help make the process easier. Here are some ways to help you get settled in your new place.
United Van Lines is here to make moving as simple and stress-free as possible, whether you’re moving into a smaller house, a retirement community or moving in with family across the country. Let us handle your local or long-distance move. Our professional team of movers can provide you with packing and unpacking services, storage, car shipping and debris removal. We offer customized, full-service moving packages to suit your needs.
Get a no-obligation moving quote today.
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