As moving season begins, you may find yourself downsizing — or rather, rightsizing — for a simpler home lifestyle. No matter whether you’re moving to a cozier house or downsizing from a house to an apartment, there are plenty of tips and tricks to maximize the size of your space. Read on to find out how you can celebrate the less-is-more-movement in your stylish new home.
Downsizing Home Checklist
As with any move, planning and preparation is key. This becomes even more important if you’re moving to a smaller space that cannot fit all your current belongings. Allow plenty of time to prepare for your move to keep stress to a minimum and use this downsizing home checklist to cover all your bases!
Step 1: Measure Your New Home and Large Belongings
If you’re downsizing from a house to an apartment, you likely won’t have the same number of rooms to work with. Remember, though, it’s not just about the room count. Even if you’re moving to a house, each area in your new home may be considerably smaller. Rightsizing is a great way to create a cozier space and prioritize what you love in life, but it may also mean that some of your furniture items won’t fit.
As well as knowing exactly how large each room in your new house or apartment is, you need to know exactly how much space your belongings take up, too. Furniture groups, sectionals, dining sets, dressers, and sideboards all require plenty of room, so measure everything well in advance. Understanding the amount of space you have to work with will be an important first step in a seamless move.
Step 2: Sort Through Your Stuff
While you can always use storage facilities to keep every item you own, why not use this opportunity to look through your home and keep only the items that spark joy?
Rightsizing is all about less is more, so apply the same concept to your belongings in this next step on the downsizing home checklist. By keeping only what you love and use regularly, you can make sure your home stays tidier, more organized, and more enjoyable to live in. Go through each room and separate your items into three categories: Keep, Donate, and Trash. When it comes to large items that you love but can’t fit into your new home, take photographs that you can easily keep and treasure.
Step 3: Redecorate and Renovate Before You Move In
In an ideal world, your new home would be move-in ready and you would have narrowed down your belongings so that they all fit perfectly into the space. In the real world, your new home may need updating to look more modern, to match your tastes, or to better accommodate your personal items.
While you’re probably excited to get moved in as quickly as possible, taking care of decorating and renovations before you move in will be much easier. Whether it’s repainting, changing the flooring, or adding built-in storage space, take advantage of your empty new home. Once all your belongings are lining every room, it will be more difficult to make any changes and that might put you off improving your home all together.
Step 4: Invest in Smart Furniture Pieces
You may have to say goodbye to a lot of your furniture as part of the home downsizing checklist. While it can be tough to give up items you’ve had for years, now you can invest in the kind of pieces that will support your new lifestyle!
Instead of replacing your furniture with smaller versions, opt for multipurpose and smart pieces of high quality. Think coffee tables with drawers, ottomans that open to provide storage, and beds with compartments. You can get creative and use a dresser as a TV stand or choose a wall-hugging recliner that has been specifically designed for a small room. Southern Motion’s Metro Recliner allows you to combine functionality, style, and comfort to a cozy room without sacrificing space.
Tips for Downsizing
You’ve prepared your new dream home, reduced and refined your belongings, and made the move. How can you make sure you get the most out of your cozier space for the years to come? Follow these tips for downsizing that can help you enjoy a more minimalist lifestyle on a day-to-day basis!
Get into the Habit of Decluttering
You may have purged your belongings before your move, but to keep your smaller home at its best, you need to declutter on a regular basis. As well as keeping piles of mail in check and making sure items always go back in their place, consider going through your belongings every season to get rid of anything you’re not using or enjoying.
Don’t Save Anything For Best
One of the best tips for downsizing is to stop saving items for special occasions. Whether it’s your wedding china, guest towels, or Sunday best, you need to get your fanciest belongings out in the open — and not just for show. Using your favorite items on a daily basis doesn’t just free up storage space and ensure that you don’t need to double up on items. You’ll also feel more excited about living in your smaller home and getting the most out of life.
Find What Works For You
You’ve got rid of the items you don’t want or need, you’re decluttering on a regular basis, and you’ve stopped storing all your best belongings. Now the real fun begins. You get to experiment to find out how your new home will work for you and your family!
This tip for downsizing takes time. You need to adjust to your new home to discover your preferences for the space. You might try different layouts or hone in on your priorities and remove even more items. Whatever it is, stay flexible, open-minded, and enjoy the ride.
Downsizing from a house to an apartment or smaller home is a liberating move. With these tips for downsizing, you can focus on what really matters to you and create a more functional living environment. To find high-quality furniture that works with your lifestyle, take a look at Southern Motion’s stylish collections now.
