I’m sitting under a glorious tree in my best friend’s backyard near Boston watching the clouds pass by. 🌤️ After months of planning, packing, and moving, I’m finally taking a huge breath after my big move and downsizing adventure. 📦
I chose to downsize because I was craving adventure. I wanted to hit the road and digital nomad for a bit, so it felt like the perfect time to downsize.
A lot of people consider downsizing for many different reasons. To be more of a minimalist, to live in a home that is more aligned with their current goals, aging issues, relocation, adventure…the reasons are endless.
The results of downsizing can be so powerful. It can reduce your stress, financial overhead, cleaning time, and overwhelm. But the process of downsizing can be incredibly challenging.
Moving is one of the most stressful transitions in life. Downsizing adds an extra layer of stress because of the inherent need to declutter during the process. The essence of downsizing is decluttering.
It’s all about releasing anything from your past that doesn’t belong in your future.
Downsizing is you asking yourself to reassess your goals and direction in life. And then reducing your possessions to match that next direction.
As challenging as it can be to downsize your entire life, this fine-tuned decluttering process boosts your mental health by reducing the number of items you need to manage. It also naturally reduces the elevated anxiety, sleep disruption, and focus challenges that clutter creates.
Decluttering before you downsize will help you to let go of the “shoulds” of the past and create space to move into the future.
Here are a few tips for decluttering when you downsize:
Plan Before You Purge
Most people get overwhelmed while downsizing because they jump in and immediately start to get rid of things. If you don’t have a clear vision for your next home, it’s hard to know what you need to keep. Once you begin looking at items, it’s easy to be flooded with emotional ties to items that you rarely use, but that feel valuable. Instead of letting the stuff guide your decisions, make a plan instead.
Ask yourself three questions for each room in your house: 1-What activities do I want to do in this room? 2-How do I want this room to feel? 3-How do I want this room to look? Once you have the answers to these questions for each room, you can create an inventory of items you currently own that will fit into that room. Then, you’ll be able to clearly and easily pack up what will go into your new rooms. The remaining items will feel less vital to keep because you know you’ve already got what you need for the new space.
Shop Your Stuff
Instead of thinking about what you need to get rid of, look for what belongs in your new home. Walk room to room and go “shopping” through the stuff in your current house. Put a post-it or sticker on anything you want to bring with you to the new space. Think of this process as a building of your new life, instead of purging the old. Items that were not marked during your walk-through, are much more likely to be decluttered because they don’t fit in with your next chapter.
Call in Support
Sometimes it’s hard to get rid of things you’ve had for years. You might feel emotionally connected to items, even though you don’t need or want them. Once you’ve packed up your most important items for the new house, it may be helpful to bring in friends or relatives to help you gather and purge your less emotional items that didn’t make the initial cut, such as kitchen items, decor, or clothing.
Not having to touch every single donated item yourself can greatly reduce the emotional impact of downsizing. Plus, having loved ones there helping may allow you to gift them with certain items that might be useful or sentimental to them. Calling in your community to help you let go of things lightens the burden of your move and makes the process more fun.
Once you’ve decluttered and downsized, you will have much more bandwidth and energy to embark on your next chapter. The process of downsizing is intense but very rewarding.
Have you ever downsized? Comment below what was the most helpful thing you did in your downsizing adventures?
