Whether your children have moved out of the house or you’re a senior looking for a more manageable space, downsizing homes can seem like an overwhelming task. While Junk360 is able and prepared to assist with junk removal and hauling, there are ways you and your loved ones can do to kickstart the process.

Strategies for Downsizing

1. Start early.

You have a lifetime of things to sort through. Planning a day or a weekend to downsize just isn’t practical and will leave you feeling rushed and overwhelmed. Instead, give yourself a month or two. This will allow you to go through one room at a time, taking breaks as needed.

2. Know Your Goals. 

Estimate the size of your next space. A four-bedroom/three-bathroom household downsizing to a two-bedroom/two-bathroom should eliminate two bedrooms and one bathroom’s worth of stuff. 

Does your new place have a smaller kitchen? If so, weed through a third of your cooking supplies. Additionally, knowing how much space you’ll have and what you need to get rid of helps alleviate some of the doubt and anxiety of decluttering.

3. Don’t start with photos. 

Marie Kondo, the master of decluttering, offers this important piece of advice. Starting with photos risks losing yourself in memories and never accomplishing anything. Instead, start in areas with little emotional attachment. The laundry room or linen closet for example.

4. Get rid of what you can.

If you’re downsizing to a one bedroom apartment won’t need five sets of bedsheets. If you’re moving to a place with no garage or office area then everything in those rooms will need to get eliminated. Furthermore, if you collect items, such as football jerseys or glass figurines, pick the two or three that mean the most to you and give the rest away. 

Yard sales are a great way to declutter and repurpose – passing on materials to others looking to make their own memories. 

5. Involve the family. 

Enlisting trusted loved ones to help you downsize and declutter can turn a painful task into a helpful heart-to-heart. Maybe your daughter doesn’t want that china set; maybe she wants the rolling pin you taught her to make pies with. You’ll remove items from your home while being able to enjoy passing them onto the next generation, making you happy while lightening the load. 

6. Ask for help. 

Garages, attics, and basements are the most difficult areas to tackle. Not only are those the spaces where we tend to shove our junk, but they’re uncomfortable spaces. Uncomfortable space which run swelteringly hot to bone-chillingly cold depending on the season. 

This is the point of the process where Junk360 can help.  

Contact Junk360 For All Your Downsizing Needs

Junk360 can help you organize your clutter, haul away the leaf blower that hasn’t worked in years, clean out the garage, and remove the junk from your basement. With a careful eye, Junk360 can help you figure out what to donate and what to haul away. 

As a community orientated, locally-owned business, Junk360 is ready to help you save memories and remove the clutter. Contact us today at (651) 395-8659 or request your free estimate online!