Top Tips For Decluttering and Downsizing

Once you’ve made the big decision to liberate yourself from your family home and enjoy an easier lifestyle, you then have a million smaller decisions to make.  What are you going to take with you, what will you gift to others and what should you chuck, recycle or donate to charity?   It can feel completely overwhelming but help is at hand!  Meirion Shaw runs The Homemover Specialist, and helps people tackle their move from decluttering, sorting and packing, to moving and getting settled in their new home. Here she shares her top tips and two pearls of wisdom to keep you going.

It doesn’t matter how slowly you go so long as you do not stop ~ Confucius

The secret of getting ahead is getting started. The secret of getting started is breaking complex, overwhelming tasks into small manageable tasks, and then starting on the first one ~ Mark Twain

And that sums up the secret to downsizing.

It might appear overwhelming when looking at it as a whole picture but if you can break it down into small steps then it’s much easier. And remember there are no prizes for doing it all yourself; it’s OK to ask for help! It can be an emotional time, especially if you are moving from a much loved but now impractical family home but try to stay focused on the exciting new lease of life your new home will give you.

Six Steps to Downsizing

The key is to only take the belongings you love and give yourself permission to let go of the rest

1. Decide what you want to keep and make sure it will fit into your new home.

2. Tackle one room at a time – and as you declutter, clear the debris!

3. Clothes – measure how much hanging space there is in your new apartment and mark out the equivalent in your closet at home. Only keep the clothes you love to wear or you just love. Take the rest, a bag at a time, to your local charity shop.

4. Get your paperwork organised. A rule of thumb is hang onto bills and bank statements for two years and insurance documents for as long as they’re valid. All your children’s school reports can be given to the relevant child as can their artwork from when they were six! Shred everything else. If you have lots to shred employ a shredding company – you can hurt your back bending over a shredding machine for hours.

5. Start a change of address list and:

~ rationalise your address book and get someone to type them into a list which can be printed onto labels

~ make a list of all business, financial, charity, retail institutions that will need to be informed with their reference numbers

6. Eat your freezer empty!

Meirion Shaw, from The Homemover Specialist (above with a Lynwood Village owner, having helped with her move!), is an expert in helping people move house and downsize, making every detail run smoothly.  If you’d like help with your move, visit www.thehomemover.co.uk or email Meirion on hello@thehomemover.co.uk

Please note that The Homemover Specialist is an independent company and its services are not provided by or on behalf of Lynwood Village.