Many people, at some point in their lives, look around and decide they need to downsize. Maybe that means buying a smaller home or getting rid of one car. Maybe it’s a desire for less clutter. Or maybe it’s a far-flung goal to leave your kids less to sort through someday.
That was Kathy McCoy’s motivation after two “nightmarish house cleanings.”
“My parents were hoarders, and it took two years to clean out their 1,000 square-foot house,” says McCoy, a psychotherapist in Florence, Arizona, and an author of books that cover topics like teenage depression. “My aunt was not a hoarder but had many treasured mementos squeezed into her closets and attic. I made a firm decision after these experiences, to downsize my life so that no one I love will have to go through a prolonged cleanup after I’m gone.”
But downsizing is harder than it looks. McCoy says she and her husband managed to part with many of their belongings when they sold their home of 29 years and moved to an active-adult community. But even so, they’re still downsizing, she says.
No wonder it’s hard. After all, you spent a lot of money to get to where you are, and you don’t want to throw out everything you own, do you? (Well, maybe you do.) But before getting a bulldozer to scoop everything out of your home, try these tactics from people who have been there.
Take photos. It’s become pretty common among professional organizers to suggest taking pictures of items you don’t need but hate to throw out because of sentimentality. Still, it’s good advice, says Pauline Rick, a public relations coordinator for Mercy Ships, a nonprofit organization that sends hospital ships to the poorest parts of Africa for medical care.
“In my work with the global charity … I have lived on our hospital ships in small cabins with very limited storage space,” Rick says. Her best downsizing tip is to occasionally take stock of your stuff and find the things you aren’t using but are keeping for sentimental value. Then photograph those items before trashing, donating or re-gifting them. Generally, Rick says, it’s the memory you want to hang onto, and not the item itself.
Don’t just dump stuff. McCoy learned this while cleaning out her parents’ home. Because they were hoarders, it was tempting to toss, keep, donate or give away their stuff without much attention. But there’s a lesson here for all of us. While her parents’ house was rat-infested (dead and alive throughout the rooms), her parents had a habit of tucking money away into magazines and books.
For instance: “We found my father’s $40,000 life insurance check stuck between the pages of a magazine tossed in a pile with many others on the kitchen counter,” says McCoy, who also found those sentimental items you can’t put a price on.
“We found a stash of love letters our father had written to our mother during their early 1940s courtship that showed a whole different, more playful side of him we had never seen,” McCoy says.
So while it may seem smart to just grab those old papers and whatnot and toss, toss, toss, you really want to downsize carefully.
Do not pay to store items. Just don’t. You’re paying to put off what you’ll eventually have to do anyway.
Sissy Lappin, a real estate broker in Houston and founder of ListingDoor.com, a site about selling one’s home, says 90 percent of her clients are downsizing because they’re empty nesters. The biggest mistake these homeowners make, she says, is getting a mobile storage unit, filling it, then paying for it month after month after month.
“I joke that once that stuff goes in there, it will never come out. I have clients who have had stuff in a POD for over five years,” Lappin says, referring to the popular moving and storage company.
Pretend you’re dying. Doesn’t that sound fun? But in all seriousness, what would happen to your things if something unexpected happened to you? Your will would presumably dictate who gets the expensive stuff, but beyond that, who in your family would get what?
You could tackle those decisions now, albeit on a smaller scale. “Put everything you want to get rid of in a room, have all your kids over and let them pick what they want,” Lappin says. “The rule is if they take it, they are in charge of moving it.”
Do a test run. So you want to get rid of a bunch of clothes in your closet or maybe a bunch of books you never read. Go through the motions of getting rid of them, but don’t actually touch them — yet.
Todd Kuhns, who co-owns a video production company in Kirksville, Missouri, says he and his wife have been downsizing for a few years and have embraced the test-run concept.
“For example, we went through all the cups, glasses and dishes in our kitchen cabinet and, instead of immediately getting rid of things, packed a bunch of them up and put them in a box in the garage,” Kuhns says.
That way, if they realize they made a mistake, they still have the item around.
“It’s a safe way to prove to ourselves what we can live without and what we really need. Sometimes you’re really surprised,” Kuhns says.
Of course, it’s also a good way to fill up your garage with boxes, so use this strategy carefully.
Don’t rush. As long as this isn’t a forced downsize, where you have to move within a certain time frame, then there’s no need to stress. When it comes to downsizing, “it takes time, and that’s a good thing,” Kuhns says. “By that, I mean when you’re looking at a cherished object that you’re on the fence about getting rid of, it helps to allow yourself time to mull it over. Often, we’ve found that the thing that we were so attached to three months ago seems like a no-brainer to get rid of three months later, after we’ve had adequate time to consider life without it.”
In fact, you might want to adopt Trevor Ewen’s idea for downsizing. Ewen, a New York City resident who writes the personal finance blog PearoftheWeek.com, suggests removing one thing from your home every day. That may sound like an awfully slow process, but after a year, you can see how the math works out.
And then, if you do manage to downsize your life, not only will you have less clutter and stress to manage, you’ll have so much more room in your home for buying new stuff.
Whoops.
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6 Tips to Downsize the Smart Way originally appeared on usnews.com
