Saint Paul Minnesota moving companies are seeing Baby Boomers downsizing in droves. If you want to join the trend, it may be intimidating to fit all your possessions into a smaller home. A lifetime of accumulated stuff stares back at you and dares you to declutter.
Notify Grown Kids to Come and Get Their Stuff
Part of the problem for most Baby Boomers is the fact that we keep the mementos when the kids leave the nest. Ask if there are things family would like to have and give it away now if you don’t plan on having it in the new place. Make sure everybody in the family knows you can’t be considered a storage solution any longer, and give a deadline for removal.
Start Small
Clear out the least-used room in your home and turn it into a staging ground for your decluttering campaign. Have a table free for sorting through boxes from the other parts of the house. These boxes are the things you know you don’t want to keep. Limit how many boxes you bring into the room at one time so it isn’t overwhelming.
- Have one large garbage can with a box of bags and take the full bag out to the trash. This way you are dealing with one bag of trash at a time.
- Have a spot for boxes of things for a scheduled donation pickup.
- Have a spot for the things that belong to someone else and let them know your deadlines for pickup.
- If you plan to sell some things, have a spot to put the things you will sell. (This only works if you actually will sell them.)
Move out the big furniture you know you don’t want. Maple Grove, Plymouth and Wayzata movers often have people who are downsizing realize that their old furniture will not fit in the new home. So it’s a good idea to take measurements and carefully consider the furniture you will bring along to your smaller place. Arrange for donation pickup, give it away, or sell it. If you are having a yard sale, put it in the garage for now.
Plan to Decide Twice
As you go through the rest of the house, your staging ground setup gives you a place to put the little things.
- The first decision is made when you take what you don’t want and put it in your decluttering room.
- The second decision is made when you decide if it is trash, donation, for sale, or someone else’s stuff.
Remember when you are preparing to move don’t try to everything at once – especially if you have lived in your home for a long time. Start decluttering early and break it down into small jobs so it won’t seem like an impossible task.
