The first step many families make when considering a move is to downsize their belongings. Downsizing allows you to clear out unwanted belongings from closets, drawers, and storage spaces. Not only will downsizing make it easier to move to a new home, but it also helps to stage your home effectively if you’ll be showing it while you continue to live there.
If you’re ready to downsize, here are three techniques you can use to get it done efficiently:
- Create a plan. If you have the luxury to view your next home, take careful note of how much space you will have for your furniture and belongings. However, if you haven’t selected a new home yet, you can still create a goal for how much you want to keep with you as you move out of your house. Next, consider one room at a time and make a generalized list of what you want to keep and what needs to go. Focusing on one room will help keep the project more manageable.
- Start sorting. Just like those television shows, you’ll want to go through each room and decide what to keep, sell, donate, and trash. You can get your whole family involved in the sorting process following the plan you’ve devised. By laying out tarps or creating piles, you can do a once-over after sorting a room to make sure you’re comfortable with the destination for all your items. Key items to sell or donate include items you haven’t used in a few years, clothes that no longer fit, items you have duplicates of, stuff that’s still in boxes from your last move, worn-out linens, and expired foods and cosmetics.
- List items for sale as you go. If you’re planning to use online marketplace sites or host a garage sale, don’t wait until you’re done with the whole house before you list your sales items. Selling a little bit as you go will make this process more manageable, too. In fact, hosting a series of reasonably-sized garage sales rather than one massive sale at the end will make preparations for each even simpler.
- Take the time to organize cherished memories. Now is an excellent time to take that box of your kid’s drawings or your collection of souvenir magnets and figure out how to display your memorabilia so you and your family and friends can enjoy them. This will help you weed through your collections to keep the items most important to you.
- Reward yourself. As you get rid of items that you no longer want or need, treat yourself or your family to something new that you now have room for. If you haven’t selected your next home yet, it may be an inspirational gift such as “a new area rug for our new living room.” These rewards will keep you motivated to keep cleaning and downsizing even after you move.
Ready to sell your Southern Oregon home?
The best place to begin your journey is with an experienced real estate agent like Gail Schoeneberg. Gail has extensive experience and knowledge, including marketing financing and buyer and seller representation in the Southern Oregon market. Armed with current information about home sales throughout Southern Oregon and a long list of potential homebuyers at the ready, Gail will help you make good decisions to achieve the best price for your home in the timeline you have for selling it.
Contact Gail Schoeneberg today at 541-840-1909. Together, we’ll get your home sold.
