Tips on Downsizing

I don’t know how many of you watch Location, Location, Location on the Lifestyle Chanel – I just love it!

All those gorgeous properties hand picked by Kirstie and Phil for your inspection, and then the excitement when the lucky buyers finally get the house they almost lost due to some dodgy building inspection. What we don’t see is the headache that follows when the featured couple actually have to move!

When moving house, your space most certainly will change, it will either be larger or smaller depending on your reason for moving.

The most challenging of Changing Spaces is downsizing particularly during the already anxious time of selling or buying a new home.

When downsizing, your goal is to simplify your life. You don’t need to get rid of everything that’s dear to your heart, but you do need to reduce the amount of belongings you have accumulated over the years. If you think about what you really use in your home on a day-to-day or week-to-week basis it amounts to a fraction of what is actually in your home.

The key component to downsizing is doing a possessions audit and matching it to your new living space. Read on for some tips and suggestions when starting the process of going through years of accumulated belongings in your home.

Begin in the areas of the house that you are currently not using, such as spare bedrooms, as this will be least disruptive to everyday life. These areas often contain items that have not been for some time and may not be missed when passed on to children, grandchildren, charity or the auction house.

When you have decided on which room to start with, make decisions on the large items in each room first and work your way down to the small items this way you won’t get overwhelmed and frustrated before you even get started.

Items can be sorted into:

1. Keep- this includes items you are not willing to part with, and items you definitely want in your new home;
2. Give –to family or friends;
3. Sell – have a garage sale or auction on ebay;
4. Donate - to a worthwhile charity; and
5. Throw away.

To keep track where the items are going you can keep an inventory, separate the items into separate piles or mark the items with stickers, whichever works best for you.

Once you have made a decision on your belongings the trick is to act straight away by:

Putting items to be thrown away into garbage bags and leaving out for collection.


Calling your charity of choice and arranging for a pickup as soon as you have enough items to justify their making a trip.


Asking family and friends to make arrangements to pick up their items or deliver to them.

It is also a good idea to work through this process even if you are upsizing! At the end of the day, Changing Spaces can be rather overwhelming however like any big project, just take it step by step.