To make some extra money, my parents have decided to rent out the lower level of their two-flat condo, and I'm helping them out. We're clearing out the rental apartment, which involves halving their stuff. Being the blogger that I am, I'll be writing about the downsizing process and collecting lessons learned to share with the AT community. We're starting out by...
...establishing a schedule. This helps to break down a big (and honestly pretty overwhelming) project into more manageable segments. We've got less than a month to clean out the apartment, so we're breaking up our deadlines into week-by-week increments.
HOW TO SET UP YOUR SCHEDULE
- Give yourself a "drop dead" date: a final deadline when everything you're getting rid of needs to be sold, donated, and out of the house. Schedule a van or U-haul for that day so that you can cart all of your donations away.
- Working backwards from your "drop dead" date, set deadlines for decluttering. For example, you might need to purge your clothes closet, files, and books. Set a deadline for each major task.
- Do a room-by-room walk-through of your home, and make four lists: 1) Sell, 2) Donate, 3) Keep, and 4) Add. Look at all of your furniture and large pieces, and allocate it to one of the lists. If you're trying to cut down your stuff by half, your "Sell/Donate" and "Keep" lists should be about the same size. Your "Add" list should be very small, and it should include organizing systems or supplies that will help to streamline your space.
AN EXAMPLE SCHEDULE & LIST
Share your recommendations for downsizing in the comments below.
Top Photo: Stendig Wall Calendar
I'm moving on Sat and made it a goal to de-clutter first. I followed a similar plan. The only thing I would add is make sure you give yourself extra time for unexpected events. I'm very glad I did, since I had a house guest for a week recently, which I hadn't anticipated when I made my plan. Good luck!
view romateamo's profile
A good way to consolidate is scan photos and important documents and put them on a CD. Make some backups and/or store it on an internet storage site like iDisk. You can remove a lot of paper this way! (But it does take time....maybe hire a local high school kid looking for a summer job to do this?). Good luck!
Katy
http://fengshuibyfishgirl.com
view fishgirl's profile
I wish someone had given this advice to my mother-in-law. Just had to move her last weekend - she pulled the in-law thing of you owe me - and we sorely regret it. She downsized from 1200 sq foot apartment to a 550 sq foot apartment - and only got rid of a twin bed and her dining table. Her new apartment is literally crammed FULL - her new sectional sofa takes up 75% of the living room.
Ahhh....I'll end rant here.
view ChrisGal's profile
We just cleaned our Mom's entire 4 bedroom house in a week. Here are a few tips to make it go more smoothly once you're on site:
1. Take pictures of every room and any pieces you want to sell.
2. Make a list for all the big furniture pieces & accessories
(using the photos for reference)
3. Assign all large pieces (furniture, appliances, lamps,etc) to a category: Give away, donate, sell, etc.
4. List the sale items first - you'll have to deal with them if no one buys.
5. Start collecting free packing boxes
6. Schedule Salvation Army (if available) to pick up bulky donations.
7. What SA doesn't take (they are picky), you can give to Goodwill.
8. Get a dumpster delivered to clear out vast amounts of junk quickly.
9. Check if you can get a permit to bring stuff to the local dump yourself (this is common in suburban towns)
10. Relentlessly get rid of paperwork ahead of time - this takes up vast amounts of time to sort through.
11. Decide how you will deal with memorabilia, photos, etc.
12. If your parents are amenable, they should start passing on their stuff to their kids now rather than waiting until later.
view sfgirl's profile