Downsizing Your Stuff Can Be a Little Less Painful, Here’s How
Colie and her husband’s Minneapolis rental isn’t super tiny — at 781 square feet it’s perfectly adequate for two people. But the place they moved from had more space, 1150 square feet. While the jump down in size wasn’t tremendous, the act of downsizing is always difficult, and it was even tougher in this case thanks to a serious lack of storage. Colie shares her experience and four tips to making downsizing a little less painful.
Start here:
I went through EVERYTHING when we moved. Every tote, clothing item, kitchen utensil…it was kind of therapeutic, actually. I had gone through stuff before, but because we had the extra space, I just put the things I didn’t want away in totes and stacked them.
We had our new apartment picked out when I started going through everything so I knew the square footage and lack of storage and decided to go through each item and decide if we really needed it and if it made me/us happy. I started with the small stuff in drawers, bathroom cabinets, under the bed, old totes of saved cards, etc.
Help out others; make a little dough:
I brought about 12+ totes of stuff to the Salvation Army to donate and sold some nicer things online through a local Facebook buy/sell group.
“We had been holding onto a lot of stuff that we’d accumulated over the years (like from college still) and it was a good opportunity to shed some stuff and invest in new pieces.”
Invest in new pieces if you need them:
We did buy new things. We had been holding onto a lot of stuff that we’d accumulated over the years (like from college still) and it was a good opportunity to shed some stuff and invest in new pieces. With the downsize, we needed to be creative with furniture solutions. We bought a few pieces from IKEA like a bookshelf to hold all of our books, and the KALLAX cube (which I turned into a bar cart to hold extra dishes).
“Embrace this as an opportunity to get rid of stuff you don’t need or like anymore!”
Look on the bright side:
Embrace this as an opportunity to get rid of stuff you don’t need or like anymore! Downsizing forces that and it feels great to dispose of things you’ve been holding onto for no reason.
Thanks Colie!
See more of her home → An Elegant & Eclectic Minneapolis Apartment
And read more from Colie → What It’s Like Having a Mom Who’s an Interior Decorator