Perhaps you’re selling the family home to save money and eliminate the hassle of maintaining the property. Maybe you need to move to the city for work or new opportunities and can only afford to live in an apartment. Occasionally, it is necessary to move to an apartment to save money. In all of these cases, you have to figure out what to do with all the stuff you’ve accumulated over the years and will not have room for. Downsizing home can be done easier if it is done in a right way. Let’s look at how to downsize from a home to an apartment the right way.
Determine What You Must Have for Your Lifestyle
Downsizing home can trigger a lot of emotions in you and those around you. One way to remove the emotion from the decisions is to make a list of must-have items. You could start by listing the essentials that you think you can’t live without.
Sometimes we’re afraid to pare down the volume of stuff because we ‘might need it one day.’ Consider stowing everything you don’t immediately need away in boxes. Only pull out what you need when you need it and leave everything else in its place. After a month or two, the rest of the items can be discarded unless it is an obvious seasonal item like winter coats.
Make a list of items you love. These are items you don’t necessarily need, but hold some sort of significance to you may be gifted by someone near and dear. Take all the personal possessions you can’t leave without and give family and friends dibs on the items you’re not going to take with you. Then start selling or donating the rest.
You can begin this process by setting up dedicated keep and donate bins, tossing items in as you make that decision. Regularly take the donation bin to the charity of your choice so that the items don’t pile up. Plan a couple of garage sales or list things for sale online on an ongoing basis so that you aren’t overwhelmed by the volume you have to get rid of. This reduces the odds that you’ll pull items from your sell stack and add it back to the keep stack.
And when you’re moving to an apartment, the best thing you can do is purge most of what you own, then edit the “keep” stack even further. The worst thing that can happen is that you’ll have to replace a couple of minor kitchen or home décor items.
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Plan for the Space You’ll Have
Plan for the space you have, instead of trying to make the furniture and possessions you had in your house fit in the apartment. This is most obvious when people are trying to move a large mattress through a stairwell only to find there is no room left in the bedroom once the bed is in place. Double check the home’s access so that you don’t make the mistake of trying to carry heavy furniture only to find out it won’t fit in the elevator.
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Once you’ve picked out an apartment, be honest about what furniture won’t fit and should be replaced. Play around with your floor plan. Maybe you could use that heavy cabinet as a storage unit in the new living room instead of putting it in the master bedroom. Prioritize what furniture you’ll keep, and give priority to furniture that serves multiple purposes or at least has built-in storage over furniture that doesn’t.
Learn How to Live in Dense Housing
Some of the biggest benefits of living in a house is the privacy. When you move into an apartment, you might have to hear arguments in the unit next door, the neighbor’s dogs barking constantly, or loud music. However, before you blow up at your neighbors, or decide you hate living in an apartment, you should learn how to deal with apartment noise first. City based living is always chaotic. Places like New York, Chicago and San Francisco are known for noise-based issues.
If you need more information on how to do this, you can read this article on How To File A Noise Complaint In Chicago that was published on Blueprint. You can follow their tips to deal with everything from construction noise to loud music and resolve the situation. They also offer a few tips on how to circumvent making an official complaint and how to confront neighbors the right way.
Shift Your Mindset
If you’re downsizing home due to financial problems or declining physical health, it is easy to fall into a negative mindset. This could lead you to hating your new home. The solution is to start reminding yourself of the benefits of making the change.
You now have less to clean, and you don’t have to cut the grass either. Not to mention that you’re saving money and are closer to amenities. You may be closer to the night life, schools or restaurants. Think about how much you’ve donated to charity or made from your garage sale.
To maintain your sanity, adopt a one-in, one-out policy. This policy says that you can’t bring something home unless you’ve gotten rid of something else. This can help you break the old collecting habit that can make an apartment unbearably cramped.
To sum up, follow our advice, and you’ll make the move to an apartment as smooth as possible. Not only will you be able to live comfortably, but eventually learn how to love the apartment lifestyle.
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