Downsizing Your Life:
Three important tips for approaching the task!
There’s no doubt about it: sorting through the things you have accumulated over however many years is an enormous task. But it is also extremely satisfying to cleanse your life of junk and papers.
It feels like a giant weight off your shoulders to realise how little you really need!
If you want to go on a long term adventure or just want to downsize your stuff, read on for my best tips!
It feels like a giant weight off your shoulders to realise how little you really need!
If you want to go on a long term adventure or just want to downsize your stuff, read on for my best tips!
Tip 1. Start sorting your things at least a few months in advance.
Believe me, even if you start three or four months in advance like we did, you will still end up sitting on your empty (of furniture) living room floor making piles of high school notes to bin, and deciding whether to toss cute photos from your primary school class.
You will not believe how much stuff you have accumulated over your life: even if you've moved before, it’s a different kettle of fish to sort everything you own into trash/treasure/sell.
Start early. Obscenely early. Also, take regular breaks so your head doesn't explode!
Believe me, even if you start three or four months in advance like we did, you will still end up sitting on your empty (of furniture) living room floor making piles of high school notes to bin, and deciding whether to toss cute photos from your primary school class.
You will not believe how much stuff you have accumulated over your life: even if you've moved before, it’s a different kettle of fish to sort everything you own into trash/treasure/sell.
Start early. Obscenely early. Also, take regular breaks so your head doesn't explode!
Tip 2. Get ruthless!
I mean it! If you are going to want to keep that tiny Eiffel Tower key ring your aunt gave you when she went to Paris ten years ago… you’re going to have a hard time. Start with the easy stuff – junk that you don’t use, look at, or treasure.
You’ll get a rhythm going and it will start to flow.
By the end, you’ll be sorting at the speed of light. Well, maybe not that fast.
I mean it! If you are going to want to keep that tiny Eiffel Tower key ring your aunt gave you when she went to Paris ten years ago… you’re going to have a hard time. Start with the easy stuff – junk that you don’t use, look at, or treasure.
You’ll get a rhythm going and it will start to flow.
By the end, you’ll be sorting at the speed of light. Well, maybe not that fast.
Tip 3. Four Categories: keep, sell, trash, charity.
Four categories is all you need.
KEEP
The keep pile will depend on what you have available to you: will your parents or some friends be happy to keep your birth certificate and tax info on hand, but have no room for anything else? Or can you store a couple of plastic storage boxes under their house or in the garage? If it’s the latter, get some plastic boxes so you can visualise what amount of stuff you need to downsize to. It’s worth getting a portable file system to file important documents (birth certificate, graduation and qualifications and so on) that you may want to leave with a trusted person in your home city.
SELL
Options for selling include online, flyers, market stalls and garage sales. I will go into selling online and at garage sales in detail in another post as these are the methods that we used.
TRASH
The trash pile is going to be massive.
Seriously. All those knickknacks, those unwanted gifts, those notebooks that only have a few pages used… They are all waiting to consume your time. You will get quicker as you go. Don’t feel that you have to throw out small things that are truly sentimental (a letter from your grandmother, a photo of a childhood friend) and remember that only you can make these decisions.
I can only say that I haven’t spent a single moment thinking about things I have thrown out.
CHARITY
Charities such as Vinnies and Salvos are fantastic for dropping off anything you have left. We sold all our furniture except our beds which we were able to donate. We also donated things such as books and clothes that were left over from our garage sales (post coming with details).
Do you have any tips we've missed? Share below in the comments. More coming on how to sell online and through garage sales.
Four categories is all you need.
KEEP
The keep pile will depend on what you have available to you: will your parents or some friends be happy to keep your birth certificate and tax info on hand, but have no room for anything else? Or can you store a couple of plastic storage boxes under their house or in the garage? If it’s the latter, get some plastic boxes so you can visualise what amount of stuff you need to downsize to. It’s worth getting a portable file system to file important documents (birth certificate, graduation and qualifications and so on) that you may want to leave with a trusted person in your home city.
SELL
Options for selling include online, flyers, market stalls and garage sales. I will go into selling online and at garage sales in detail in another post as these are the methods that we used.
TRASH
The trash pile is going to be massive.
Seriously. All those knickknacks, those unwanted gifts, those notebooks that only have a few pages used… They are all waiting to consume your time. You will get quicker as you go. Don’t feel that you have to throw out small things that are truly sentimental (a letter from your grandmother, a photo of a childhood friend) and remember that only you can make these decisions.
I can only say that I haven’t spent a single moment thinking about things I have thrown out.
CHARITY
Charities such as Vinnies and Salvos are fantastic for dropping off anything you have left. We sold all our furniture except our beds which we were able to donate. We also donated things such as books and clothes that were left over from our garage sales (post coming with details).
Do you have any tips we've missed? Share below in the comments. More coming on how to sell online and through garage sales.
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