Are you thinking of downsizing your home? 

The day will come in all of our lives when the home you worked so hard to buy becomes too much for you to maintain. There are multiple stories, it's in the rural Knox County farmland, there's too much of it for you to care for, not to mention the lot that you no longer have the time or energy to keep trim and clean.

When you get into your senior years, maybe due to health, maybe to cut costs, maybe to be closer to your grandkids...whatever the reason, it is imperative that you downsize to a smaller, more manageable home.

Today I want to give you 5 easy to follow tips that if you start early on you will find it a whole lot easier to downsize from a larger home to a smaller, more manageable home.

Tip #1 Start Early and Start Simple

Give yourself plenty of time because it will take longer than you think. Take your time, and don’t try to sort through your entire house in one day or weekend. I think it's safe to say that, if you're anything like the seniors I've worked with in the past or...like my mother, you still own just about everything you've ever accumulated since your first apartment after high school. So start months in advance and keep the process going until your missing your moving truck. Look closely at every item and make a decision, yay or nay. Then follow through.

Tip #2 Start Small

You probably already know what things you want to get rid of in the kitchen or garage, but avoid diving into such a big room at the very beginning. You probably have years of things to sort through. Start in an area with little emotional attachment. Start with the laundry room or linen closet. Consider the size of your new place. If you're moving to a new state with a new climate, like year round summer, you probably don't need 3 winter coats and a snow shovel.

Tip #3 Eliminate rooms you won’t have in your new home

Maybe your new place doesn't have a garage or a formal dining room. you can easily get rid of these items. Donate them, have a yard sale, or give them away.

Tip #4 Get rid of duplicates

You’ll find this is especially true in your kitchen. You have two or three spatulas and ladles, a couple of oversized stockpots, and four different sized cookie sheets. Now’s the time to reduce the clutter. If you’re feeling weary of handing off that second roasting pan because you use it every Christmas (but at no other time during the year), consider giving it to a child or grandchild who can bring it over for the holiday and take it home when they leave.

Before we get tip number five I just want to remind you that, as a local real estate expert, I help people like you buy and sell homes every day and in fact, I have created a small niche helping seniors, or empty nesters, downsize successfully, selling their first home and using those funds to buy their new one. If you are thinking of switching to a smaller, or even larger home, message me today. Just navigate to the Contact Ben page or call me at the number you can find somewhere on this page.

Tip#5 Only make Yes or No piles — no Maybes

When you’re going through years of belongings, some things are going to tug at your heartstrings, and you’ll be tempted. Don’t fall for it. You’ll end up with a "Maybe" pile that’s bigger than everything else. When that happens, you haven’t really made any progress in sorting, just shuffled things around. You gotta to be stronger than that. I know you are.

Bonus Tip #6 Making the move after you pack

Now that you’ve downsized your belongings, how are you going to make your move? You’ll want to have an answer in mind from the beginning of your downsizing process.

Ask yourself these questions: 

• Will you be rounding up family members to help pack and drive a moving truck? 
• Will you pay for a full-service moving company to pack, ship, and unpack your things? 
• Perhaps something in-between, with a mobile storage option in which you pack a container, and then the storage company does the shipping?

For seniors, there’s often another option. More companies, known as senior move managers, are popping up across the country that cater specifically to seniors moving — either to smaller homes or moving into senior living or nursing communities. They’ll usually do as much or as little as you want, from packing and moving to home cleaning and estate sales.
The National Association of Senior Move Managers reported nearly 1,000 companies as members in its 2015-16 annual report.

Your downsize doesn’t have to be stressful, sad, or scary. Stay positive and get excited about a simpler life in a new place with less clutter.