For many seniors, downsizing and moving into a smaller living space is a necessary part of keeping your independence. This can be an emotional time, however, and it helps to go into it with a solid plan. Here are some ways you can make the moving process a little bit easier.

Pack yourself, and do it early and in stages

Don’t wait until close to moving day to begin to pack up your belongings. Get started early, and do it yourself. Allowing movers to pack your items in boxes not only costs extra money, but you will not have the benefit of knowing which items are in which boxes, making unpacking a nightmare.

The more time you give yourself to pack, the more time you give yourself to make decisions about downsizing (what to keep, what to get rid of, and what to donate/bequeath). Packing up a lifetime of belongings can seem daunting, and the best way to tackle it is to dive into a specific area and focus on packing in stages. Start with a single drawer, a closet, or one bookshelf. Make sure you finish the area before you move on to the next. By breaking everything down into manageable stages, you will feel less overwhelmed by the entirety of it all.

Make four distinct piles

When going through your possessions and deciding what to do with them, you’re going to have to make some tough choices. If you’re downsizing, you’re going to have to get rid of many things in one way or another. Make four distinct piles when tackling any area of the house: keep, throw away, donate, give to family.

Note there is no “maybe” or “unknown” pile. You must force yourself to make timely, on-the-spot decisions about your stuff. You’ll never truly downsize if you keep putting off the tough decisions.

Use your new living space as a guide

What you can fit in your new home isn’t really negotiable. If you’re downsizing in space by 50%, for instance, you’ll need to downsize your belongings at a similar rate. “This should be your guideline as you make decisions about furniture, collections, books and even clothing,” notes TheSeniorList.com. Priceless possessions, keepsakes, mementos, and family heirlooms are the wild cards. You don’t want to get rid of your important items, so you should consider giving the larger ones away to family members and keeping the smaller stuff for the move. Try to save space whenever possible, for example, scanning old photo albums and storing them digitally instead of hauling boxes full of photos to your new home.

Don’t be involved in the actual move

Once you have everything packed up, you should pretty much go totally hands-off from that point forward. Hire professional movers to do the hard stuff. For one, it’s very unlikely that you can handle the heavy lifting by yourself or even with the help of family. It’s simply not worth the risk of injury. Movers can also expedite a job, getting the whole thing done in a few hours when it might take you an entire weekend. Another benefit of hiring movers is that you don’t have to be intimately involved in the most emotional aspect of moving – packing up your beloved home and watching as it empties out. Take a breather, let movers do the job, and get ready to unpack your new life at your new home.

Packing up your life and moving to a new place is going to carry a lot of stress and it’s never going to be a completely enjoyable experience, but if you make a solid plan, get started early, take your time, and let movers help with the big stuff, you’ll make it much more tolerable.

Photo Credit: Pixabay.com

Article by: Michael Longsdon