Downsizing..where to start?

I will start off by saying..this is a lot harder to do than anticipated. I knew I may have a few bumps, but thought this would be a little bit easier.

I don't have a whole lot of stuff since I'm in a 1 bedroom 500sq ft apartment, but we have accumulated a lot of stuff in the year and a half. I'm not as attached to a lot, unlike the significant other.

What is the best way to start downsizing our belongings? We will not be paying for storage or anything (our furniture isn't worth paying for).

Thanks!

Make a chart with 3 columns.  The first column is labeled "must keep", second column labeled "would be nice to keep" and the third column labeled "haven't used this in 6 months to a year".  Then see what you have left.

We began by donating our home office furniture to a church which had recently burned.  Carried a bunch more "stuff" to an outfit which offered free goods to homeless people.  Let the kids have whatever they wanted.  Then, invited our grown kids' friends over to take what they wanted.  It gets easier as you go along and is quite a relief when you finally hit the road.

If there is disagreement about "stuff", maybe rent a small storage unit for a few months and put the disputed items in there, then see if you or she still misses it after a few months.

I like Rene's list idea. Forcing yourselves to put everything on one list or another is a good way to separate nostalgia from reality.

Very good ideas! Thank you. Love this place!

We began by having one rummage sale a year for three years. That got rid of what I called the accumulated junk. Large items, cars, motorcycles, some nice furniture, etc we simply ran adds and sold. Everything that was left of value including antiques we hauled to an on line auction facility and had them sell. That worked well for us. Children got some stuff as well.

I just got rid of everything and started over. Very liberating. I don't miss a thing.

SeilerBird said:

I just got rid of everything and started over. Very liberating. I don't miss a thing.

Click to expand...

I would love to do that. My other half is a little stubborn, though. Trying not to push TOO hard!

OutdoorFT said:

I would love to do that. My other half is a little stubborn, though. Trying not to push TOO hard!

Click to expand...

I included my other half ;D

We had garage sale, donations to Salvation Army; shipped a large box to each son.. Finally, we did rent a small 10 ft. storage space and packed away in plastic totes things we thought we should keep.. We could have stored with two sons, but didn't want to annex their space.

SeilerBird said:

I included my other half ;D

Click to expand...

Now that's funny ?

Just today, someone was recommending this book.
http://www.amazon.com/The-Life-Changing-Magic-Tidying-Decluttering/dp/1607747308
not for the same purpose exactly, but it seems like some of the principles would apply.  We were talking about the downsizing of a relative just recently moved to an assisted living facility.

I agree. this is a lot harder than I envisioned too.
I am going from a packed 3 BR to my camper. Most of my furniture will be stored but its the little stuff I cant figure out. I have one week. I found a printable list that helped me focus and get started. I also packed away a bunch of stuff months ago to see if I would even need it. Especially kitchen things I had accumulated. The only thing I missed was a big knife I gave my son. I realized this is going to be good for me to get rid of all the extra.
Oh and its just me so its maybe easier.

We originally planned on storing the furniture, but in the end decided to sell it and opted for a much smaller storage unit.  The additional cost for storage over the course of a few years, we could just buy new if we ever needed it at all.

I'm all for getting rid of anything that is replaceable like kitchenware, furniture, extra clothing. My question is what about all the sentimental items that are not replaceable? Photos, family movies, family heirlooms, etc. We'd like to keep these items for sure, do we tote them around on our travels or pack them up and put into storage. What have some of you done?

Digitize the photos and movies, pass the "hard copies" on to the kids or other family members. Pass the heirlooms that are too big to carry on too.

We're in the middle of this downsizing process ourselves.    Having been in our stick and brick home for more than a quarter of a century at this point ... the accumulation of "stuff" is pretty thick.  We've pretty much given ourselves a year to get it done.  We've decided to go at it a little at a time - basically attacking one room at a time.  For us - it's a "multi-pass" process.  The first pass is basically just cleaning the room - sorting and throwing out as much as we reasonably can. 

Once the "clean and pitch" phase is done - we then assess what's left.  We look at everything that's left ... and ask ourselves a series of questions.  First and foremost - is "Does it have a place in our mobile life?"  ... if yes, it gets kept.  If no - we decide if it's got any real monetary value (i.e., is it something worth going thru the trouble of trying to sell).  Some of the stuff is nothing more than garage sale inventory ... stuff that we might get pennies on the dollar for.  Other things have real value in the right market (things in this category includes band gear, high end racing bicycles, etc.)  The garage sale stuff gets put on the side for future sales ... while I get to work on figuring out how to best sell the stuff with real value.  Other stuff is simply being given away. 

We've made our peace with a decision that we're NOT going to use paid storage for "big" stuff like furniture or appliances - recognizing that when we stop travelling and put roots back down again (in much smaller quarters!), the likelihood that what we own today will be the right stuff for that future home is pretty slim.  With that decision made - we're giving stuff away left and right ... much of which is going to organizations like GoodWill (all of which I'm documenting for tax purposes). 

It's a slow process ... but we're getting thru it.  We're a couple of months into it, and have gone thru every room in the house with the "clean and pitch" pass.  We're making progress.  We're finding that it's getting easier as we go.  We're seeing our attachment to stuff start to weaken the longer we work at this.  Things we would have agonized parting with at the beginning of this exercise now just get thrown in the "give it to Goodwill" pile without much thought.  Once you come to the accept that most of the stuff has little or no real value to anybody but you ... getting rid of it gets easier and easier.