Downsizing Your Home in Atlanta Before Moving

Moving is super expensive, especially if you’re moving across the country or from one state to another. Even moving to a new neighborhood in Atlanta, GA can be expensive. However, you can make your move more affordable and easier by downsizing before you move. Maybe you don’t have a choice. It’s possible you will be moving from a large home to a smaller home due to all your children becoming adults and moving away for another reason. When this is the case, the right plan for downsizing will make a big difference. Whether you’re moving from Atlanta to another destination or you’re moving to Atlanta from another destination, downsizing first is a smart choice. Let’s look at some of the best ways to downsize before you move to Atlanta.

Top 11 Downsizing Tips to Use Before You Move to Atlanta

1. Inventory Everything You Own

When it’s time to downsize your home before you move into a smaller home, it’s time to take inventory of everything you own. It’s necessary to figure out what you need to get rid of and one of the first steps towards this is creating an inventory of everything you own. Start with the larger items and consider creating a category for every type of item you own. As you go through everything, consider marking some items to be removed via donation, given away to family, sale, or disposed of. This will make some of the other steps in the process a bit easier, but if you’re not sure, just add the item to the inventory and move on. Don’t waste time on this unless you’re very sure. A good idea as you create an inventory is to take pictures of everything. This can be enough to help you remember items you plan to get rid of, even if they are special to you. Pictures are worth one thousand words and pictures that bring up good memories are always a good thing.

2. Take Advantage of a Temporary Dumpster Rental

A roll-off dumpster rental in Atlanta offers the right option for your specific needs right now. Even the smallest dumpster can come in handy, but you might need a larger one if you have lots of old furniture or junk to dispose of. When you go through the process of downsizing your home, you will realize you have far more trash than you expected. This can weigh on you as you try to figure out how to get rid of it, but with a temporary dumpster rental in Atlanta, it will be rather easy. At Waste Removal USA, we offer residential dumpster rentals with fast delivery, affordable pricing, and plenty of time to let you downsize your home before you move. When you want to choose the right dumpster rental company for your needs, we’re the choice you should turn to.

3. Use Your Storage Spaces Wisely

Maybe you have storage areas in your home you can use for staging or you actually have a personal storage space you can utilize. It’s not a bad idea to take the things you want to keep out of your home and place them in another area. You can also use storage to help when you’re preparing for a garage sale or a moving sale. Storage areas work great for sorting items out into piles or categories. Whether it’s a garage, attic, or basement, using your storage spaces wisely will make it easier to get things sorted out.

4. Go Room-By-Room to Make it Easier

Downsizing is a huge job and it will likely take some time. Going from one room to another just makes sense when you want to figure out what should go with you and what not to take with you. Maybe you’re moving to Atlanta to retire or moving from Atlanta to enjoy a beach condo in Florida. Either way, you want to go from one room to another to figure out what to keep, donate, sell, give to family, or take with you. If something is broken and cannot be fixed, it’s pretty easy to decide it belongs in your dumpster rental for disposal. However, other items might be really difficult. Taking it one room at a time will help you to make the project into smaller bite-size pieces to make it much easier to deal with. Take the time to figure out what you like the most as those items should be kept and taken with you. However, the items you don’t care for much should be sorted into piles to be sold, donated, or trashed. Also, if you have any important items you want to give to family members, now is a good time to set those aside.

5. Plan for Plenty of Time

Downsizing takes up a lot of time. Make sure you have plenty of time to complete your downsizing. With a good dumpster rental company, such as Waste Removal USA, you get 14 days with your rental rate. While this might be the case, you should start the downsizing process up to three months before you move. You need time to pack up things you don’t need right now, but want to keep. You also need time to give away important items to your family. It’s also important to get things sorted before you rent your dumpster, too. Once you have most of the items sorted, rent your dumpster about three weeks before you move. Then, use it to toss out all the trash before you move.

6. Create a Plan to Get Rid of Your Unwanted Items

After you’ve figured out what to get rid of, it’s time to create a plan. You likely have things to give to your family, donate to others or a donation center, things to sell, and things to throw away. The easiest pile is the throw-away pile. Simply toss all these items into your dumpster and move on. Donations are also pretty easy to deal with. Most can be dropped off at a donation center. If you have anything larger, they will likely pick it up for you. Things you need to sell are a bit trickier. Anything you can easily ship that has good value can be sold on eBay. Other, larger, items can be sold locally with Craigslist, the Facebook Marketplace, or a garage/yard/moving sale. These items are not as easy to deal with, so be clear in your ad description about what you have and whether you can deliver it or if it needs to be picked up. Listing your things for sale isn’t easy, but it can certainly be worth it. If you have a large number of smaller or cheaper items, just hold a garage sale or moving sale to get rid of them. You can also sell furniture in this way, but it won’t fetch as high of a price most of the time.

7. Use the One-Year Rule

As you go through your entire inventory of things, you can use the one-year rule to make decisions. If you haven’t used or enjoyed something in the last year, it’s time to say goodbye to the item. This can include clothing, furniture, kitchen items, and so much more. While most of your belongings you will have used or enjoyed in the last year, we all tend to have a few things we have not touched in over a year, especially with clothing. These items need to be donated, sold, or trashed.

8. Give Away Heirlooms Now

Now is the perfect time to start giving away those heirlooms you planned to give to your family in your will. If you’re downsizing for retirement and you have heirlooms you have earmarked for certain family members, give them away to them now, don’t wait! It’s okay to keep a few small heirlooms if you want, but all the larger ones, especially furniture, should be given away to family members now.

9. Keep Guilt Out of the Equation

Guilt doesn’t get to be a factor in the downsizing process before you move to Atlanta. Too often, we keep things because they were a gift given to us ten years ago or someone in our family loves the item or said they love it. Don’t allow guilt to make you keep things you don’t need or want. If a family member loves something, give it away to them. Anything else you’re keeping out of guilt can be sold, donated, or tossed in your dumpster rental.

10. Get Rid of Paperwork You Don’t Need

You might have a ton of paperwork you don’t really need. Even if you need it, you can digitize it and stop storing boxes of old bank statements and tax returns. Even a simple picture can be enough to keep your records. Take the time to digitize all your old paperwork and shred it. Then, it can be tossed away in your dumpster rental so you don’t have to haul it to your new location. Only keep the most recent and most important paperwork. You probably get a ton of bills and other items in the mail that you don’t need because you also get them online. Keep what you absolutely need and get rid of the rest since it’s just weighing you down.

11. Consider Your New Home’s Size

As you go through everything, consider the size of your new home in Atlanta or any other destination. Don’t keep things that won’t fit well and don’t keep more than you can handle in your new home. This can lead to a crowded spot, which isn’t a good thing when you’re trying to downsize and get used to a new home. When you want to move to Atlanta, from Atlanta, or around Atlanta, it’s a great time to downsize. Maybe you’re an empty nester or a retiree and you’re going from a larger home to a maintenance-free condo. You can’t keep everything, so use these 11 tips to downsize your home in Atlanta before you move.