Helpful Tips For Empty Nesters When Downsizing
Raising a family is a rewarding and challenging experience, but there comes a point in time when the fledglings leave the nest, and the parents are left with an empty nest. Suddenly, the familial home seems incredibly large and the parents realize it's time to consider moving to a smaller one. Not only is doing so more cost-effective, having a smaller home is easier to clean and maintain.
If this sounds like your current situation, you may be wondering how to manage moving from your current home to a small one. Here are a few ideas that can help.
Plan a Downsizing Party
Schedule a day for your adult children to gather in your home to sort through all of their personal belongings that are still in the familial home before the residential movers arrive to box up what you want to move to your new home. This day can be celebratory as your family shares memories of various items and times while deciding on whether or not anyone wants to keep the items, donate the items to a good cause, sell them, or just throw them away.
Rent a Storage Unit
Rent a local storage unit to place any large or bulky items that your children want to keep but do not currently have space for where they live, such as if your daughter is a college student and wants to hold on to her grandmother's armoire. Place the items that will go into the storage unit in one area in your home to keep it separate from the items and furniture that the moving service will move to your new home. If necessary, the same moving service can also take the items to the storage unit as well. Just make sure that any boxes that go into the storage unit are labeled so there is no confusion later.
Stage Your Home for Sale
Ideally, staging your home can be a great way for your home to sell quickly. Whether you continue living in your current home while it's for sale or you move ahead to your next smaller home, consider leaving your main furniture in your current home and moving everything else to your new place first. By doing this, you will be giving the prospective buyers a better visual on how their furniture will fit into the various rooms of the house. You can have the moving service move the furniture you use for staging the home later after the house sells.
