Downsizing or Rightsizing?

Moving and Home Organization Tips with Virtuo

Whether you’re choosing Journey Club or Westman Village for your next step in life, the odds are you’ll be making some choices with the stuff you bring with you. As anyone else in the Western world, things come into our life very easily, and can quickly become burdensome when we are making life choices we need. This is especially true for those of us in larger suburban homes.

Luckily for us here at Westman Village, Virtuo is on hand as a resource to make your organization process less overwhelming, less painful, and less chaotic than it needs to be. Virtuo’s Co-Founder and Managing Partner Nate Edwards has provided you, dear reader, with some tips to smooth out a trying time in your home life.

So why downsize? Three big reasons which you’re likely already familiar with are finances, lifestyle, and safety. A big house and lots of stuff is appealing on a certain level, but not only do those choices take up a big pile of time, money and resources, they can have a serious impact on your anxiety levels and sometimes directly on your health and safety. Even if you’re not looking into a Westman Village or any other more compact living situation, starting your minimizing process should start now while you’re physically able and emotionally willing to transition. It certainly won’t get any easier with age!

So if you do have a big downsize planned for a move, the team at Virtuo has three easy tips to get you rolling and keep you from being handcuffed to your stuff.

Declutter NOW

You’ll likely need a margin of six months or so to get things sorted out properly and make the decisions about what is truly near and dear to your heart, so start with little things immediately. Start treating decluttering the same as your regular cleaning chores. One or two hours of decluttering each week goes a long way to a smooth move. Just pick one part of the house and focus on that, rather than trying to take on the whole monumental task at once.

Eye on the Prize

A subtle rearrangement of your perspective can be very useful when decluttering. Don’t focus on what to get rid of, instead think of what you truly need, what you can’t live without. Once you take some measurements and figure out what furniture will actually fit, and you’ve got your kitchen essentials decided on, try and take stock of what your new life will look like. What of your belongings are truly essential to this next phase of your life? Will you be spending more time on vacation? How many bedrooms and bathrooms will you have in your new home? With your essentials on board, you’ll know how much space you have left and can start to prioritize your optional stuff.

You’re Not Alone

Your friends and family are a big asset in this process. First off, they can take some of your stuff with them when they leave! If they’re storing things with you or they want something you no longer need, they solve a problem for you and you get a bonus of catching up with the people you love.

Aside from hands and elbow grease, your loved ones can offer something even more useful during your decluttering process: perspective. It’s easy to get attached to things and the memories that go along with them, but if you have a sounding board to talk out why you are keeping a box full of kids’ toys from 1982, they may be able to help you come to some new conclusions before your big move.

So be prepared, think ahead, and find your support network, because you definitely can do this. If you feel compelled to streamline, simplify, and minimize your life, you’re certainly not alone, and the odds are if you want to do it, you’ll feel pretty amazing by the time the process is done. If you just can’t make it happen on your own, remember to track down Virtuo, Westman Village’s preferred home-buying and moving concierge service.

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