We work with many sellers who are at the stage in their lives where they’re ready to sell the large family home and move to something smaller and easier to look after. In most cases this happens once the children have left the ‘nest’ and the 4 or 5 bedroom home with games room and pool is no longer needed (or wanted).
Once cashed up, many couples in this situation make the decision to move to a lifestyle suburb and purposely seek out a low maintenance ‘lock and leave’ type of property so they have the freedom to do things like travel and enjoy the recreational facilities on their doorstep without being bogged down with the endless To Do list. But how can you possibly fit 25 years of treasured memories and ‘stuff’ into a smaller home with less storage?
Here are a few tips to remove the stress from downsizing:
- Start planning early. Once you have made the decision to downsize, start by writing a list of all the items you wish to keep and can’t live without. Everything else can be given away, sold at a garage sale or donated to charity.
- Do an inventory and start sorting. Go through each room in the house, one by one, and start sorting your things into groups. Be ruthless! When doing this exercise, consciously think about the size of the home you are looking to buy. Are you looking for a 2 or 3-bedroom home? Will one of the bedrooms be used as a study or guest accommodation? Do you want a home with a garden or would you prefer a villa with a paved courtyard and covered alfresco area? How you sort your belongings is up to you but an idea could be to sort them as follows:
- Items to keep
- Items to sell at a garage sale (your trash may be someone else’s treasure)
- Items to give to family members
- Items to donate
- Items to discard
Arrange a skip bin or council collection if you have a lot of items to discard.
- Start packing. When you think about it, there are many things that don’t get used regularly that you could easily pack away in boxes early. For instance, if it’s spring/summer, you could pack away all the winter woolies and bedding, etc.
Doing all these things early will make your move a breeze once the time comes. That way you can thoroughly enjoy the experience, which is how it should be when moving into an exciting new chapter in life.
Contact us if you’d like a list of properties for sale that are perfectly suited to the downsizer market.