How to Downsize as You Prepare for the Next Chapter

Moving to an assisted living residence is a big change in a person’s life. Offloading the items you’ve spent years accumulating can be hard, but once it’s done, you’ll likely feel lighter and breathe a sigh of relief. Here are a few ways to sort through your things and determine what items are the most important to have in your new home at Safe Haven.

Host a Goodbye Party
If you feel attached to your items, consider honoring the memories they hold by hosting a get together with close friends and family. Spend time sharing memories and reminisce over your various items and ceremoniously load them up and give them away. This will help to remind you that once the item is gone, the memory is still there.

Donate to Family
There are quite a few benefits to donating items to the family. One is that if you have a young relative moving into a new home, it can come in handy since you’ll be able to send your furniture to a good home. Family can also stop by and pick it up, rather than transporting it yourself. Best of all these items stay in the family.

Have an Estate Sale
Estate sales are perfect if you need an easy way to get rid of most of your items in a short amount of time. There are companies that plan and manage every aspect of the estate sale so you won’t have to do a thing. Any left over items can be donated to charity.

Put Items in Storage
Even if you do a combination of all these choices, there may still be items you want to keep. If you can’t bring the items to your new space you can invest in a small storage unit in case you want to use them someday or give them to relatives the next time they are in town.