Are you thinking about downsizing items in your home?

Do you want the downsizing process to be as seamless as possible?

In this post, you’ll find four tips to help keep your eyes on the prize when it comes to reducing the amount of stuff in your home.

Be clear about why you are downsizing.

Are you moving to a smaller house or apartment?

Or taking a trip around the world and need to put your belongings in storage?

Maybe you’re just tired of dealing with piles of stuff at home.

It’s important to define exactly why you are downsizing your belongings, as this will help keep you motivated.

What goal do you want to reach it comes to letting go of some of your stuff?

How about your dreams? What dreams do you have for your future?

What will having less stuff allow you to be/do/see/accomplish?

Be honest with yourself and you’ll find the answers you seek.

Say “yes” to what you’ll keep.

Many people think downsizing is simply throwing out gobs and gobs of stuff, sight unseen.

Actually, this isn’t the best approach, as you may accidentally throw away, or dispose of something you truly need.

Another way to downsize is to approach it from a reverse angle.

Instead of opening up your closet, and simply tossing away clothes, go through and pick out the items you use on a regular basis.

This clearly separates what you actually need in your life, versus what you don’t, and makes it easier to dispense with the rest.

In this example, you might pull out seven dress shirts, four pairs of dress slacks, and three skirts.

Add to that two sweaters, two good suits, and a light coat. You now have a foundation for your work wardrobe.

Set up downsizing areas.

You may find it helpful to set up a downsizing staging area in infrequently used area of your home.

You can use a guest bedroom or a spare or underutilized corner of a room.

Now, there’s two paths you can take at this point.

For starters, you can decide what you’re going to keep. This approach may be helpful if you’re moving to a new location, or moving house.

Or you can decide what you’re going to remove from your home. This may be items like trash, recycling, and donations.

Whatever path you school, be sure to clearly label outgoing boxes, bags, and containers, so you know what is what.

Take your time.

Downsizing a lifetime’s, or even several years’ worth of stuff isn’t going to happen overnight.

Depending on how much stuff you own, this may take weeks, possibly even months!

Take your time as you go through your belongings.

You may find it helpful to set aside blocks of time to do your downsizing.

Start with increments of 30 work minutes so you don’t overwhelm yourself.

You may find also it helpful to set a firm deadline to help you stay on track.

For example, you could set a deadline of, “I will go through and downsize items in my bedroom by the 30th.”

How about you? Which of these downsizing tips do you find the most helpful? Join the conversation and leave a comment below!