Decluttering for downsizing..

While for most of our early homeowning years we’re looking for the next home up – one with more space, room for children, entertaining, a home office – there comes a time when we’re actually ready to downsize. Or perhaps I should rephrase that – we’re at a lifestage where downsizing makes logical sense, but emotionally, well, maybe we’re not quite ready.

We see many clients come to us, looking to move out of the family home now that the children have flown the nest and there are just too many rarely used rooms. Some come almost with a feeling of being under duress, while some come with a light and positive approach, ready to find a new nest and start diverting their income to stuff more fun than huge heating bills and council tax charges.

Why are some ‘ready’, and some not so much? I think it lies in the stage of acceptance they have reached in their minds. Our homes are so important to us – it’s where we have loved, laughed, made memories, felt safe, entertained friends, created spaces we’re proud of and deeply comfortable in. Letting go of all of this isn’t something that just happens overnight, it’s a process of acknowledgement, of preparing for change and readying oneself emotionally and physically for that change.

The house hunters most ready to move, the ones who I can see are comfortable with putting their home on the market and being open to a new home themselves, are those people who have started the downsizing process long before they actually start to house hunt. How – by decluttering. And I know this because I can see it when we visit their home to value it, and when they tell me. Valuing a home where the homeowner says: “oh, I don’t know how I shall get all my furniture and things into a smaller space” always rings an alarm bell. A home where I am told “oh, we’ve cleared out so much stuff already” indicates a mind on the move, creating a distance between the home they are in now to allow for falling in love with a new place.

There are multiple decluttering methods people use, from bringing in an expert to help you to doing it yourself using one of the many methods you can find online.  Here are two DIY approaches I know our clients have found most workable,

Swedish Death Cleaning

I know, me too! The first time I heard this expression I was a little horrified, but actually it’s a very sensible approach to decluttering and maintaining a simpler existence and has no direct correlation with your likely lifespan left on earth. It was developed by a Swedish writer Margerita Magnusson, in her book The Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaning and in short, it’s about  decluttering your home to remove all non-essential items so your loved ones don’t have any added stress after you’re gone. By doing this yourself, you get to decide what’s most necessary in your home, what items hold memories that only have relevance to you and therefore can be let go. It can include everything from old photo albums to fridge magnets to books to clothes to furniture.

How to do it: the guidance is that you go room-by-room and look at everything you’re hanging on to and ask yourself why. The general rule is that you start in larger rooms and with larger items and work your way down to the small, sentimental pieces. Start in the loft – that place you cram so much stuff because you can’t just throw away memories, but they don’t fit elsewhere in your home. Suitcases of baby clothes you haven’t looked at for 25 years; your old books and notes from university (my mother kept mine, I have no idea why, we found them when she was downsizing…); items from previous homes that never really fitted here but you kept ‘just in case…’; etc. 

Get rid of any duplicates – so maybe hang on to one onesie, but let the rest go – and keep only what actively makes your life more comfortable. They very act of making these decisions, of recognising that you don’t need everything you have held onto over the years, then serves to help start creating the mental space you need to make that downsizing decision with heart, as well as mind.

The KonMari Method

A little like Swedish Death Cleaning, KonMari recognises that there is often power in the stuff we keep hold of. Created by Marie Kondo, it’s a way to declutter your entire home in a category by category approach, rather than room-by-room. The categories are: clothes, books, paper, komono (miscellaneous items) and sentimental items. You start with clothes and progress to sentimental items because the easier categories to declutter come first, so by the time you reach the last, hardest category, you have developed a greater understanding of what you should and can lose, and what you can keep. She says you should only keep items that spark joy: “When something sparks joy, you should feel a little thrill, as if the cells in your body are slowly rising. When you hold something that doesn’t bring you joy, however, you will notice that your body feels heavier.”

It’s an emotional approach to decluttering, but then, downsizing is an emotional decision as much as it is a practical one, so while you are clearing space in your home and keeping only what you know you will need and that brings joy, you are readying yourself to move on, taking only what is truly important with you.

Finally, decluttering in advance of putting your house on the market is always a good idea. People viewing a potential new home want to see just that – its potential. Overflowing cupboards, busy kitchen work surfaces, a stacked high home office, a cellar or loft jammed full of stuff; it’s hard to project your own life into someone else’s crowded home, so clear the space and let them see the joy your old home might bring to their future.

Eddie – Friday 11th April 2025.