When you’ve made the decision to downsize to a smaller home, you’ll want to begin the process of sorting through your belongings. Over many years you’ve brought things into your home. When it comes time to begin sorting, you must stop bringing more into your home and focus on downsizing. Setting goals or creating a sorting schedule can help you keep on track. You’ll want to start as early as possible and give yourself plenty of time. A floor plan is the best way to determine what furniture will move and which furniture will be destined for family, resale, donation or trash. After you’ve made the decisions on what furniture will move and which will not, you’ll have a better idea on how to right-size your smaller household items. If you’re taking one bookcase and not the second, for example, you’ll know that you need to pare down your book collection to fit onto the bookcase that is moving with you. How will you decide which books will stay and which will go? You will keep as many of your favorites as possible, but you may have to say goodbye to books that were a part of your past, as well as books that you never found the time to read. These types of decisions will face you in every area of your home.

Give yourself grace as you sort. You’ll be facing a lot of memories from your life. Perhaps you want to keep a journal handy to jot down memories that you’ll want to share with family at a later date. A notepad is helpful for making lists on who will receive gifts or follow-up tasks that are required. As you sort, take time to give thanks for the person you were at each stage of life. You have grown over the years through different careers and pathways. If you have children, you’ve experienced many different stages of life and may have keepsakes from those time periods. Check with your children to see if they’d like to have them or view them one more time before you let them go. It can be difficult to say goodbye to these items that you’ve treasured for so many years, but by giving thanks for those experiences you can part on good terms. You can also take pictures of items to store on your phone, tablet or computer. This will take up much less space and will allow you to revisit the memories that seeing these items bring to mind.

Over the years, you’ve exercised different skills and pursued various hobbies or interests. As you face who you were, and who you may no longer be, you’ll find yourself grieving what once was. Again, give yourself grace. This can be a difficult time. Perhaps you were the one to host all the holidays with the children and grandchildren and once you move, someone else will do the hosting. Perhaps you enjoyed gardening, lawn care and home repairs and these jobs will now be handled by the community you’re moving into. As you sort, you’re not just saying goodbye to the things you owned, but also the person you were. There may be hobbies and skills that you will no longer have the interest, strength, time or ability to accomplish. You may have hopes and dreams that never came to fruition and projects that were left unfinished. You’ll be saying goodbye to what was and what never came to be. Give yourself the space to grieve and fully evaluate each memory and experience. 

By starting the downsizing process early, you’ll give yourself the necessary time to grieve and say goodbye on your terms. Don’t wait until you’ve found the right community or accepted an offer on your new home or current home. Start now. Downsizing takes time and once you sign a contract for your smaller home, you may find that you’ll need to review what you’re keeping once again to right-size for your new home and the limited storage opportunities that it presents. If you’re contemplating a future move, start the process now and give yourself time and grace as you say goodbye to the past, live in the present, and dream about your future. How will you live your best life going forward, beyond the fork in the road?