The process of moving can be a daunting experience, and it only becomes more stressful as you age and have less energy to work on clearing out your home and sorting through your things. However, downsizing doesn’t have to be overwhelming. Careage Senior Living has compiled a list of tips and tricks to make your transition to apartment living as smooth as possible.

Give Yourself a Realistic Timeline

It may be tempting to plan to speed through all the shifting and sorting of your things in a single weekend, but lofty goals like this will only serve to create stress and possibly hinder your progress. Make a list of all the rooms in your house and set up specific days for when you’ll tackle those rooms, allotting at least one day per room. Space out the tasks over several weeks so you don’t exhaust yourself.

Pack What You Need First

Instead of going through your rooms and tossing out things you don’t want, start with the things you know you will need and pack those. Once you have an idea of how much that is, it will be easier to go back and make decisions about the rest. Set aside time to donate or sell usable items. Garage sales are an excellent option for large collections of clothes or books, and Craigslist or eBay can work better for bigger-ticket items. If it’s too daunting, look into hiring a service to do it for you. Some charitable organizations will pick up items for donation.

Keep Some Mementoes

While it’s important to get rid of clutter when you’re downsizing, that doesn’t mean you have to get rid of every item that doesn’t serve a specific purpose. If you can’t bear to get rid of your entire collection of antique china, pick out a few of your favorite pieces to display in your new home. You can take pictures of the rest of the collection and treasure the memory that way.

Measure Out Your New Home

As you’re going through the rooms in your current home and picking out what to take with you, make sure you know the dimensions of the apartment you’ll be moving into. You may think you have space for a table, couch, lamp, and ottoman, but if it turns out to be too cramped, you’ll have to do some rushed and unplanned rearranging or selling later.

We hope these tips were able to give you a good starting point for your downsizing journey. For more advice and suggestions surrounding transitions, check out the Careage blog.