When you’re moving, you might find out you have been hoarding a few extra boxes of things you don’t need in your new home. One thing that moving can help homeowners do is downsize. Downsizing keeps everything organized and makes moving and packing less stressful, and in some cases, less expensive. While packing, here are eight tips to aid in your downsizing and overall moving process.

1. While it’s cliche, make three piles: Keep, donate, and garbage
Sort through every single thing and truly evaluate its purpose in your current life and whether you have room in your new home. This process can help eliminate clutter.

2. Start early
If you are moving in six months, start going through your things now. That way, you are not rushed to make decisions. You can also see just how much of your belongings are necessary and how many are just convenient.

3. Go digital
Rather than keeping thousands of pictures or videos, take advantage of technology advances and digitalize your hard copies. This decreases the amount of physical things you need to move.

4. Minimize clutter hot spots
How many serving spoons do you really need? How many sets of plates? Mixing spoons? In the kitchen, it is easy to collect a bunch of duplicates. Go through the kitchen with a selective eye. Throw out or donate anything you don’t use or that you have multiples of.

5. Go room by room
Don’t overwhelm yourself by tackling your entire house in one day. It’s okay to space things out and work on the kitchen one weekend and the basement next.

6. Don’t overthink things
It can be easy to get caught up in sentimental things, but remember, these items do not define your memories. You can throw out old items and make room in your new home for new memories. This applies to furniture as well as belongings.

7. Consider your new space
While organizing your belongings, keep in mind your new ling space. Do you have room for it in the new house? Coupled with this question, don’t think about buying new furniture until you have moved all your current belongings into the new space.

8. Make downsizing a family affair
To lessen how overwhelming it can be to downsize and declutter, invite your loved ones to help. It can be a fun way to go through all the memories you have made and all of the belongings you share. This is also a great time to pass down any sentimental items to members of your family who could get more use out of items than you.

Tippet Richardson is a moving company that has been trusted for over 90 years. Our services include personal moving solutions no matter the distance. We provide assistance and service through each stage of moving to alleviate stress from already stressful moving situations. Contact us today to find out how we can help you with downsizing and your upcoming move.