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Tips On Decluttering And Downsizing Your Home In Georgia

Decluttering and downsizing! Those two words may strike a sick feeling or even fear in the pit of your stomach. However, there are many benefits to decluttering and downsizing such as saving money on a smaller house, spending less on bills, beginning a new chapter in life, and creating new memories. If you have decided it’s time to downsize and declutter, be prepared with a plan. There are many websites and plans online that can help you in this effort!  As Israelmore Ayivor stated, “Preparation is the key to leadership success. The more prepared you are the less your struggle…”. So, get ready and plan to thoroughly go through every area of your home, including the attic, basement, and garage.  Here are some suggestions that we have put together that we feel will be helpful to you as you begin.

Find An Unbiased Friend To Help You Make Decisions.

We know deciding whether or not to keep things or toss them can be extremely difficult. If you feel that these decisions are to hard for you to do alone, we suggest calling someone to help push you in the right direction. A friend can be there to help you decide if you should keep something or leave it behind by asking the right questions. Most times, they can be a good motivator to  you by gently pushing you to get rid of some of the items that you really do need to part with after all these years.

Use Four Major Categories for Sorting Your Things

  1. Keep – These items are worthy of your time and efforts to pack away and take up space in a new home.
  2. Donate – These are items that are still useful to others and can be donated to a thrift store or charity.
  3. Sell – These are items that have some value and can potentially generate some income by listing them on Facebook Marketplace, eBay or other sites.
  4. Trash – YOU CAN DO IT!  These are the items you and hopefully your supportive motivator have decided to let go. Get some big construction grade trash bags and find some freedom in decluttering!

Start By Downsizing And Dealing With The Big Stuff

Begin with the big items! Sofas, bedroom sets, large tables, and more should be decided on first. These items will likely take up the most room in your new home. If you plan to keep them, great! However,  if you have been wanting a new sofa for years now is your chance, sell it or donate it and start fresh.

Regarding The Smaller Things- Make Good Decisions

If you currently use something and it’s in good condition, has sentimental value and serves a purpose, keep that item!  BUT, be strong and decisive with the items that you do not use often or that can be donated to someone else in need. Moving gives you a wonderful opportunity to clean out your house ridding yourself of old clothes, toys, outdated items and other things.  It not only frees up space, but your mind as well! Getting rid of these items to your local Goodwill or other charitable organization will also give you a morale boost!

Regarding The Smaller Things- Make Good Decisions

If you currently use something and it’s in good condition, has sentimental value and serves a purpose, keep that item!  BUT, be strong and decisive with the items that you do not use often or that can be donated to someone else in need. Moving gives you a wonderful opportunity to clean out your house ridding yourself of old clothes, toys, outdated items and other things.  It not only frees up space, but your mind as well! Getting rid of these items to your local Goodwill or other charitable organization will also give you a morale boost!

cluttered kitchen
Don’t Let Clutter Stop You From Selling Your Home Quickly

Be Careful With The Keepsakes – Use Alternative Ways Of Preserving Memories

This may be a tough topic, but how many boxes or bins of keepsakes do you actually have? Go through these items and decide which ones you actually want to keep and which ones to let go of. For example, Johnny’s 10 math tests from grade school, or the picture of the monkey from that one vacation- can maybe be placed in the discard pile.  You can also consider that your children’s artwork, photos, cards, and scrapbooks can be digitized by scanning them. Even some nostalgic items like the baby outfit your brought your first child home in can easily be photographed. A digital picture on your smartphone will probably allow you to see the item more often and share the memory with others than if you left it in a box in the basement or attic.

Making smart decisions about your keepsakes will help you gain useful room in your new house while still holding on to the memories and sharing them with your friends and family through picture books or digital files. Remember, chances are If you haven’t looked inside the boxes in a while, they probably contain things that you are unaware of and probably won’t miss in the long run.

Use The Rule of One Year When It Comes To Appliances, Electrical Equipment, And Tools

We know it can be tempting to hold on to things, but remember, if you are not really using that item any more, than we suggest you part with it.  Are you really going to use that sewing machine that has been collecting dust for a few years now?  How about old craft projects, paints, or exercise gear?  If it hasn’t been used in a while and you most likely won’t use it again, donate them or put them in the discard pile. 

Digitize Old Financial Records

Did you know that you can digitize all your critical documents and records?  You can save them to the cloud or on a hard drive to free up space. You should maintain hard copies of some documents, such as birth certificates. However, you can scan and store other financial or personal documents and free up space in your home. Many papers can be scanned and stored as PDF files, or they can be transferred to the cloud using programs like Google Drive or DropBox. Remember to destroy any paper papers with personal information after digitizing them. Here is a good article on what to keep and what to destroy.  A general rule for financial documents is to keep documents that are  less than seven years old.

Are you Already Feeling Overwhelmed With The Clutter In Your House?

Perhaps while reading this article, you have come to realization that your home or perhaps your parent’s home is too big of a hassle to tackle. What options do you have if the task is way to much to handle, or you don’t have enough time to spend on such a huge project? You may want to consider an estate sale. You can usually find someone who will come to your house, go through your things, price them and host a sale. They will take a percentage of the sale for their time and effort. When the estate sale is completed, you should consider a cash sale for the house and all of the left over items.

Professional Home Buyers Can Help You Declutter And Sell Your Home For Cash

A professional home buying company like We Buy The Southeast will provide you with a cash offer on your property in Atlanta or other cities in Georgia. You can simply walk away from the clutter, needed repairs, and headaches with cash in your hand. If you are ready to sell your property and move on from the hassle, we would be happy to make you a no-obligation cash offer today. We buy homes in ‘as-is’ condition in Georgia, and we would love to help you too! You can learn more about the pros and cons of this option here!

You can declutter to the extent that you want to and leave the rest for us to deal with. This will allow you to close the deal much more quickly than a traditional sale where repairs, cleaning and trying to sell an empty house can take months. Our team is standing by to assist you in selling your home quickly for cash so that you can move on from the clutter and the mound of things that fill your basement, attic, and other storage areas. You can learn more about how our process works by clicking here. If you would like to find out more about this opportunity, talk to one of our friendly professional experts. Call us at 866-987-0072 today. We can give you a no-obligation quote usually within 24 hours. If you accept the offer, we can close the sale and give you cash within just as little as one week. There are no fees, commissions, or closing costs. We hope the best for you. Let us know if you feel we can be of help to your or your family.

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