Moving to a smaller apartment certainly has both positive and negative sides. On the one hand, you will be sacrificing some of the spaciousness and comfort that a big home with a multitude of rooms can offer. On the other, you will be saving quite a bit of money on rent and utilities. Not to mention that everyday maintenance will be faster and easier, thus leaving you with more time to spend doing the things you love. And yes, you might feel pressed for space, not knowing where or how to store all of your possessions. Then again - this too can be beneficial. You may find yourself unleashing the demon of organization and creativity that has been lying dormant.
Whether you’re moving cross-country, with the best nationwide movers Florida can offer, or locally, the key to a successful move is having a good plan. And since you’re moving to a smaller apartment, also a well-thought-out downsizing.
Downsizing made simple
As you’re already aware, moving to a smaller apartment will leave you with a shortage of storage space. And, as hard as it may be, some items will just have to be tossed out. But how to choose what goes and what stays? Put simply - turn off the emotions and turn on logic.
If you keep clinging to every single thing just because it has some minuscule emotional value, you’ll probably just end up packing everything. And once our state to state movers Florida deliver all of your possessions, you may find yourself in your new apartment surrounded by boxes, with no room to unpack them. You may find the mental image of yourself doing the best impression of Wile E. Coyote, standing amongst mountains of boxes, holding a sign “Now what, wise guy?” amusing at first. Once that image becomes reality, though, it will be anything but.
So, now that emotion is out of the way, it’s time to start sorting. And the best way to do it is to ask yourself a few simple questions:
- “Am I using this?”
- “Do I need it?”
- “Will it serve a purpose in my new apartment?”
If the answer to any of these questions is “no” - it’s settled: You’re getting rid of it. However, even though certain items might not be of use to you anymore, you should refrain from just throwing them away. A better option is to donate or to try and sell it either by organizing a yard sale or through online marketplaces.
Utilize technology to save space
Another great way of saving space, albeit often overlooked, is digitizing. Think about it: How much paperwork do you keep in drawers? How many writings? How many photo albums? When you look at all that stuff from the packing point of view, surely it will take at least a few boxes. If you digitize them, though, they might only take a few DVD’s worths of space. Even less if you upload them to some of the cloud services such as Google Photos or Dropbox. And not only will you save space, but you will be able to access them anywhere, anytime.
You may even opt to sell some of your books and use that money to buy an e-version equivalent. Books can take a lot of space and e-book files are so small that you can keep hundreds, if not thousands, of them on your smartphone or tablet, and enjoy them wherever you are.
Carefully plan the layout before moving to a smaller apartment
We can safely say that this step is not only necessary - it’s crucial. It’s a sad reality, but some of your furniture simply won’t fit in your new apartment. Some pieces, like a king-size bed, for instance, might be too big to fit through the door. Others may be so bulky that you won’t have any space to maneuver. There might be a difference in ceiling height between your old and new place, and your closet won’t be able to fit vertically without applying “downsizing by jigsaw”. Luckily, there’s a way to prevent these nuisances and save yourself the stress.
Before you pack the furniture and ship it out, take the time to make a detailed floor plan. Use the tape measure or hand-held distomat to get precise dimensions of your new apartment. Measure everything: length, width, and height. Not only of rooms but doors too, so you can plan and organize the move-in accordingly. Once you’re done, do the same with every piece of furniture you intend to bring. You can even draw a layout of the apartment on a large piece of paper and make cardboard cutouts of individual pieces of furniture. This method will make planning much easier, as you will be able to move the pieces around and get a visual representation of how everything will look and fit in your new apartment.
Optimization by ingenuity
Once you’ve settled, another challenge could present itself. And yes, it’s about storage space - again. After a while, you may find yourself in need of more storage room. Fortunately, there are ways to circumvent this annoyance.
The first one is to rent a storage unit. This is a great option if you ended up moving more stuff than you can fit in your new home. And you can use it to store possessions that you’re not using often, such as power tools or seasonal clothing, for instance.
The other would be “vertical thinking”. The point being, you will be using walls as the storage. It is surprising how much space you can gain (and save) by just installing a few wall shelves.
And lastly, you can employ some creativity to find new and better ways to pack your belongings. Whether it be under the bed, behind the closet, or just by finding a more effective way to fold your clothes. Either way, once you get into the routine you will find ways to utilize small apartment space to its maximum.