For many people, the idea of downsizing their Kansas City home is terrifying. They love their home as it is and don’t like change, even if it would help them. If you think about it, it’s understandable to have some reservations about anything new and unknown.
However, downsizing your home can be a great idea. From making things easier on your budget to being able to get closer with your family, there is a multitude of benefits you need to consider.
Are you thinking about downsizing your home? If so, this article will show you all the advantages of doing so and give you valuable tips for the process.
What Makes Downsizing a Good Idea
Here’s why downsizing can be good for you.
1. Lowered Bills and Living Costs
One obvious advantage of downsizing is the fact that your bills will be significantly lower. First off, your property and insurance taxes will decrease, followed by everything else, from electricity and water costs to maintenance.
2. Paying Off Debt
When you downsize, you sell your home and get money to buy a new one. However, since the one you’ll be buying is smaller, you’ll have leftover money. If you pick a reliable company to buy your home in Kansas City, the sale will surely leave you enough money to take care of any debts that you may have. Doing so will increase your cash flow and allow you to invest in your future.
3. Saving Money
All the leftover money from your home sale and the decreased bills and taxes can go into a savings fund. Having savings ensures your financial stability. You can either invest the money in business ventures, keep it safe for your kids or any emergencies, or just enjoy an early retirement.
4. A Smaller Home Means Less Work
Most people with huge homes find it exhausting that they have to do so much to maintain them. It can get overwhelming at times — from making sure all the appliances run smoothly to repairing everything around the house.
This problem disappears when you downsize. You have much less space to take care of and fewer things to tinker with. So, you get to spend your time resting and enjoying yourself instead.
5. More Freedom
The best thing about downsizing is decluttering. By donating or selling all the stuff you don’t need, you’ll make your new house feel like home more easily. What’s more, when all is said and done, you’ll have more freedom to explore your hobbies, travel, and get to know yourself better.
Before You Downsize…
Before you start looking for a good company to buy your home, you’ll need to tidy up your property to the best of your ability. That includes decluttering, and these strategies will help you achieve it.
1. The KonMari Strategy
This decluttering technique works rather simply. You should keep things that you really love and that make you happy. Anything you don’t care for should go. By choosing this strategy, you ensure your new house will only have meaningful things, which will make it feel like a real home.
The important thing to remember is that you shouldn’t choose what you’ll throw away. Instead, choose what you want to keep. Thinking that way causes you much less stress and makes things go faster.
When decluttering, do it by categories. For example, you can go by books, clothes, accessories, etc. As tedious and long as this task may be, stick with it. It will help you sell your home more quickly.
2. The One Room Every Day Strategy
Another great strategy for decluttering is cleaning one room every day. There are no rules when it comes to this strategy. So, you can do the rooms in any order you like. As long as you make sure to also deep clean each one, you’ll be good.
3. The Five Box Strategy
In this strategy, you need to label five boxes as follows: KEEP, DONATE, SELL, STORE, and TRASH. Of course, if you need more than five boxes, it’s fine. It’s the categories that are the most vital.
You should simply go over your entire home and put items into one of the boxes or under one of the categories. When you are done, deal with each of the boxes accordingly, and your home will be fully decluttered and ready to be sold!
Useful Tips for Decluttering and Downsizing
Apart from the strategies above, we also have some decluttering and downsizing tips that can help you make the process seamless.
1. Minimalism Is Key
Minimalism is a concept that encourages people to do away with anything they don’t need and only keep the essentials. If you use this concept while downsizing, at least to some extent, the process will be much easier on you.
Of course, you shouldn’t just get rid of everything you don’t need for survival. Minimalism can come in handy if you can’t differentiate essential items and items with sentimental value from those you don’t need at all.
2. Set Rules and Follow Them
Before you begin any work on decluttering and cleaning, set up a schedule and some ground rules. Doing so will help you actually get things done and organize all your items into any categories you go for. For example, figure out where you will donate your items, how you’ll transfer any trash where it needs to go, and so on.
3. Be Firm
Sometimes, it can be hard to get rid of things you own, even if you know you don’t need them. If it would make things easier, you can get someone to help you actually follow through on throwing stuff away. That way, you’ll be sure you only keep important memories and other essentials and do away with all the other trinkets. The other person can help keep your sentimentality in check and remind you what your goal is.
4. Measure Your New Space
Once you decide on a new place, you must measure everything to see how you can fit your things into the new space. Doing that will also help you realize what you can keep and what absolutely has to go. Sometimes, it’s better to have space constraints make this decision for you. Throwing things away is easier when you know you have nowhere to put them.
5. Modernization Can Help
Nowadays, you have a lot of opportunities to modernize your home and declutter it that way. For example, you can digitize all your photos, books, and paperwork and make a lot of space in your new home. You will still be able to enjoy all of them, but your new home will be much tidier and less cluttered.
To Sum Up
As you have read, there are many advantages to downsizing your home. It can help you save money, pay off debt, and waste less energy and resources. In addition, it can help you have more freedom, both in general and financially.
To make downsizing easier, you need to declutter. This step is essential, and we hope the strategies and tips above help you make it an easy and quick experience.
When you make the decision to downsize and sell your old home in Kansas City, we can be there to buy it. Contact Integrity Cash Homes today, and let us help you achieve your downsizing dream. We are just a phone call away!
