Downsizing and struggling to imagine where it will all go.

[ecocredentials]

How the heck do we fit it all in! We are going from a large 4 bed with loads of storage space to a 3 bed with no storage (new build). We’ve been extremely brutal with the loft clearing but we still have a lot of Christmas decorations, a huge box of photos - probably about 3-4 very large plastic crates (lidded) with things that we want to keep for sentimental reasons.

I cannot compromise on these - we will have a garage which is something we don’t have now. Does anyone keep airtight crates with photos and books etc in a garage? The brick is only single skin but the garage walls are reasonably well sheltered. Do things go damp out there?

The developer says we can’t board the loft but I think we will have to with those loft legs over the insulation as we’ve nowhere to keep suitcases, Christmas decorations etc.

How do people downsize to tiny homes? Any tips on clever storage solutions please?

I make it a policy every time I move to take only a van's worth of stuff to the new place. Don't think of what you can get rid of, allocate a certain amount of space you can take, and choose the things that will fit in that space. Everything else goes.

Seriously you have to be totally ruthless when you declutter. We downsized from a double storey 3 bedroom house with heaps of built in storage cupboards with both a garden shed and a large garage into an Off The Plan high rise 3 bedroom apartment.

Our books were culled right down along with loads of unnecessary kitchen equipment and were sent to the charity shop. We only have a small storage cage in the basement garage here, so it was essential that we were quite vicious in our culling/decluttering. As its an apartment there is nil loft space either, however we bought storage shelves and installed them in the storage cage.

Furniture was given away and much smaller things purchased for here. We also had a bunk system installed in 3rd bedroom that sleeps 5 and has storage in the trundle underneath and steps to top bunk all have small cupboards in each step to store grandkids books and toys.
Under my bed I have IKEA storage boxes that slide in and I use them for my yarn, fabric and patterns. In my laundry room I got rid of the tumble dryer that was provided and had a storage cupboard put up in its place and my ironing board folds out of a thin cupboard on the wall.

Bed linen, blankets etc can be stored in vacuum bags

If you look around there are some incredible storage equipment that takes up little room. You will find as you ease into your new place you will definitely be getting rid of unnecessary superfluous things.
Good Luck with the downsize. We certainly love our new coastal lifestyle..As a previous poster mentioned it really is quite cathartic cleaning out clutter.

Hypnos Hideaway beds are the solution.

We found so much stuff that FIL had stored away - toys and books that my DC might have loved to play with or read - but he had forgotten he’d ever put up in the loft
clothes and bedding that if the damp hadn’t got to, mice did. A bridesmaid dress that had been carefully put away after SIL wore it once, but over the years the unseen lemonade spill had gone brown down the front

4 skips and so many trips to the tip
sadly not many to the charity shop as so much of it was out of date, rusted or moused

plastic in toys goes hard and they then break so easily

we are moving soon and I am forcing myself to be as strict as I can

Small house needs less decorations

things may go damp in garage

if you can’t compromise then you are just going to have to throw other things out or just have a pile of boxes in your bedroom

most three beds are not tiny and most people probably live in smaller houses than you are downsizing from

DH died recently and I can finally move. I'll be going from a five bedroom to three. I have cleared one bedroom almost completely and am starting on a second. I got rid of a bookcase yesterday and broke up a poor quality wardrobe. The second is being dealt with today. Most of DH's clothes went to charity and half his books. I think I'll remove the photos he took from their albums and keep them in a plastic box. I've rationalised bedding. Luckily we moved only nine years ago and were brutal then. It's oddly liberating!

I think downsizing is such a great thing to do for your children.

What is going to go in such big chests of drawers / wardrobes etc?

You need to be willing to buy appropriate new furniture (IKEA is cheap) and that will allow you to optimise storage. We have digitised all our negatives but still have photo albums going back 40 years. These live on top shelf of wardrobe in a large new build house. We are not creating any new albums. Eventually the albums degrade so digitising might be a useful project anyway long term. I intend to create best of best photo books as well. That I can flick through in my nursing home lol.

Storage under beds really helps if you don't have enough wardrobes. My son bought an Ottoman storage double bed for a 1 bed flat and used a Callax to store all kinds of things. Apparently in a shortage of space, using vertical storage and under bed storage really helps.

I keep my Christmas tree and decorations in the garage. I also have several soft storage bags and some solid plastic lidded boxes of clothes (my DD who is reluctant to throw away). I've also had a huge bag of confidential waste in the garage for 2 years since DH died. I'll get rid one day, but the bag is an open shopper and nothing has got damp.

Put paper stuff inside a sealed plastic bag inside the box. Even better, buy some of those silica gel dehumidifying sachets (you can see them on Amazon) and chuck a few in the box.

But the real answer is ruthless culling.

Don’t keep anything in the garage that you wouldn’t keep in a shed. It will get damp and insects will get in even if it’s proper storage boxes. I would also suggest not keeping anything sentimental in the loft. My dad had rats in his loft and lost loads of valuable stuff he kept up there.

I’ve just moved from a large 4 bed house to a small 3 bed, getting rid of probably 50% of my belongings before the move. It still wasn’t enough, we could barely move when we first got here for boxes and I’ve been desperately DIYing so we can bring in all the furniture and books etc that are being stored in the garage before the winter comes.

It can be liberating once you’re in the right frame of mind. Instead of thinking what to get rid of make the things you KEEP an active choice. Like if I had to go out and spend money on this today, would I choose it? I’ve had to be very clever with storage, using bench seating with storage underneath for hobby stuff in the kitchen, using a shoe rack where a proper drawer unit wouldn’t fit, and using every spare inch of space on the landing for utility storage, cleaning supplies, towels etc. it’s a nice opportunity to think creatively.

We have 3 adults living in this house, so all 3 rooms in use. DD had to downsize a single bed from a king in her old room, which wasn’t ideal, but she does also have a room at her dad’s house. DS has a bigger room than me, purely because he has so much stuff and only stays here, so I offered to take the smaller room. It’s a squeeze but once they both move out and it’s just me, it will be ideal!

If you have DCs bear in mind whatever you keep they have to clear out when you die, so that can be a good motivator to get rid of some stuff that might just be clutter for them to deal with. Morbid, but it helped me!

Photos can be digitized and put on an electronic photo frame. That way you actually get to look at them far more often and you don't need to store them. As for other stuff, yes, you do have to get rid of more stuff. Having moved from a house with 4 double bedrooms, two large lounges, a full footprint cellar and a triple garage to a 'normal' 3 bed house with double garage, I feel your pain!

I inherited about 15 suitcases of old family photos, i got it down to one very small case , i donated the lot to charity shops to sell on. i dont hang onto the past and keep very little stuff.

We did this. We moved from a five bed house over four storeys with attached granny annexe and outhouses to a three bed semi new build. It was very, very hard.

You have to put sentiment to one side. There are things you cannot keep. We don’t have a dining room in our new house so my beloved dining room furniture went. We had to get rid of a grand piano that had been in the family for years. We had far too many mirrors for our needs.

Unless you have loads of time, don’t try selling things one at a time, get local charities to collect furniture, donate in bulk. When I fretted about the value of some of the items I was ditching, DS wisely reminded me that space has a value too and that I was buying some back.

It was essential that we boarded the loft for storage so with the developer’s approval we installed a floor suspended from the rafters which didn't compromise the insulation. Flooring on stilts would also work as long as they’re deep enough.

We’ve created what look like fitted wardrobes from IKEA pax units using the shorter frames fitted with the longer doors. It means we have a wall of storage to hide things in while we continue to rationalise and edit.

You’ll be surprised how little you actually need to live day to day. The difficulty is how to deal with the other stuff.

I don’t regret downsizing because I could see our old house getting away from us, and that’s what I remember whenever I think wistfully of what I let go.

I have just moved into a 3 bed NB after 36 years in a fairly large family home 4 bed - I thought I had got rid of alot of stuff - but landed here and still brought too much with me! The loft was boarded but had no decent ladder access - so had that installed as one of the first jobs. I have had to be ruthless (again) with culling stuff. My furniture is far too big for this house and so in the process of replacing it. I was in a rented Airbnb for 4 months whilst this house sale progressed and survived with a suitcase of clothes - so realised that I really didnt need the amount of clothes I had in storage. My digital archive is a winter job for me - massive box of photos which need to be culled. CD's are in a plastic folder in one folder that sit on a shelf rather then in individual boxes. I have had to get into the mentality - do I really need this and do I have a place for it in the house.

Before my mum died we went through her photos and got rid of a bin bag full of sunset pictures.
Weve gone from 6 boxes of christmas decs to 1 and no longer have a tree, we gave them to the charity shop in december and binned the tatty ones.
Im a big fan of oilo, not sure if its in your area. I list a ton of stuff on a sunday when in cleaning, it all gets collected.

We downsized from 2x 5 beds to a new build townhouse. You need to get creative with space. The developer can’t stop you boarding the loft once you have ownership too

I would say be very careful with garage storage if it's single skinned. I have a damp garage (rented house). Damp comes under the walls and to some extent, through them. We do use the garage rafters for storage as off the floor is drier. Put things in plastic crates with lids if you can and wrap in plastic sheeting (we use extra large bin bags).
Another thing you can do with a damp garage floor is to put down a large tarpaulin and a layer of foam tiles. We use the ones for going under outside inflatable pools. They aren't expensive. You can get damp trapped under the tarp so worth drying it all out in summer.
Another thing I've done is to start putting the family photo albums on digital storage and keeping a back up copy with a friend. Then you can put the originals in sealed storage. It's not the same but saves huge amounts of space.

We moved from a large 5 bed house with a double garage (it had a room over it) to a new build 3 bed detached house. The new house doesn’t have a loft (it’s an eco house with rooms in the roof). It also doesn’t have a garage. We hired four (!!) skips to declutter. We sent some furniture to auction (antiques), some to charity and put things which we couldn’t sell or give away in the skip. We moved with just one small van. I’m now down to one box of Christmas decorations.

In the new house we have plenty of storeage cupboards and are strict about constantly decluttering. It’s amazing how much stuff builds up. I sell clothes that I don’t want on vinted or send to charity. This winter’s project is to digitalise the old photos.

We bought all new furniture for our new house as it fits the style and size better. I don’t miss the old things and I am enjoying the modern style as it’s nice to look at and easy to keep clean.

We don’t keep cds any more - just play music from Spotify over Bluetooth. Books are the same; I read them and then give them away.

It really is cathartic to do this - and it’ll be easier for our children one day!

@ecocredentials I would declutter even more. Don’t buy furniture just to store ‘stuff’. Re children’s toys. I took the approach of giving it to my adult children. If they didn’t want it - I got rid. I’ve now bought toys to keep here for my little grandgirlie, but they’re actually things that she’s interested in. Many of them I buy on vinted. Also agree with a pp who said that old plastic is brittle and sometimes not safe.

@letshavetea has reminded me, we got rid of all of our books, shelves and shelves of them. We reasoned that we had read them and probably wouldn’t again, we have no children in the family to visit and enjoy them, and the adults have their own collections. We did the same with CDs and vinyl. We kept back only a very precious few and even those have been in the loft ever since.

@Dontevenlookatme - so what we’ve done is look at everything once a year and if we haven’t used it/needed it - out it goes! It’s so liberating!

DS recently had his new build garage walls and ceiling insulated and boarded plus thick rubber floor tiles and upgraded sockets and lights to turn it into a proper storage room using wooden IKEA shelving and crates including room for a rowing machine and beer fridge. It still has tight fitting electric doors so can be converted back to a garage if the next owner prefers.

Amazing! Better than us although we did get rid of a LOT of stuff. You are right though, it’s liberating.