Downsizing for new place -- and staying that way
October 10, 2016 6:34 PM   Subscribe

I purchased a condo, hurrah! I will have approximately 2/3 to 1/2 the space I had before

I am losing the spare bedroom/spare closet that was the repository for all kinds of things. Please share your best ideas for analyzing what and how to toss; downsizing, sorting, and shoveling in a fast and efficient manner. I don't think I will have any storage space and am not planning on purchasing any off-site. My biggest space-eater is probably books (I got rid of four boxes when I moved before and still moved 8-10 boxes to the new place.) The other big item is paper -- I write, and I get invites to art openings, poetry events, drum circles, renactments, yak races and so on. How to deal with those could probably be a separate post. I've done pretty well with pitching my old clothes, have just a couple items I don't use (the hand-painted shirt I bought in San Fransisco that just needs a few stitches) and my rule with clothing is pretty much, one in one out. I've been practicing minimizing, obviously not so much with books, for about five years, and have looked at all kinds of organizing books. Thanks.
posted by intrepid_simpleton to Home & Garden (14 answers total) 10 users marked this as a favorite
 
We are insulating our attic which we used to use for a big part of our storage (no basement in our house) so we have been downsizing recently even though we aren't moving. Here's some general advice based on our experience. I am sure other Mefites will have other suggestions.

- there's the book "The life-changing magic of tidying up" by Marie Kondo, which helped us get our head straight as we began the keep/donate/toss process...a little Zen, but still worth a read in my opinion (unless you already did)

- there's the ScanSnap iX500 which helped us shrink our paper file storage needs and also digitize our books (you have to be willing to cut the spines off, but once done you now have a library of searchable PDFs as opposed to a stack of paper and cardboard...depends on whether you have an emotional attachment to the books themselves)

- we haven't got a chance to try this yet, but we did buy those "suck the air out with your vacuum cleaner" plastic bags to use for seasonal clothing, on the advice of a friend...
posted by forthright at 6:57 PM on October 10, 2016


Marie Kondo's The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up is seriously worth all fifteen dollars. She has you decide what your life should look like, then rather ruthlessly- but simply- choose what gets to be a part of that life. It actually works, and, if you commit, it will also curbs future packrat tendencies. It's not a book about tidying up- it's about busting through the psychology of why you're keeping stuff in the first place.
posted by pseudostrabismus at 6:58 PM on October 10, 2016 [4 favorites]


Now that you own the place you can install floor-to-ceiling bookshelves. You can build these with larger bases in which you can store your papers and other non-closet items.
posted by rhizome at 7:04 PM on October 10, 2016 [3 favorites]


Consider disposing of a lot of the paper through a shredding service.
You can often find events for no cost shredding or specific days where you can take five kitchen trash bags to the shredder. The paper is recycled.

Get into the habit of making one trip to Goodwill or other donation centers every Saturday morning. Make it a goal to fill your trunk each week with things you are not using.
posted by calgirl at 7:14 PM on October 10, 2016


I'll second rhizome about building storage into your rooms. Obviously, you'll still need to get rid of things, but built-in storage is amazing. But generally, any every day mundane object or easily replaced book I have not touched or used or read in a year, I give away. Anything I pick up and can't recall why i have it, I give it away.

I sill have a lot of things (for instance, a bunch of not quite working properly clocks which have some lovely sentiment attached to them; books with inscriptions; letters from my grandmother) but i find it easier and easier to get rid of things if, when i pick them up, I can't remember wanting to use them within the last year.
posted by crush-onastick at 7:19 PM on October 10, 2016


I recently did a long move and downsized from 1400 sq ft to 925. My mantra was "Is this really worth paying to haul halfway across the country?"

I, too, had a lot of books. Asking that question helped me face the fact that many of them were just souvenirs of having read them, and I was never actually going to re-read them. Many were so widely available that if I someday did want to re-read them, it would be easy to re-buy them or borrow them from the library. I sold what I could to the local used book store and donated the rest to the local library's book sale. Still have a couple shelves full, but it's manageable.

Asking that question also helped me with all of the aspirational stuff --- stuff I had because I wished I were the kind of person who used it. I had to get very realistic about what I actually use in my life as it is now. In practice, that meant if I hadn't used it in about the last year, then I realistically wasn't going to use it in the foreseeable future, and it got given away. If it was broken, and I couldn't fix it back to 100% operational status immediately, it just got tossed. No somedays, no maybes, no what-ifs or just-in-cases. If I heard myself say any of those words, I knew it was not worth hauling 1200 miles just for a hypothetical situation.

If you're moving across town instead of across the country, the costs of moving stuff may not seem as high. But even if you're doing U-Haul across town, extra stuff still costs extra money, time, and hassle to move. Considering those costs really helped me decide what to divest myself of.
posted by snowmentality at 7:38 PM on October 10, 2016 [3 favorites]


Nthing reading Kondo's book. I live in 306 square feet after downsizing from 700+. Trust me when I say that Kondo changed my entire approach to stuff and what it means to me. Loads of tips for small-place living in this previous AskMe as well.
posted by mdonley at 9:40 PM on October 10, 2016 [2 favorites]


For books and stuff, when purging I do three piles: stay, go, maybe. (Depending on what I'm sorting, the "go" pile may be split into "trash" and "donate.") I do a fast cut on the first pass: "stay" is for things I love and use regularly or otherwise absolutely need, "go" is for things I know don't, and "maybe" is for things I can't classify immediately. Getting everything sorted rapidly is the key at this stage.

If the "stay" and "maybe" piles add up to the space I have for whatever category of stuff I'm sorting, I'm in luck and can stop. Set a firm boundary for yourself on this - e.g. x number of shelves or drawers or boxes, and put the "stay" things in that space.

Usually I have to go back to the "maybe" pile and make it shrink. Again, the main criteria are usefulness and/or enjoyment, but it's also questions like "is this worth moving?" "If this magically disappeared, would I even notice?" "Is there something in the 'stay' pile I would get rid of to keep this?"

There are always things in the maybe pile that are too hard to get of, and that's ok. Often another year or so of having something around collecting dust is all I need to be able to let it go. But for the most part, establishing a solid limit in terms of space and aiming to fill that space with things that are useful and make me happy to have around is sufficiently motivating for a satisfying purge, and the fast initial sort really clarifies for me what's important to make space for vs what's nice to have if I have space.
posted by EvaDestruction at 10:37 PM on October 10, 2016


You might want to rethink renting storage space. When Mr. K and I were younger, we lived in a tiny space, but had many things: all the Christmas decorations, all the camping gear, our dishes for big family dinners, his collection of Silver Age comic books. We got a very small space, near to our place, and everything in it was very tidy and easy to find. You might give it a try if you're not sure.

(And now we live in a lovely Craftsman home, with no big dinners, no camping, minimal Christmas. But our basement and garage are currently storing our kids' things while they live in shared houses with no space. Situations change, so don't worry too much about it is my advice.)
posted by kestralwing at 1:30 AM on October 11, 2016


Books, which seem to be the biggest issue: I'd donate or sell as much as possible keeping in mind that if it's going to a local library, you'll be able to read it anytime. And if you're selling it (but it's at a library), the same thing. And if neither is true, you can always buy it used again if you want to read it again.
If you are not reading the book let someone else read the book please. That is what they are for.
posted by sacchan at 7:52 AM on October 11, 2016 [1 favorite]


Built-in bookcases (especially the kind linked to that have more storage at the bottom) are great. Make good use of vertical storage! And start getting creative about finding hidden places for storage. There are a lot of great tips on Pinterest for creative storage.

Thinking about my current and past tiny apartments:
- Hooks on the backs of doors.
- Storage boxes under the bed and couch
- Lots of hooks (gotta love Command hooks) in random places like closets, inside cupboards, etc.)
- Storage ottomans instead of coffee table
- Making use of area on top of fridge for kitchen storage
- Tall, narrow storage unit in random corner of a hallway (1x5 Ikea Expedit)
- Store stuff inside suitcases
- Decorative storage boxes or baskets on top of built-ins that don't reach the ceiling

Also...yeah...a small storage unit is not a bad idea for stuff you don't use often. We are fortunate enough to have a small storage space in our basement. We keep holiday decor, random family keepsakes, camping gear, etc. in watertight bins from Container Store. I number the bins and have a Google Spreadsheet with the contents.

You gotta be ruthless about getting rid of stuff, especially books. I am a big reader who married an English major. We had bookkcases full of books. Then we moved cross-country. We just had to get rid of a ton. We still have a 4x2 Ikea Expedit full of books, but that's about it. You actually appreciate what you have when you have fewer!
posted by radioamy at 10:05 AM on October 11, 2016 [3 favorites]


Books
tossed just about all of them. They are security blankets and you will not re-read any. If you decide you need to, buy used or go to library. Keep a ref book or two. or if you wrote any, keep those. toss toss toss
posted by Postroad at 3:16 PM on October 11, 2016


Seconding the SnapScan ix500. I scanned - then shredded - all of my angsty adolescent journals, college papers, tax returns dating back to 1994, old letters I had saved and other miscellaneous paperwork. They're all on a hard drive now and I plan to access them exactly as much as I accessed the papers which is to say not at all. It freed up a ton of space for me.
posted by bendy at 4:54 PM on October 11, 2016


Also, I experimented with slicing up a couple 1970s Mad magazines and scanning them but it just felt wrong. Be sure that you can part with physical books or magazines before you destroy them.
posted by bendy at 4:57 PM on October 11, 2016


« Older In what way is Android Device Manager wrong about...   |   Audio 101 filter Newer »
This thread is closed to new comments.