Take It or Leave It

Designer Pamela Harvey’s tips on how to prepare for moving to a smaller home.

• DOWNSIZING SHOULD BE A PROCESS, NOT AN EVENT. Give yourself time. It’s best to start as soon as you can. Things often take more time than you think they will. Taking your time will make it less stressful and give you a chance to evaluate which items you really need before moving into your new home.

• SPACE PLANNING: Know what to bring with you and what to purge. Before moving, measure your new space and scope out the opportunities to increase storage so you know exactly how much space you’ll have for everything. For our clients, we do scaled floor plans with any existing items drawn in and specifications for new pieces needed.

• USE A SET OF EVALUATION QUESTIONS TO HELP YOU DECLUTTER. Start by writing a list of questions to help you evaluate what stays and what goes. In Marie Kondo’s decluttering book, The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up, she encourages readers to evaluate their belongings with one famously simple question: “Does it spark joy?”

• SELL OR DONATE YOUR FURNITURE that will not fit properly in your new home.