When you choose to downsize your home's belongings, whatever the reasons, here are a few tips to keep in mind:
1. Start culling right away, several months before you move.
2. Declutter in stages. What you thought you couldn't part with last month may seem less precious with the passage of time.
3. Donate, recycle, or sell a lot, and prepare for more, probably 1/3 to 1/2 of your belongings.
4. Consider auctioning higher-end items; select a reputable dealer.
5. Heavily edit the non-sentimental. Who needs 10 mixing bowls?
6. If it is chipped, broken or stained, let it go. Ditto duplicates, like that pair of fondue pots.
7. For smaller items, divide them into bins labeled "Keep," "Donate," "Sell."
8. Use scaled drawings to plan furniture layout.
9. Be prepared to let perfectly good items go simply because they are too large for your new space or don't fit the new lifestyle you have planned for yourself.
10. Attached to items for which you have no space? Take photographs fpr a special album; let them go.
