WHY IT TAKES PLANNING TO DOWNSIZE

Downsizing is something almost 100 million Americans will face over the next 15 years. Approximately 15 million Americans have had to downsize over the past six years. Many were not prepared and there was resulting increased stress, increased costs and an increase in storage needs.

The William C Huff White Glove Moving and Storage Company has helped thousands of homeowners downsize over the past 6 years and we have learned that homeowners need to begin planning to downsize long before they think. Here is why planning to downsize early is important:

It takes considerably more time than most people think – When a homeowner decides to sell their larger home(s) often the home sells within a few weeks and closings can happen in a matter of 30 days. This is never enough time to do a thorough downsize. Planning to downsize before listing the home for sale is essential and should be done at least two to three months before listing the home.
It can be very costly - When a homeowner doesn’t employ proper planning to downsize then often many items in their home will need to be packed, stored, and resorted and shipped later. Reputable moving companies and storage facilities are not inexpensive and using their services twice will cost considerably more than if the homeowner had downsized properly. The William C Huff White Glove Moving and Storage Company often will help pack, move and store household items, only to have the homeowner (months later) pay to have everything sorted and shipped or donated or even thrown out.
Less stress – Planning to downsize early will reduce the stress caused by having to make hard decisions in a short amount of time. Many years of family memories takes time to sort through and getting all family members together to help decide on what needs to go where often cannot be done before the closing date for the home. Our company once helped an older couple downsize their home (including 50 years of collections) and even though we helped them with a lot of the sorting, they still ran out of time. The stress was so overwhelming that the wife was curled up in a ball on the couch during the three days of our packing and loading. We ended up sending a lot of their belongings to their “downsized” home, only to have them not fit and they had to put items into a self-storage facility.