Downsizing
Is your upcoming move to a smaller space keeping you up at night? Are you overwhelmed deciding what to take to your new place?
Don’t have family members close by or the time, energy or mobility to tackle the daunting task of downsizing? Don’t fret, there is help!
Divine Order can support you at any level you need – from regular check ins for support and guidance to side-by-side working together throughout the process.
Kimberly can assist you with a range of tasks:
- develop a plan to meet your goals and timelines
- sort and decide what to do with items that won’t work in your new place
- find new places for the items you are not keeping (donate, gift, sell, consign)
- obtain appraisals for high value items
- pack and label items you are keeping
- help decide furniture, decor and accessories to keep for your new place
- arrange for temporary storage, junk removal, shipping of items
- create a floorplan for your new home using the items you want to keep
- clear your current home ready for the next residents
Paring down belongings before you start packing
Kimberly can save you both time and money by helping you pare down as much as possible before you start packing. Moving is expensive and packing items that won’t work in your new space will end up costing more time and money when you see there simply isn’t enough space for everything.
You’ll have the amount of support and guidance you need, plus an extra set of hands working beside you throughout the process, helping make those difficult decisions. We’ll have some laughs, shed some tears, you’ll share stories and reminisce about your past with a supportive, listening ear.
Donations to charities, consignment, garage sales, recycling and disposing of unwanted items in an environmentally friendly way are some options we can consider based on your specific needs.
With a background in interior decorating and design, your new home will be just perfect…that’s simply Divine Order!
Sorting what to keep and what to purge
A sorting station is set up for every downsizing project, with receptacles labeled with each category for easy recognition – keep, sell, consign, gift, donate, recycle, trash. This process helps expedite the many “Where does this go?” decisions and allows for items to be quickly identified for removal from the home and what remaining tasks need completed.
Divine Order provides the service for a fee of dropping off car loads of donations and recyclables to the various depots and organizations throughout our community.
The sentimental attachments
With decades of belongings in your home, many items will have great sentimental meaning to you. Knowing your new smaller space won’t have room for everything, or the items no longer serve you, Kimberly can, with patience and compassion, help you determine the best options for these items including:
- dishes, antiques, books, photographs
- valuable family keepsakes
- old university textbooks and assignments
- grown children’s childhood artwork and projects
- a deceased loved one’s belongings
- old paperwork from the past
Swedish Death Cleaning
You may have heard the terms ‘right sizing’ or ‘downsizing in place’. Swedish death cleaning is a Swedish tradition called döstädning, or, literally, ‘ death cleaning,’ that has the same meaning – getting your life and worldly possessions organized before you depart the world. With no pressure from having to move due to illness or finances, death cleaning allows you the time to consciously and slowly release selected belongings on your terms.
The process is meant to be uplifting and joyous, knowing you’re passing your belongings on to those who would enjoy receiving them and you can select charities that you support with your donations.
If you’ve ever had to sift through an aging or departed parent’s papers and possessions, you probably realize that ‘death cleaning’ could be a very productive practice when you’re still able to do it for yourself. This is an ideal way to purge your unworn clothing and footwear, dishes sitting in the cupboard collecting dust, unwanted gifts and those souvenir collector spoons.
The best part is there are no rules, no pressure and no timelines…isn’t that simply Divine Order?
