If you’re planning on moving from a larger home to something smaller soon, like going from your own home to an independent living facility, you’re likely going to need to drastically scale down on what you bring with you. And while this can be hard, in order to live a happy and organized life, this type of sacrifice is necessary and worth it.

To assist you in doing this, here are three tips for scaling down when moving into a smaller home. 

Start Digitizing

If you haven’t already done this, digitizing can be a great way to not actually have to get rid of something that you love. You simply take the thing you love and put it into a digital form that doesn’t take up any space anymore.

Digitization can be done with all types of things. If you have music or movies that you love, even home videos from the past, you can convert them to digital formats and then save them to the cloud or another storage solution. You can also do this with photo albums, trinkets that are too big to take with you but you want to remember how they look, and so much more. So if you have things that are taking up a lot of space, especially storage space, consider how you could digitize these items so you can retain the memories. 

Make Sure You Measure

When moving into a smaller space, you might be feeling lucky that you won’t be having to buy anything new to furnish your space. But before you choose what to keep and what to get rid of as far as furniture goes, the first thing you’ll need to do is measure everything. 

If you aren’t sure of the dimensions of your new home yet, get these measurements first. This way, you’ll be able to measure the furniture you have and can then see what will fit and what won’t. This can make it easier to determine what to bring with you and what to sell or give away. 

Know How Much Storage Space You’ll Have

Another thing you’ll have to think about when moving into a smaller home is your storage space. 

If your bigger home had a lot of storage space, you may have a hard time knowing how to downsize what’s in your current storage spaces and what to bring with you into your new home. More than likely, you’ll have to use some of your future storage space for items that might not even be in storage at your larger home. So before you move things out of storage, make sure you have room in your new home for the essentials. 

If you’ll soon be moving into a smaller home, consider using the tips mentioned above to help you decide what you can take with you. 

Ailani Koda