Downsizing from a house to an apartment – a simple guide

Are you moving from a house to a smaller apartment? Even though that sounds like a simple thing, downsizing is never easy but especially if you never lived in an apartment before. Luckily, one of the best storage companies NYC prepared a simple guide for downsizing from house to an apartment that will guide you through the process step by step and present you with multiple solutions that you can utilize depending on your specific situation.

Downsizing from a house to an apartment doesn’t have to be a negative thing

Downsizing from a house to an apartment doesn’t sound like a positive thing at first glance. And most people see this as a step back. However, we can’t say that living in an apartment doesn’t have any benefits. First of all, living in an apartment is much more affordable than living in a house (presuming that you are not replacing a house in Inwood for a penthouse apartment on 5th Avenue).

Secondly, when you live in an apartment building you do not have to worry about maintenance. No more roofing, plumbing, carpentry for you. You do not have to worry about mowing your lawn, or scooping leaves at fall. And in most cases, you do not own a car because everything that you need will be within walking distance from your place. Of course, there are many more advantages to living in an apartment compared to a house. So, if you are worried or sad about this situation, don’t be, You will soon get used to it. The important thing that you have to worry about right now is how to organize the transition process as smoothly as possible. And that cannot be done without proper preparation.

Create a moving plan to help you downsize

Moving from a house to an apartment is not such a complicated process. You will organize it like every other relocation. And there are only a few things that you need to worry about. However, if you do not do them right, or do not do them at all, you can make this process a lot more stressful, costly, and difficult. That is why the very first thing that you need to do is to make a plan. A detailed plan that will contain all the steps that you need to take during this process.

Here is how your moving plan should look like:

• Get a blueprint of the apartment
• Scan the building
• Use one of the online home planning tools to design your space
• Get rid of the excess items by selling them or storing them in some NYC apartment storage
• Find a moving company to help you relocate items that are going to your new place

Get a blueprint of your new apartment

One of the biggest issues that you will face when downsizing from a house to an apartment is deciding what items to keep and what items to get rid of. Of course, you cannot do that without knowing the exact layout as well as the dimensions of your new apartment. And the best way to find that out is to get a floor plan of the place. Ask your real estate agent to help you with that. Or if it is not too much of a bother for you, you can measure the space by yourself. Naturally, if you are taking measurements on your own, make sure that you have at least one more person to help you as you need to do this right.

Scan your new building and its surroundings

While you are acquiring that blueprint or checking the dimensions of your new apartment, make sure that you scan the entire building. Are there are any narrow doorways or corridors in the building. Or some tricky corners? Is there an elevator? How big it is? How wide is the staircase? Those are the things that people that live in houses do not have to worry about. So if you own some bulky furniture or appliances, make sure that they can reach your apartment.

Us an online floor planning tool to design your apartment layout

After you make sure that your items can actually reach and enter the apartment, you can start thinking about the final layout of your furniture. This is the crucial part of this process and a situation that will determine whether you will do this successfully or not. To increase your chances for complete success, we suggest that you use one of the available floor planning tools that you can find online. These tools allow you to design your space in an easy manner. Copy your blueprint there and then start adding furniture pieces as you see fit.

Get rid of the items that cannot fit into your new apartment

Once you decide what items you are going to move to your apartment, you can start thinking about getting rid of the rest. And, you have plenty of options that you can utilize depending on your situation, condition, and a number of your excess items, and of course your will. If you have some items that you do not want to get rid of completely, you can rent some small storage units NYC offers and keep them there. Otherwise, you can organize a yard sale, sell them online, sell them to a used items retailer, give them to charity, or take them to recycle.

Hire a moving company and pickup storage

Finally, you need to find a moving company to help you relocate items to your new apartment. And we suggest that you find one that offers full moving services, as that is the easiest way to do it. Of course, if you decided to store some items, try to find some good pick up storage NYC offers. That way you will not have to worry about transporting your old furniture to a storage facility. You do not need that in all that moving chaos.

Plan your actions in advance and everything will be ok

As you can see downsizing from a house to an apartment is not a complicated thing, However, you need to create a plan in advance if you want everything to go smoothly. The most important part is to plan your new home layout and get rid of excess stuff before you start packing. After that, everything else will be easy.