I went through a forced downsizing 7 years ago when I could no longer afford my apartment. I had to give up a lot of grandparent's furniture. I kept a couple of chairs that were meaningful to me, and a lot of art that I was attached to, figuring that pictures didn't take much space in storage and when I got a new apartment I'd have walls and could hang them.

I found it hard to get started, but once I made up my mind that I had to donwsize, I was pretty ruthless. I assumed I was going from a 3 bedroom apartment to a 1 bedroom, so had lots of stuff to get rid of.

I gave most of it away on Freecycle, knowing that it would be going to a good home, where people would appreciate it, and that made it easier.

The biggest challenge for me, was going through and downsizing my book collection which was huge. I wound up giving away over 800 books, and that was hard, but now my collection just has my absolute favourite authors.

It's hard, but it's doable once you make up your mind.

splitimage