Downsizing your home can be a major undertaking, and fewer people seem to be choosing it these days.
In 1950 the average American home was under 1,000 square feet. Today, that average has grown to nearly 2,600 square feet, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
We had homes close to that size when we owned property. Our house near St. Louis, Missouri measured about 2,500 square feet when including the finished basement, and it was just for me, my husband, and our two dogs. Our Colorado home was slightly over 2,000 square feet with no basement.
While many people continue to buy larger homes, we chose a different path. We sold our house last year and moved into an RV.
We made that choice for several reasons, but the biggest was that almost full-time travel made owning a house more stressful. So we decided to simplify further and travel full-time instead.
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We went through everything, kept a very small storage unit for irreplaceable items (mainly hundreds of photo albums my dad left me, a few family paintings, and childhood keepsakes), and moved into our RV.
It wasn’t easy and we worried about all the work involved, but it was worth it. We don’t regret the decision and, frankly, we are happier than ever.
People downsize for many reasons:
- To save money: Larger homes often mean higher utility bills, more purchases, increased insurance, and greater maintenance and repair costs.
- To reduce clutter: Bigger houses tend to have unused rooms that become storage for unused items. Living in a smaller space forces you to be mindful about purchases—considering size, weight, and storage.
- To cut maintenance time: All else equal, larger homes usually require more time for upkeep because there are simply more things that can break.
- To spend less time cleaning: Smaller spaces are faster to clean and maintain.
No matter your reason for downsizing, here are practical tips to help you sort through your belongings and make the process manageable.
Tips for downsizing your home:
Make a plan.
Downsizing isn’t just packing — it requires planning. Consider:
- The layout and amount of space in your new home.
- The timeline you have for downsizing, which affects how thorough and stressful the process will be.
- How you will dispose of items: donate, sell, recycle, or trash.
- How you’ll decide what to keep versus what to let go.
List the items you think you can’t part with.
Start by writing down everything you believe you must keep. That list will likely be longer than needed, but it helps reveal what truly matters and what can be let go.
Start by removing the easy items.
If time allows, begin by immediately removing things you know you don’t need. The first few items are usually the hardest to part with, but once you begin, letting go becomes easier.
Understand why you want to keep certain items.
People often hold on to things for emotional reasons, money invested, length of ownership, or perceived future use. If your new space can’t accommodate everything, examine those reasons closely. Talking it through with family or out loud can highlight when logic is driven by sentiment rather than necessity—and sometimes that makes it easier to let go.
Digitize documents and reduce paper clutter.
Paper is one of the biggest sources of home clutter. Tax records, receipts, and many documents can be scanned and stored digitally. While some keepsakes—like the photo albums my dad created—are worth keeping in physical form, most paperwork isn’t. We kept a single binder of important papers and scanned the rest, which felt liberating.
Give yourself time.
Trying to downsize an entire house in a single day is stressful and unrealistic. Allow days, weeks, or even months to move room by room, repeatedly reviewing items until you reach a comfortable level of belongings. This process helps you reassess needs and avoid rushed decisions you might later regret.
Create a donation plan.
Donating unwanted items makes parting easier because you know they’ll help someone else. Many donation centers will pick up large loads, simplifying the process and making the transition less burdensome.
Ask when you last used an item.
People often store things they rarely or never use. For each item, consider when you last used it, whether you’ll need it again, and if renting or borrowing would be a better solution for occasional needs. This exercise helped me quickly eliminate items that hadn’t been used in years.
Eliminate the “maybe” pile.
If your new space can’t accommodate everything, ditch the “maybes.” Those items are usually not as essential as you think, and removing them in a single decision can significantly simplify downsizing.
Be deliberate about future purchases.
To avoid rebuilding clutter, evaluate new purchases carefully. Ask whether you truly need an item, whether borrowing or renting would suffice, and where it will be stored. Living in an RV has taught us to analyze purchases by weight, size, and storage feasibility—questions that prevent unnecessary acquisitions.
How large is your home? Is downsizing something you’re considering?