Downsizing your home? Here’s what your interior designer can do!
There are MANY motivations to downsize your home. Maybe it’s your way of removing clutter from your life. Perhaps it’s how you take stock in what’s most important. Maybe it’s to support a healthier home environment, or due to a move to a smaller home, or a desperate attempt to find more space.
Whatever the reasons, downsizing is a HUGE to-do. So, how can you downsize more efficiently without cheating yourself out of the lifestyle and design style you’ve built through the years?
From cleaning the back of your closet to stripping a home down to its bare essentials, the extent to which you might want to downsize will vary just as much as the motivations to do it. One of the commonalities between EVERY downsizing project, however, is that professional help makes the process a whole lot easier.
When you google “downsizing professionals,” you find everything from pro organizers to downsizing home specialists and even senior advisors! Did you know, though, that your interior designer can play an even bigger role? In fact…if you work with your interior designer, you probably won’t need the other pros at all!
Want to see how? Follow along as I cover the top four ways your interior designer can help you downsize your home…
1: Staging
One of the biggest components of a downsize (quite literally) is the furniture. Maybe you have a main floor living room and a downstairs “den” living space, too. When you downsize, you’re probably going to move from two big living spaces down to one.
An interior designer will be better equipped than anyone else to get the measurements right and your furniture staging maximized. If it were me working on your downsize, for instance, I would start by taking measurements of your existing furniture and then would use the floorplan of your new space to work out what will fit where.
Then…who knows? Maybe some of your furniture from elsewhere in the house can be restaged to work together in a new way somewhere else! Whether you’re moving to a smaller home or downsizing to just de-clutter your current home, furniture is where you can make the biggest difference with the least work.
That is, so long as you’re working with a smart designer!
2: Décor, art and media
Another big part of downsizing is picking and choosing between your artwork, media, and overall home décor.
You don’t really WANT to get rid of any of it…but the time has come.
Curating artwork is tricky to begin with, and picking through existing pieces you already love is almost unthinkable! Art is one of the “secret sauces” in interior design, though, and your designer will have unique insights to make the whole process much simpler.
Clients look to me for my eye so that a room’s concept, palette, look AND feel can come together in a beautiful splash of style and personality. I can do this in reverse, too, taking an existing collection down to something that STILL retains the look and feel you’re after.
Interior designers also tend to have GREAT connections to local artists! So, if downsizing comes with a bit of a “refresh” or swap of old art for new art for you, then this connection will be a resource you’ll love to leverage!!
3: Tips for retaining your style (even when downsizing)!
There are the hoarders who find throwing anything out unthinkable, and then there are the clean-slaters who are perpetually purging it all and starting fresh.
And then, there are those of us who fall somewhere in between.
A downsize is CERTAINLY an opportunity for a clean slate—if that’s what you’re after. At the same time, most of us want to retain some sense of our design style, even in a home where we’ve ditched half of what defined that style in the first place!!
An interior designer will be the professional equipped to help you pick out the most important things that carry WITH them the coherent style you want to keep. You’re getting rid of stuff, after all—not your taste.
Not sure what your interior design style is? Take our design style quiz for immediate results!!
4: Storage expertise
Then, there’s the icing on the cake…
Not only can your interior designer help you stage, re-decorate and still keep the essence of “your style,” we’re also SUPER savvy in all-things-organization.
In other words…you can forget hiring the professional organizer, because we do that, too.
Some of my FAVORITE projects ever have included major closet re-dos (from the cabinetry to the layout to the installation of Alfa storage systems). Closet design is a real game-changer for anyone downsizing because it opens up more possibilities for storage (and the stuff you pack away has a longer life there, too).
Things to consider before hiring a designer…
Let’s say you’re sold on the idea. For your next downsize, you’re definitely going to get the perfect interior designer on board to help.
Now…how do you know which designer is the “perfect” one?
To scout out a designer who really “gets you,” start by:
- Asking for referrals (from people who know you best)
- Reviewing testimonials (and looking for downsize-specific feedback)
- Look at the Better Business Bureau to see if the designer has had complaints
- Start a conversation with a designer and ask downsize-specific questions
(Bonus! We have a freebie downloadable with questions you should ask before hiring a contractor, and most of the questions will be helpful when looking for an interior designer, too.)
Whatever your motivations to downsize, getting professional help takes a HUGE load off your shoulders. You don’t have to be the project manager, the task master, and the sole owner of your fate…you can get help from the ONE professional with the design sense, staging experience, storage expertise and style savvy to make your downsize nothing more than a refreshing and empowering experience!
Check out our full scope of our own interior design services and contact us to help with your downsize!!
