Downsizing Furniture When Moving

After living in a large house and accumulating furniture for decades, how do you tackle downsizing furniture and moving into a smaller home?

You likely have cherished pieces like full size grand dining room sets with china cabinets; separate kitchen sets; master bedroom suites; family-sized chesterfield suites, love seats, and recliner chairs; bathroom vanities and cupboards.

Large cumbersome furniture pieces pose a serious problem when downsizing to a smaller condo, townhouse, or apartment. It may also be difficult to let favourite furniture go, especially when it holds a universe of wonderful memories for you. But with some home-grown ingenuity, this issue can be resolved successfully.

Downsizing Furniture is Difficult

If this is the first time you’ve moved in years, it may seem like an impossible task to move the large heavy pieces into your smaller home. One solution is to store your furniture. We provide secure, dry, temperature-controlled storage space so you can be assured your furniture is safe, either for safekeeping, or until you decide what you want to do with it (or who gets it).

An elderly lady called us in a state of panic because she needed to move a great deal of large house furniture quickly into a small duplex. She did not want to give away her high-quality expensive furniture, but also did not want to sell them cheap either. We recommended several local consignment furniture stores, and the one she picked “turned out to be a lifesaver.” They came to her house and appraised her furniture, the owner and seller worked out a price together, and a consignment split was arranged. It turned out to be the perfect solution.

Sometimes, the hardest part of moving is the thought of parting with your well-loved furniture. We suggest you spend a little time in your new space and measure everything to ensure your refurnishing plans will work both physically and esthetically. Draw it out on paper. You might be surprised at how well your furniture looks in a new arrangement for your down-sized environment.

Downsizing Tips

There are other tricks and accommodations that can be used to fit ‘big’ into ‘smaller.’

• For instance, downsizing furniture itself. Remove the middle leaf from a large dining room table will shrink it considerably.
• Sell or put into storage two or more of the chairs.
• Retain pieces that are in the best condition and the most expensive to replace.
• Learn to ‘re-purpose’ furniture. A lift-lid ottoman can serve as a coffee table and storage. A small dresser can be used in an entryway.

Most importantly, think of downsizing as a fresh start. We’re happy to help you start you on your new beginning by moving your precious belongings and to set it up in your new home.