Many reasons might force you to move from a big house to an apartment. Maybe you’re paying too many bills, you have more space than you need, you have an empty nest, or maybe you just want to enjoy apartment living.

Adjusting to apartment living presents several benefits, including paying zero HOA fees and having no maintenance issues to worry about.

With that said, how can you adjust to this new life of downsizing from a bigger house to an apartment? It might take some time to adjust, but you can manage it better right away with the right information.

Let’s look at how you can downsize to an apartment without challenges.

How to Downsize from a House to an Apartment

Downsizing to an apartment will be easier if you follow the tips below:

Get a Blueprint and Room Layout of the New Apartment

You may be wondering “how much square footage do I need for an apartment?” Also, how is getting blueprints of your apartment important?

For starters, the blueprints show dimensions, which helps you know what critical things to buy for your apartment and prevents you from throwing away old, but important stuff that will still fit.

If it’s impossible to get a blueprint of your apartment, we recommend measuring all the rooms and developing a small DIY room layout. This is important since you need to understand how much space you’re working with. Always plan and consider everything.

It would also help to measure the furniture you plan to live with in your apartment. You’re likely to avoid carrying furniture that won’t fit in the apartment by considering the blueprints and carrying out proper calculations.

The furniture might have fit perfectly in your previous house because it had large spaces. However, an apartment has less space. In many cases, an apartment might only accommodate half of the belongings your previous house did.

Before anything else, have a room layout (floor plan) and get a blueprint of your apartment.

Donate, Sell, or Throw Away What You Don’t Need

After you have the apartment room layout, blueprint, and understand the square footage you’re working with, you can proceed to the next step.

Here, you need to decide on the things to keep while moving to an apartment, and the ones to:

●       Donate

●       Sell

●       Throw Away

Since moving to an apartment from a house requires a major downsizing, you’re going to leave behind many things. However, its benefit is that you’ll start fresh and save money by learning to live without certain materialistic items.

Moving into an apartment presents several benefits compared to a house. We, therefore, recommend that you acquire some boxes to begin decluttering and separating belongings in the house, as directed below:

What to Have in the Donate Box

You might have certain items that are still in good shape, but won’t fit in the apartment you intend to move into. You can donate such items to any local charity. Someone else will likely find the items useful.

What to Have in the Sell Box

Sometimes, you might have items in good shape and are of value. You can sell them by ways of selling everything online or organizing a yard sale, just to name a few options.

What to Have in the Throw Away Box

You might find some items damaged, completely useless, or totally broken. If that is the case, throw such items away.

Avoid getting over-sentimental with material things. You’re likely to feel better having less stuff in your apartment.

What You Should Keep and Take to Your New Apartment While Downsizing

You’re going to keep what you can’t donate, sell, or throw away. We recommend that you only keep what will serve you well. This involves only the items you truly love and only the items you truly need.

Here, you need to consider the type of amenities available in your new apartment. For instance, if the apartment has an on-site gym, there is no need to keep your stationary bikes. We also recommend keeping your washer and dryer unit if the apartment doesn’t come with one. If there are pictures that you value, bring them with you to the apartment. Since the frames are fixed on the wall, there is enough wall space for them in an apartment.

You’re likely to encounter challenges with furniture. In many cases, furniture pieces that fit in a house won’t fit well in an apartment. We recommend that you prioritize keeping the furniture that serves double-duty or doubles up as storage, especially if you decide to settle in a studio apartment or one bedroom unit. Multi-functional furniture helps to maximize space in an apartment, especially for a smaller apartment.

Enhance Creativity with Storage in the New Apartment

After living in a house, you’ll certainly find it challenging to settle in an apartment. Finding enough space to keep your little knick-knacks and bulky furniture is going to give you a headache.

Instead of such furniture items not helping you reduce dust in your apartment, you should find space to keep them safe. This requires you to be creative with the available storage options.

You must develop extra storage, even where none exists, by employing apartment storage hacks. This involves investing in storage-friendly and compact furniture.

Consider acquiring bunk beds to save your apartment space if you have kids. We also recommend buying beds with built-in drawers.

Add hanging shelves in your living space. Also, buy coffee tables and ottomans that open up spaces. Such items come in handy when you want to hide all the stuff that won’t fit well in your apartment.

Get Used to Living with Fewer Things in Your New Space

As we have seen, moving from a house to your apartment involves a reduction in the living and storage space. It will, therefore, help if you learn to live with less. Since a small addition in your apartment can have a huge impact on the space, you need to buy less than you used to.

We recommend that you adopt a one-in, one-out policy. Buying less also means that you’ll save more. You can channel the money to other activities and important things.

The Final Verdict

As we have seen, moving from a house to an apartment is normal, especially if you want to reduce your monthly rent, have too much space, wish to reduce your bills, or are just looking forward to enjoying apartment life.

There are many advantages of renting an apartment vs. owning a home, including paying zero HOA fees and having no maintenance issues.

In order to downsize easily to an apartment, follow the tips we have suggested above. First and foremost, starting by getting a blueprint of your new apartment can make all the difference.

We also recommend donating, selling, or throwing away things you don’t need. Since an apartment has a smaller space, add storage options that enhance creativity and save room.

You also need to get used to living with few things. You can make it that apartments are better than houses, just live a minimalist lifestyle and make your apartment stay enjoyable.