Decluttering Tips For Seniors: How to Make Downsizing Easier

You may be a senior looking for decluttering tips to help with downsizing. Or maybe you’re looking for ways to help your favorite senior with downsizing. Either way, these decluttering tips for seniors will give you everything you need to make decluttering and downsizing easier.

Two Main Ways Seniors Downsize

When it comes to downsizing, most seniors pick one of two options:

Move into a smaller home
Age in place and declutter possessions

Moving into a smaller house is a big decision, and it’s one that not everyone is ready to make. For this reason, many seniors choose to age in place in their current homes.

However, for most seniors, this decision means there’s a need to clear the clutter from their current homes.

The truth is, that decluttering and downsizing a lifetime of possessions is no easier than moving into a smaller home. In fact, it may be even more challenging. After all, you’ve spent a lifetime accumulating all the things.

Nevertheless, a house filled with stuff raises serious health and safety concerns. There is a cost to clutter that is about more than just money. This is especially true for seniors.

So, whether you’re getting ready to move or you’ve chosen to stay in your current home, decluttering a senior’s home is no easy task as it requires some difficult choices. However, there are many ways in which seniors will benefit from decluttering.

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Why Seniors Should Declutter

While decluttering your home at any stage of life brings many benefits, there are some unique reasons why seniors should declutter.

The senior years bring in a new season of life. Downsizing during your senior years allows you to fully enjoy this season of life. Here’s a look at 5 ways seniors benefit from decluttering:

1. Your Heirs Don’t Want To Declutter Your Stuff

There was a time when things like fine linens, delicate china, or beautiful crystal vases were considered family heirlooms. Those days are gone.

Today, the millennial generation does not find the same sentimental value in these items. The truth is no one is picking out formal china patterns for their wedding registry anymore.

Decluttering, downsizing, and simplifying your life, are very popular among this generation. They are known to seek experiences over things. Put simply, the brides and grooms of today prefer contributions to their honeymoon funds far above silver flatware.

The things that are bought today are considered disposable and easily replaceable. Target is preferred over Bloomingdales or other luxury department stores. In fact, Target is the largest retailer in the United States by far.

Your heirs just do not have the same emotional attachment to stuff. They do not want to clear out all of your stuff when you’re gone.

Decluttering your home as a senior ensures you don’t leave your family with the burden of clearing out your home.

2. Decluttering as a Senior Gives You Control of What Happens to Your Stuff

While your kids may not have the same emotional attachment to your stuff as you do, that doesn’t mean you have to throw out all your belongings.

Choosing to declutter as a senior allows you to be in control over what happens to the things that matter to you. It gives you the power to decide what to do with the things you’ve collected over your lifetime.

Have a conversation with your family now to determine if there are things they actually want. Doing this now will allow you to make decisions on what you want to save and what you want to declutter.

For the things you do decide to let go of, you have the power to make the decision of where they go.

3. Clutter Is Dangerous as You Age

As you age, clutter creates some serious health and safety concerns. The older we get the more we are prone to tripping and falling. Our eyesight and hearing weaken and we become less flexible. All of this increases the risk of falling and injuring ourselves.

In fact, falls are the leading cause of injuries for older adults. Reducing the clutter in your home will help reduce the risk of tripping and falling. You’ll have clear pathways for moving around your home.

When you’re looking at items to declutter as a senior, focus on things that increase the risk of falls. Are there a lot of items on the floor that limit free movement? What about old rugs that can easily be tripped over? Also, watch out for electronic cords and wires.

Essentially decluttering any hazardous items is an essential step in helping a senior downsize.

4. Decluttering Enhances A Seniors Life Now

First, strength and mobility issues make it difficult for seniors to clean their homes as well as they used to. The more stuff in your home, the more difficult and time-consuming it will be to clean your home. By decluttering stuff you don’t need or love, cleaning and caring for the home becomes much easier.

Another reason why seniors should declutter is that the connection between clutter and stress is well documented.

By reducing clutter you reduce stress in your home. In turn, this frees up your time and enables you to gain more focus.

5. Decluttering as a Senior Improves Sleep

As we age, our sleep patterns naturally change. Waking up during the night is more frequent and deep sleep lessens.

When you add in a cluttered bedroom, it makes sleep even more difficult. In a recent study, by St. Lawrence University, it was found that a cluttered messy bedroom contributes to a poor night’s sleep and increases anxiety.

Decluttering and downsizing as a senior is one of the best things you can do to improve your sleep.

11 Decluttering Tips for Seniors

Now that you know some of the ways decluttering and downsizing help seniors, it’s time to get to work. These decluttering tips for seniors will help guide you through this process.

1. Involve Your Family In The Decluttering Process

When looking at decluttering tips for seniors, having a trusted family member or close friend help you declutter is at the top of the list.

They will be able to help you with the physical aspects of decluttering as well as help you make decisions on what to keep and what to get rid of.

We talked above about having a conversation with your family to determine if there are things they want to be passed down to them. A good time to have this conversation is while you are going through the decluttering process.

Decluttering your home can be overwhelming no matter the circumstances. When you’re decluttering as a senior you have some added challenges. So don’t be afraid to ask for that help.

2. Create a Plan in Advance

When it comes to decluttering tips for seniors, I think the second most important factor is to ensure you have a plan in place.

Decluttering as a senior will likely bring up many memories triggering a lot of emotions as you go through years of belonging. This means you’ll want to have a plan in place that will allow you time to process all of these feelings.

You don’t have to write down every detail, but you should have a basic idea of when you will declutter and what you will declutter.

It’s helpful to make a list of all the rooms in your home. Be sure to include closets and pantries as well as any other spaces you may have. From there, make a schedule of where and when you’ll declutter.

For example, you may plan on decluttering for 30 minutes a day on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. You can then pick a day each week to drop off the items you declutter at your favorite donation center.

When you’re working out your plan, make sure to consider the schedule and time constraints of anyone that will be helping you declutter.

Work out a schedule with them in advance. This will help you stay accountable for following your decluttering plan because other people will be setting aside time in their schedules to help you declutter.

3. Give Yourself Time to Reminisce

Another decluttering tip for seniors is to make sure you give yourself plenty of time to reminisce as you sort through your belongings.

As a senior, you’ve collected many items over the years that will bring up all kinds of memories. It’s important to give yourself time and space to walk down memory lane as you are going through all of your things.

If your family is helping you declutter take some time to share those memories with them and then take pictures of the physical items.

Both of these are wonderful ways to hold onto those special memories. It will also help you feel ready to let go of those items knowing that the stories of your life will be treasured by your family, without passing on the burden of excess clutter.

4. Be Realistic When Decluttering

The next decluttering tip for seniors is to ensure you are being realistic in your decluttering expectations.

This starts by accepting the reality that decluttering takes time. Your home didn’t become cluttered overnight, and it’s unreasonable to expect to declutter it overnight either.

There are several factors to consider when setting your expectations. These include:

How much help you have – The more help you have the quicker the task will go.
The size of your home – If you have a larger home there is more stuff to fit within that home.
How often you’ve decluttered in the past – If it’s been years since you last decluttered it is going to take you more time.
Your lifestyle – Certain lifestyles naturally accumulate more clutter.
Your lifestyle changes – Decluttering as a senior usually involves a lot of recent lifestyle changes.

All of these factors need to be taken into consideration when setting your expectations for decluttering as a senior. They will determine how long it will take you to declutter as well as the things that you will keep in your home. You want your home to reflect your current season of life as a senior.

The last thing you want to do is set an impossible standard for accomplishing decluttering tasks. That just leads to frustration and discouragement. Instead, when you have a reasonable expectation, it is simply a matter of sticking to your schedule.

So be realistic as you go through the decluttering process, focusing on each step. When you do this you will be able to see all the progress you are making. This will in turn motivate you to keep going!

5. Gather Necessary Supplies

It’s time to get into some practical decluttering tips for seniors.

As you’re beginning the actual decluttering process, you want to have all of your supplies ready to begin the job. Here are the recommended supplies:

Cardboard boxes or other containers
Markers or a label maker
Trash bags
Scissors
Tape
Packing materials
File Folders or paper trays
Comfortable clothing

You’ll want to have enough boxes or other containers to allow you to organize 3 categories of sorted items. One category will consist of the things you will be keeping, one category for things you will donate, and then the third category of items you are unsure of.

The caveat for the unsure box — mark the date on the box and if you have not needed anything in that box after 6 months the entire box gets donated without opening it!!

Your trash bags will be for any items that should just be thrown out. The scissors, tape, and packaging materials will help you keep any delicate or fragile items safe.

You will use the file folders to help you sort through paper clutter.

Wearing comfortable clothes will make the decluttering process easier. You will be moving around and picking things up that may have a lot of dust on them.

6. Go One Room at a Time

I don’t recommend anyone try and declutter their entire home in a day or even a weekend. This is especially true for seniors.

Decluttering is both physically and emotionally draining. Because we tend to have less energy as we age, it’s easy to wear yourself out if you try to do too much. When you are worn down, it becomes harder to make good decisions.

To avoid decluttering regret it’s best to pace yourself. Try decluttering just one room at a time.

Once you’ve cleared the clutter from that first room, you will feel good about your accomplishment and be ready to move on to the next room.

This will prevent you from feeling overwhelmed and allow you to continue to move forward.

7. Start Decluttering in the Easiest Room

We talked about decluttering one room at a time to avoid making the decluttering process overwhelming. When you’re picking your room it’s best to start in a room that has the least amount of sentimental items.

These would be rooms like the bathroom, the pantry, or the linen closet. These spaces will allow you to make quick decisions as to what to keep and what to get rid of without having to deal with difficult emotions.

You will be able to make quick progress in these rooms and have a positive mindset toward decluttering. If you do come across some sentimental items, just set them aside and go back to them later.

8. Make Quick Decluttering Decisions and Sort Items

This next decluttering tip is not just for seniors. Once you get into the nitty-gritty of decluttering you want to make quick decisions and sort your items as you make those decisions.

We already talked about having your boxes and trash bags ready and at hand. Now it’s time to label them into your various categories.

You will want to label your boxes so you have one box for things you will donate. A second box should be labeled for things you’ll give to family and friends. Label the third box for things you’re not sure whether you want to declutter or keep.

To provide specific decluttering tips for seniors in this area — you’ll want to be mindful of the items you want to keep, but also plan on passing down to a loved one. You may want to write out a list and identify those items. This list should include the name of who will be receiving the item.

Making this list now will make it easier for your family later. They will be comfortable knowing they are fulfilling your wishes.

For the unsure box, you can go back to it later and make decisions at that time. If you are still struggling to make decisions close the box up and write the date on it. If you’ve not used any of the items within 6 months, you’ll know it’s time to donate the contents.

9. Decluttering Tips For Seniors When Dealing With Sentimental Items

At some level, we all have a sentimental attachment to things, that’s a natural human tendency. However, decluttering sentimental items as a senior may be extra challenging.

By the time you enter your senior years, you’ve collected years of memories. Many of those memories are often attached to things you own. Your things feel like they are part of your history so it becomes very emotional when you are going through these sentimental items.

Having said that, here is what is important to remember, you are not getting rid of things completely, you are just downsizing.

For example, as a senior you likely have boxes of old photos, you don’t have to get rid of any of them if you don’t want to. You can simply downsize them by converting them to a DVD. If you have a large set of china you never use, display one plate where you can see it every day and let go of the rest.

As you come across these sentimental items start asking whether this is an item you love. Ask yourself when was the last time you used the item. If the item is important to you, how can you start using it?

When you come across items that you neither love nor use, consider how you can pass them on to someone who will love and use the item.

Often, knowing that you are helping someone else makes it much easier to declutter things that you have an emotional attachment to.

The truth is as you declutter some of these sentimental items, you will be surprised at home much more you enjoy the truly meaningful items that you keep. They will no longer be buried amongst many items. Instead, you will be able to display them, see them, and enjoy them every day.

10. Don’t Hold Onto Things for Others

When it comes to decluttering tips for seniors, this one is a must. Seniors often have grown children who have left some of their belongings at home expecting you to hold on to them.

These are items your children don’t want cluttering up their own home. And it’s not fair to expect you to hold on to them. Essentially your adult children are using your home as a storage space.

Your children are on their own and have their own homes. As such, it’s time for them to go through their childhood belongings and take what they want.

As you are decluttering set aside a box to hold their stuff. When they come over let them know they need to sort through the box and take what they want. What they don’t take, donate to charity guilt-free.

If that doesn’t work, arrange to have the items dropped off at their home. It’s okay to clear out their things and put your foot down. There is no reason for you to carry the burden of holding on to their stuff. If it means that much to them, they will take their stuff.

11. You Don’t Have to Declutter Everything

The final Decluttering tip for seniors is to know that it’s okay to keep the things that matter to you.

One of the things that make decluttering hard is the fear that you’ll have to get rid of things that truly matter to you. I’m here to tell you, you don’t.

We all have random things that have special meaning to us and are just hard to part with. Keep those treasured items. You don’t want to let the fear that you are supposed to get rid of those items keep you from decluttering the things that you don’t need or love.

At the same time, it’s important not to talk yourself into keeping things, because you might need them someday or you feel guilty about getting rid of them.

ORGANIZING TIPS FOR SENIORS

Once you’ve completed the decluttering process there are a few special organizing tips for seniors that are important to take into consideration.

Organize Everything Where it Should Be

Clutter-creep happens when we don’t know where things are. If you can’t find what you need it’s easy to go out and purchase the item again, undoing all your hard work of decluttering.

To avoid this, organize everything where it should be. Everything you own should have a designated space to live in. When you do this you’ll be able to easily find the things you need without having to waste time searching for items.

Your Family Needs to Know When To Find Important Papers

Organizing your medical records, financial documents, and estate planning documents is the best way to be sure your family is able to carry out your wishes. It will also help them take care of important matters in the event you are unable to.

Here is a great list of the important documents seniors should keep.

Whatever documents you keep, ideally have them in one central location. Whether that is a file cabinet, a desk drawer, or a safe or lockbox do your best to keep them together. You also want to let at least one trusted family member know where to find those documents. Then make sure they know how they can gain access to the documents if needed.