Downsizing in Leeds: Moving to a Smaller Home

Downsizing sounds simple until the day you try to fit a four bedroom house into a two bedroom bungalow. The move itself is the easy part. The hard part is deciding what does not come with you, and most people leave that decision until the week before, which is exactly when it becomes expensive.

Start with the floor plan, not the loft

The instinct is to begin sorting in the loft because it feels productive. It is not, because you have no idea yet what will fit. Get the room measurements of the new place first, then measure your bulky furniture: sofas, wardrobes, dining table, beds, chest freezer. Sketch it roughly to scale.

That exercise usually settles two or three big arguments on its own. A three seater plus a two seater plus an armchair does not fit in most bungalow lounges, so one of them is going regardless of how anyone feels about it. Knowing that eight weeks out is far calmer than discovering it while a crew stands in the doorway.

Sort into four piles, not two

Keep and bin is too blunt and it stalls people. Use four:

• Moving with you, and it has a confirmed place in the new plan.
• Family or friends, but only if someone has actually said yes and named a collection date. A maybe is not a pile, it is a delay.
• Sell or donate, for anything with genuine life left in it.
• Clearance, for the broken, the worn out and the things nobody wants however much they cost in 1998.

Be honest about the third pile. Selling furniture takes time, photos, messages and people who do not turn up. If the move is in three weeks, most of it belongs in donate or clearance, and you will lose less money than you fear.

What downsizing actually costs

Two bills, not one. The move itself runs on our hourly rates, a two person crew at £100 for the first hour then £55, with a typical three bed move landing around £430. The clearance is separate and priced by volume, from £24.99 for a few items, around £100 for a half van load and £200 for a full van.

The saving people miss is that these two jobs can share a day. Anything not coming with you goes out before or after the load, in one visit, rather than paying twice and booking twice. Full detail on both is in our Leeds removals cost guide and our house clearance cost guide.

The things people always regret

Two mistakes come up again and again. The first is paying to move furniture that will not fit, on the theory that a decision can be made later. It cannot, because later it is in a smaller house and in the way, and you pay a second time to get rid of it.

The second is throwing out paperwork in a hurry. Deeds, warranties, medical records and anything with a National Insurance number on it should go in one box that travels in your car, not in the van and definitely not in the clearance pile.

A sensible eight week run-in

• Eight weeks: measure the new place, plan the big furniture, book the move.
• Six weeks: start the four piles in the rooms you use least.
• Four weeks: list anything you are selling, and give friends and family a firm collection deadline.
• Two weeks: book the clearance for whatever is left, and pack the paperwork box.
• Moving week: load, clear, hand over the keys to an empty house.