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Your home is where you do everything now.
By Diane Quintana — Written on Aug 08, 2020
No matter how old or young you are, it’s important to learn some "rightsizing" techniques.
Are you asking wondering what rightsizing means? It’s a fairly new expression, which can refer to a number of different things.
For example, a company rightsizes when it reduces the number of employees to fit the anticipated earnings.
In the case of changing the size of your home, you can say that a family rightsizes when they move to a bigger home to accommodate their growing family.
You can also replace "downsizing" with "rightsizing" when a couple moves to a smaller home once their children have moved out on theirs.
Rightsizing is important; you want to be like Goldilocks and live in a home that's just right for you — neither too big, nor too small.
Here are 7 expert tips on rightsizing your space for every life stage.
1. How many bedrooms do you need?
In the past, you would have thought about how many people would be living in the home, and then considered how many bedrooms you needed.
Of course, the home would also have a bathroom or two, a kitchen, and a living space.
If you're a college student sharing a home and rent with fellow students, rightsizing depends on how many people could easily share the space and afford the rent.
If you're a young, single person, you might just need a single efficiency room.
My son had such an apartment for a short time. The one-room had a small living space, an alcove for a bed, a closet, a bathroom, and a kitchenette. It was perfect for him at the time.
2. Find a good location.
You need to consider location. It's important for our homes to be within a reasonable commute to work or school.
Proximity to things we like to do and places we like to go is desirable, even in pandemic times.
3. Rightsize to your comfort.
Now, we're not just looking at our homes as places to be when we're not at school or at work. We're looking at our homes differently.
Our homes have become the place we work, play, exercise, socialize, eat, and relax. They are everything to us.
Rightsizing is even more important — much more important than being in the perfect location. We are doing so much more inside our homes.
4. Repurpose the rooms.
An older couple may want to stay in the home that had been big enough for their entire family so they can repurpose those extra bedrooms.
They may turn one or more bedrooms into office space and another bedroom into a mini-exercise studio. Rightsizing this way means they have everything they want to do already in their home.
5. Rightsize for what you need.
Another older couple may rightsize differently and decide to move into an apartment with just enough living space for them. The building they move into might have a fitness center and an office suite that accommodates their other interests.
Rightsizing for a couple with a growing family can mean looking for a home with space for an office or two, as well as space to incorporate homeschooling for the children.
They will probably also want a separate family room and a yard for the children to run around in, weather permitting.
Life has changed and so has the importance we place on choosing our homes. We are staying in and using our homes in ways we rarely, if ever, anticipated.
No matter how old or young you are, your home has turned into the place you do everything.
6. Sort what you need for repurposed rooms.
Figuring out how to incorporate a home office and a home school in the space that used to be a guest room can be a challenge.
One strategy is to take everything out of that former guest room and store it temporarily in another room in your home.
If space is tight, consider using a public storage facility for a limited amount of time. Then, make a list of things that must come into that room. Sort that list according to the use of the room.
In other words, what are the things you must have in the room to support an office, and what are the things you must have to support homeschooling? Will this also be a place for overnight guests?
7. Make use of vertical space.
So often, we pile things horizontally on flat surfaces. Make use of the walls and install shelving. Have the top shelves hold things for the office and the bottom shelves dedicated to homeschooling, if you need them.
If you are rightsizing by selling your home and moving into an apartment, you may want to store some furnishings temporarily while you figure out what will or won’t fit in your smaller home.
No matter what your plan, the right size of your home is the size that supports how you intend to use your home.
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Diane N. Quintana is a certified professional organizer who focuses on chronic disorganization. She’s also a master trainer and the owner of DNQ Solutions, LLC based in Atlanta, Georgia. Diane teaches busy people how to become organized and provides them with strategies and solutions for maintaining order in their lives.
This article was originally published at DNQ Solutions Blog. Reprinted with permission from the author.