Downsizing Your Current Home

It is just human nature for us to be 'hoarders'. We tend to accumulate items as we progress in our status in life. We have this so called 'hierarchy of needs' wherein we have progressive needs that build over time and in the process we end up having too much clutter in our life. This is evident if we look around our homes.

Having too many items in your current home is not healthily especially if you end up having too little space. Sometimes, we tend to accommodate such clutter in our house by making way for storage space that we end up having even more clutter. At some point in our lives, we just need to de-clutter our lives and homes especially if you are planning to sell up and move into a smaller place or an apartment. Having that in your plans, there is no way that all of your items will fit to the smaller apartment or living space. While it can be hard to part with belongings, it feels great when you de-clutter and have a lot less to store in your home. Sometimes, people find it therapeutic, too.

Don't wait for a major move, renovation or downsize of your home to de-clutter your belongings. Do a regular spring cleaning to make it easier for you when the time comes for these life changes to happen. Even if you don't, you will have a more livable space that sometimes could lead to healthy relationships with yourself, with others and your surroundings.

Here are some simple tips for clearing the mess before downsizing, just simple clearing your clutter:

Start by sorting - sort through your belongings and create a rough list of what you find. Write them down under "must keep", "want to keep" and "don't need" categories.
Find some storage - if you have items that you may want at a later date, but can't take them to your new home yet, find a storage unit near Brisbane or managed storage to keep it safe for a while. You can also find some storage for some seasonal items if you think you don't have enough storage space in your new home. But at some point, you just need to create some space in your new home for these seasonal items, to make it cost effective in the long-run.
Have a garage sale - selling items that you don't need can help pay for some of your moving costs.
Give it away - if you can't take some stuff with you give it it friends or charity. At least then it will go to a good home!
Be ruthless - the best advice is to be very strict about what you keep and what you throw away. If you are unsure or you don't see yourself using it within the next 3 months (shorter periods, the better) then you probably don’t need it.
Start a habit of regularly doing some spring cleaning. This will ensure that you will have a shorter checklist  to do when you are about to move.

Packing and Storing a Refrigerator

There are certain items in every household that need extra care and attention to move them safely and without causing any damage. Large size mattresses and sofas are a couple of such items, and heavy appliances such as refrigerators are another.  When you want to move your refrigerator to a new home or place it into self storage, then it’s a case of getting the right equipment together to do the job and get it out of the house and to where it’s going without causing damage.

Start by getting hold of a heavy duty trolley with safety straps to make the move much easier, it’s possible to rent these from equipment supply places. If it has to be lifted down stairs, consider renting a trolley with three wheels on each side, as it will be easier to pull down the steps.

Before you start moving the fridge, make sure it is completely defrosted and cleaned out. Any food left inside will soon start to smell and decompose and the smell can get pretty bad if left for a long time. The same applies if the fridge isn’t cleaned out properly and remnants of food are left in the corners or stuck to the shelves. Unplug it and leave it overnight to defrost before giving it a good clean, including the extra parts inside such as the shelves and egg holders.

Use tape to secure the shelves inside the fridge unless you decide to remove them and pack them separately, if you do then ensure you put them somewhere safe where you can find them again once settled in to your new place. Use rope to fasten the doors so they don't swing open when you are taking it out of the house or on the move as this could damage them. Make sure the electrical cord is also secured, either under the machine or by taping it to the back of the fridge. If you leave a fridge with the doors closed for a long time mould can start to form so if this is the case then leave the doors ajar until the actual moving day so air can get inside.

Slowly lever the trolley under the fridge from the back and shimmy it right under until the trolley can easily be tilted back. Use at least two people to move it out of the house - one to help guide it from the front and one to push the trolley. Take things slowly, especially if you have to negotiate stairs.

It is possible to lay a refrigerator flat on its back in order to move it; however this can cause it to be damaged much more easily than moving it in the stand-up position. There is a possibility when in a horizontal position that oil can seep into the cooling tubes which you don’t want as this could result in the fridge not cooling as effectively as it should.

Common Reasons Why You Might Need Extra Self Storage Space

Years ago, it is not common to hire extra space or what we call now ‘storage space’ for personal reasons. It is usually considered and done for business purposes, including inventory, during renovation to store the pieces of furniture to give way for such, and during a move when equipment and pieces of furniture are expensive to sell and to buy again. 

Even when using storage for inventory, only usually big business would allocate space in their layout. Now, hiring extra self storage around Brisbane is becoming more and more common and the reasons behind it often share a lot of common ground. It is no longer just a business purpose, but it has become personal and an extension of someone’s personal life.

Here are the top reasons people need self storage or other self storage solutions:

• More space - the more you can put into storage, the more room you will have in your home. Many people still want to keep some furniture and other items but may not want to use them in their home. There are some pieces of furniture, especially the antique or valuable ones that may not blend well in the design of your home, but are too valuable to just give away. Hence, you might want to just keep them until when you find a new home for these.
• Moving house - there can often be some down time between moving out of a current address and moving into a new home. This usually happens when you are in the finishing touches in your new home that you can’t put your items yet. Also, it happens when you are putting your old place for rent or for sale, and you need viewers to have a better perspective in seeing the space of the home. Without clutter, they could envision how they want to set up their new home. For these kinds of instances, short term storage is the perfect solution.
• Protect goods - storage can help you protect collectibles as well as antiques that you just don't have room for at home. Security and safety of storage facilities have become a standard requirement. Storage units are usually stored in fully-gated and secure warehouses, and only authorized representatives and personnel are allowed to access these units. Storage facilities are often more secure than keeping items in the garage or shed.
• Spare equipment - businesses (especially kitchens and caterers) have a lot of extra equipment that they don’t need all the time. Storage lets businesses keep equipment they will need in the busier seasons out of the way during quiet times.
• Inventory storage – this does not only apply to big businesses but also small entrepreneurs. As a small business, you would usually have an office space or even do it at home. Having a storage facility, even if it is small, you provide an extension for your office space by storing your inventory in these facilities.
• Renting out your current space while travelling – this usually happens when people are thinking of long periods of travel and they would like to rent out their current place while they are away. And by doing so, you do not want to leave all your belongings to the new occupants. You only want to leave the basics and keep your very personal belongings on portable storage units. Usually, you will get a net profit from it, where the cost of renting mobile storage units is lesser compared to the rental income you get.

The list may not be comprehensive, but it gives an example of what are the common reasons of engaging a storage facility. From the list, you can see that there is an common underlying reason, which is extending your living or working space. Hiring storage has become more common and it is no longer expensive. And nowadays, it is even easier and more convenient to rent one. That is why, more and more people are utilizing portable self storage units now than before.

Buying Real Estate as Therapy

They say, shopping is therapy and if there is really any need to go for shopping, we usually subject ourselves to such due to undergoing form of emotion – we go shopping because we are under stressful situations or we are just unable to contain elation or happiness. Shopping would usually help us release these emotions and make us feel better at the end of the day.

The notion of ‘retail therapy’ is common practice whenever we undergo such emotion, but there are instances that consumers are turning to big purchases – say a car or some ‘real estate therapy’ to solve the bigger problems in their life. If retail therapy involving smaller purchases (but mind you, sometimes the smaller items can easily break a bank, too), would result to buyer’s remorse, bigger purchase have a higher likelihood to inflict such, especially if the payment is made thru time and it is difficult to escape it, resulting to default and bigger loses. However, there are certain extreme emotions that sometimes real-estate therapy could help, i.e. relocating to a new place could result to a better change.

One example of which is when people experience a traumatic or life-changing event, such as the death of a loved one or divorce. In this situation, change can help. It can often be easier to relocate to help deal with the pain, that is why, once it is over and loved ones have come into terms that the person who passed away will not come back, it is about time to move one and usually, having a change of environment can help. Although some resort to traveling, but others will view it as temporary. Sometimes, permanent change could be the answer – a time to start anew. Meredith Fuller, an Australian psychologist, agrees that relocating after an emotional upheaval can be therapeutic.

However, there are always two sides to a coin. Not all real estate therapy is associated with negative events. Just like retail therapy, wherein some form of elation or positive change can bring it about, relocation can also be triggered by positive changes, such as a new job or a growing family. This form of change is easily dealt with and usually, people look forward to it.

It is a known fact that any form of retail therapy, especially those prompted by emotions would often times result to buyer’s remorse. The same goes for big purchases, like properties. Like any property purchase, real estate therapy should be approached with caution. Moving house can entail unnecessary financial and emotional stress, so buyers must carefully consider the decision relocate to avoid buyer’s remorse. 

Even if such purchase has already been carefully thought of and planned, the stress that goes with the process of relocation can be unbearable – finding the right place (careful planning and selection should be done on this aspect), sorting out your current stuff, selecting a self storage facility to move your items temporarily, and moving movers to carefully move your items from your old house to the self storage and the new place. It may be a daunting task to just look at it from an overall perspective, but with careful planning, it could be just a breeze; the latest innovation with self storage near Brisbane are the portable units. Our self storage company will bring the portable storage units to your location, saving you the hassle of transporting it to the units yourself. While the convenience of the concept keeps the storage cost so low, it's really Supercheap Self Storage. What is constant in life is change. Change is good and change is always for the better, if done carefully and with due diligence. If done for the right reasons, change is good especially moving to a new place thru buying a new home. It does not only mean a new address but a new lease on life.