During the process of purchasing a new home, it is quite common for the home-seeker or home-seeking family to ask themselves this type of question. After all, it would be quite unfortunate to buy a new home only to find out that there isn’t enough room for all the things that you have accumulated over the years which are important to you.
It is almost amazing the frequency with which you can see a home-owner go through the moving process only for them to be stunned at the amount of stuff that they have. That goes double for you if you have a family! Piles and piles of stuff coming out of their front window, things that they even forgot they had but that they now want to keep and conserve is the usual sight that you get if you have ever moved or if you have ever helped anybody move.
I should clarify that I am in no way judging anybody by saying the former, because I have been through the process myself and it’s really surprising just how much I find myself looking at the amount of stuff that I have accumulated and dreading having to put it all in my new home or going through the process of doing inventory and donating what is not absolutely needed.
Since I have been through the process before, I always tell my clients that it’s always a good idea to buy a home 20% to 25% larger than what they actually think they need if they want to bring all of their belongings with them. Not once have I been told that this is bad advice, quite the opposite in fact, I’ve gotten a few “thank yous” over the years because they followed this particular piece of advice and were able to make room for everything that they need in their new living space.
Naturally, if you are not the kind of person who gets very attached to their belongings, this advice might not be for you. I have also seen situations where the home-owners take the move into the new house as a way of cleaning up and starting almost from scratch in their new environment. However, I do recommend that you take a very close look at what it is that you do away with if you use this strategy, because people will end up buying the same articles twice or even three times because they didn’t think they would need certain items that turned out to be necessities.
Nowadays there are services that will take a look at your home, ask you what it is that you don’t need and pay you for those items, which can be a blessing all by itself. Using this kind of service weeks or even days before you move is a very smart way of cleaning up your previous home whilst making some money and ensuring that the move to your new one is as smooth and quick as it could possibly be.
