How Do I Choose What Furniture to Bring to a Smaller Home?

Furniture is often the hardest part of downsizing. The dining table where the family gathered for decades. The china cabinet. The guest bed no one has slept in for years. Deciding what comes with you is easier for you and your family with a simple method.

I'm Jeanette Nelson, a REALTOR® with Jeanette Nelson Real Estate, Keller Williams Realty, serving Orange County, Huntington Beach, Costa Mesa, Fountain Valley, and surrounding areas, helping families sell a home through a life transition with a written plan. I help my downsizing clients plan exactly this, room by room.

Ask for the floor plan of your new home, or measure it yourself:

• Length and width of each room
• Ceiling height
• Doorways, hallways and stairwells (large pieces need to fit through)
• Where windows, outlets and closets are

Then measure your favorite pieces. Many families draw a simple sketch on graph paper or use painter's tape on the floor of the old home to see what fits.

Ask yourself for each room:

• Living room: Where will I sit every day? Where will a guest sit?
• Dining: How many people will I usually host? A smaller table with a leaf can work.
• Bedroom: Your bed, one dresser, nightstands.
• Guest space: A sleeper sofa or daybed can replace a full guest room.
• Office or hobby space: What do you truly use?

You don't have to give up everything meaningful. Keep one or two special pieces, like a grandmother's rocker or a favorite cabinet, and build around them. Photos of the pieces you let go can also help.

1. Family first. Ask children and grandchildren what they'd like, and set a date to pick it up. Don't be surprised if they want less than expected.
2. Estate sale. Good-quality furniture often sells well at an estate sale.
3. Consignment or donation for pieces that don't sell.
4. Haul-away for the rest.

My article on what to do with 40 years of belongings walks through the full sorting order.

• Start with the rooms you use least.
• Choose multi-use pieces: storage ottomans, nesting tables, a bed with drawers.
• Avoid moving "maybes." If you're unsure, leave it.
• Label what's coming with colored tape before moving day.

• Moving everything and sorting it in a smaller space.
• Forgetting to measure doorways for large pieces.
• Keeping furniture for rooms you won't have.
• Deciding on moving day instead of weeks before.

A common example: a widow moving from a four-bedroom Huntington Beach home to a two-bedroom condo nearby. We start with the condo's floor plan. She keeps her bedroom set, her favorite recliner, a small dining table and her late husband's desk for the second bedroom. Her daughter takes the china cabinet. The rest goes to an estate sale I coordinate after the move. She walks into a condo that already feels like home.

My free Complete Downsizing Checklist helps you plan each step.

If you're getting ready to downsize and don't know where to start, I'm happy to help you plan the move room by room. Call or text me at 714.366.8575 | DRE: 01397168. Jeanette Nelson is a Realtor® with Jeanette Nelson Real Estate, Keller Williams Realty, serving Orange County, Huntington Beach, Costa Mesa, Fountain Valley, and surrounding areas, helping families sell a home through a life transition with a written plan. Let's set up a private planning conversation.