Suzanne Newman joins Kelley Smith at CarePartners Senior Living to provide a plan for starting the decluttering process. This segment focuses on beginning stages, and putting the plan in action. 

First: we're downsizing for a reason, whether Mom is moving in with an adult child, moving into an assisted living facility. Look at the space she's moving into and assess how much space is available. Visit model units to get an idea of what would work in the space, to see if Mom's couch will actually fit. You could have a closet organizer installed, which significantly improves the storage space. Some units have an extra pantry or linen closet. You don't need a lot of space for brooms and mops and cleaning supplies because your community will take care of that for you, so perhaps add shelves in there. You can also put a shelf on top of kitchen cabinets, and fill wicker baskets up there with Mom's things that she wants to keep but doesn't use very often.

Sometimes their maintenance folks will do that for you. If you have a studio apartment, use book shelves to separate spaces and provide extra storage in the middle. Most places will let you add shelves. There may be situations where a resident's china hutch wouldn't fit in the apartment, but they asked if it could be placed in a common area for everyone to enjoy, and they may find room for it. Being creative with your space will help them bring more things that matter to them.

To begin organizing, clean out a room in your house and set it up as a station. Sort items into boxes for assisted living, for charitable donations, to toss, and to sell. If you have two floors, have a room on each floor. A lot of us have extra stuff in our homes to get rid of.

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