Less Can Be More

 If you’re facing a move or just tired of managing your family’s enormous amount of stuff, you can create a plan to help your family move on from under the clutter.

The average weight of items you have in each of the rooms in your home is 1,000 pounds. So, for a four-bedroom home with a kitchen, dining room, family room, living room and extra storage areas, all your belongings could top 8,000 pounds. That’s four tons, or for comparison, around the average weight of an elephant.

The cost of moving that mountain of goods is high, so the more you can downsize, the less it will cost you to move when it comes time to relocate.

Buying stuff is easy, but storing, managing, and clearing it out is the hard part. Having to deal with overflowing drawers, stuffed closets, jammed cabinets, cluttered spaces, and packed garages/basements/attics can lead to anxiety for many. Before you lose your cool, consider some proven methods to make your home more peaceful and less cluttered.

Corral Everything

Counters, tables, the floor, and other flat surfaces are not storage areas.

If there’s no room for a new item to have a permanent home, reconsider what you’re storing in drawers, closets, cabinets, and other storage areas to make room for it.

Don’t just box up old or unused stuff and take it to be stored off-site at a storage rental facility. Once items are boxed up and out of sight, you’re unlikely to use, review or deal with them, resulting in costly monthly storage rental fees.

Curb Purchasing

One great rule to institute is for every item brought in (whether it’s a gift or purchase), another item must leave the premises either by selling it, donation to a charity, gifting to another person, or being thrown away.

Determine where a new item will live in your house before you purchase it. Every item you don’t buy saves you not only money, but the mental stress of dealing with it. Eliminating purchases also avoids debt if you carry credit card balances.

Before you purchase something, investigate whether you can borrow it first. For books, music, and videos, check out your library.

Clear Items Daily

Unpack boxes as they’re delivered.

Sort through the mail only once and take immediate action on items that require it.

Put away groceries and other purchases promptly.

Dispose of packaging and bags appropriately and promptly.

Clean Regularly

Don’t think of cleaning as a singular event. It should be an ongoing regular task. Your stress level will go down because you’ve stuck with a schedule — vacuum on Tuesday, clean toilets on Wednesday, scrub showers on Thursday, etc.

Don’t just make donations of goods to charities around the holidays or end of the year. Go through your belongings with a critical eye regularly and donate smaller amounts more often.

Consider A Professional

If the stuff in your home is overwhelming you, consider bringing in a professional organizer. An organizer can address all your belongings, the size of your home, storage possibilities and more.

Hiring a cleaning service can also bring you happiness if you save time avoiding chores you don’t want to do or don’t have the time to complete.

From searching for homes to picking up your new keys on closing day, buying a home is an exciting process. Many first-time homebuyers also have the benefit of receiving advice from family members or friends who’ve already gone through the process. While it is certainly good to hear a few different perspectives while you’re buying a home, buyers should also know to take any home-buying advice with a grain of salt.

First of all, every buyer’s experience is different. Secondly, there are a lot of myths that circulate about buying a home. Today, we’re debunking some of the most popular home-buying myths.

Here are five fallacies that first-time home-buyers can ignore:

1. You’ll save money if you don’t use a real estate agent.
Of course, this myth is one that we take personally. And why not? It is simply not true. Even if you think you’re prepared to search for a home, schedule all of your showings, complete the proper paperwork and take yourself through closing (all incredibly good reasons to have a real estate agent), why would you not get one – particularly if you know that sellers typically cover all agent fees? A real estate agent’s commission is built into the selling price of a home. That means it has already been determined by the time you might consider buying, or even touring through, a home.

2. You must put 20% down on a home to get a conventional home loan.
This myth may have been true many years ago, but it is completely outdated. In the past, some lenders would only approve a mortgage if a buyer could pay 20% of a home’s price up front. However, times have changed. Today, buyers can get a conventional home loan by putting down as little as 3% to 5% of a home’s price. Instead of covering that cost up front, they often pay private mortgage insurance, or PMI, until they reach the balance of the 20%.

3. You can skip the home inspection – especially on a new home.
This myth is simply poor advice no matter where it comes from. Home inspections are imperative to the buying process. Bringing in an impartial home inspector to make sure a home is structurally sound is, without a doubt, a great idea. Often, your home-buying contract may contain a clause that allows you to walk away from a potential home if an inspector finds a major issue. Even new homes may contain mistakes that are not visible to the everyday eye. Let an inspector help you make sure your home is move-in ready before you close on a home that has more issues than you’ve bargained for.

4. If the house is great the neighborhood doesn't really matter.
It's the perfect house at the perfect price, but the neighborhood is not quite what you imagined. Should you purchase it? Maybe not! Once you move in, you'll notice the neighborhood plays a bigger role than you ever imagined. So, before you buy, consider your commute, nearby amenities, accessibility, and other factors that will affect your daily life.

5. The amount you are pre-approved for is the amount you should spend.
This myth is a recipe for financial disaster. Just because a lender approves you for a certain amount does not mean that you should buy a home that will extend your budget to those lengths. What many first-time buyers may fail to realize is that there are many other costs that come along with home ownership. Just some of these responsibilities can include closing costs, monthly utilities, homeowner association fees, renovations, and regular home maintenance—to name a few! Buying a home that takes you to the full extent of your budget may only cause financial problems when any other issues arise in your home or personal life.

If you’re a first-time home buyer ready to begin exploring potential homes, get excited about the process. Take the advice that family members or friends want to give, but recognize that some of their advice may be mere opinions.

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