Downsizing Help on the Northern Beaches & North Shore

How a downsizing project runs

1. Discovery call and plan. The move date, the size of the new home, who needs a say, and which rooms will be hardest. Family can join the call from anywhere.
2. Measure the destination. Knowing the new rooms' size turns "what am I losing?" into "what will I furnish my new home with?", which is a far easier question.
3. Start with low-emotion rooms. The laundry, the linen cupboard, the garage. Early progress builds momentum before the photos, letters and heirlooms.
4. Sort into clear destinations. Moving with you, family, sell, donate, recycle, dispose. Items family might want are photographed and set aside until they decide.
5. Clear it out properly. Donations leave the same day, bulky items are timed to a council collection, and paint and chemicals go to the right drop-off.
6. Unpack into systems (optional). After the move, we set up the kitchen, wardrobes and storage so the new place works from week one.

Downsizing locally: getting things out of the house

The sorting is only half of downsizing. The other half is making sure what's leaving actually leaves, and on the Northern Beaches and North Shore that means knowing the local rules:

• Council clean-ups. On the Northern Beaches, mainland households can pre-book two bulky-goods collections within 12 months, so on a big house we plan sessions so both collections count. North Shore councils differ: Ku-ring-gai and Lane Cove each allow four booked collections a year, Willoughby one booked and three scheduled, and Mosman runs scheduled clean-ups.
• Good furniture. Vinnies NSW takes furniture pick-up bookings online, subject to availability. Family, Marketplace and Buy Nothing groups come first for anything with value.
• What council won't take. Paint goes free to Kimbriki at Ingleside (up to 100 litres). Garage and pool chemicals, fuels and gas bottles go to the NSW EPA's free Household Chemical CleanOut. Old TVs and computers go free to Kimbriki too.

Our Northern Beaches donation and recycling guide has the full list. If you're moving on the North Shore, see our North Shore home organiser page.

Selling the family home?

We're organisers, not real estate agents or stylists, and we don't advise on price or marketing. Where we help is the part that has to happen before an agent or stylist can do their job: getting decades of belongings sorted and out, so the house can be photographed and inspected. Tell us your listing or inspection dates on the discovery call and we'll plan the sessions around them.

Worth asking your accountant about: the downsizer contribution

If you're 55 or older and selling a home you've owned for at least 10 years, the ATO's downsizer contribution may let you put part of the sale proceeds into superannuation. The contribution has to be made within 90 days of receiving the proceeds, which is usually settlement. The sale also has to qualify, fully or partly, for the main residence capital gains tax exemption, and you can only make a downsizer contribution once. We don't give financial advice, so raise it with your accountant or financial adviser before settlement. The details are on the ATO website.

The hardest parts, handled with care

• Sentimental belongings: a set number of memory boxes rather than item-by-item agonising, and photographs of large pieces that can't come.
• Decades of paperwork: sorted into keep permanently, keep for now and shred. The ATO asks individuals to keep tax records for five years from lodgement.
• Family disagreements: the person moving makes the final call. Having a neutral third person in the room tends to lower the temperature.
• Deadlines: sessions planned backwards from settlement or the lease end, so there's no last-week scramble.

Before your first session

If you have it, bring the floor plan or measurements of the new home. Let family know when sessions are and what they might want to claim. Don't start packing, because it's much faster to sort first.

Downsizing FAQs