Free printable · downsizing a long-time home
Free Downsizing Room-by-Room Sort List
Downsizing goes wrong when it is attempted as one enormous job. It is not one job — it is a room, repeated. This free printable is the sort itself: the six decisions to make about each thing, one finished room worked through so you can see what "done" looks like, and a blank sheet to print for every room in the house. Take it into the room with you and decide with the thing in your hand — a list made at the kitchen table is a list of what somebody remembers owning, which is about half of it.
Take it with you — free, no signup
Direct download. No email, no account — just the files.
What it does
- Ships pre-filled with a finished room, not a blank grid — the dining room from the full binder's worked example, because the china cabinet and the service for twelve are where a downsizing move most often stalls.
- Lays out the six decisions — take, gift, sell, donate, dispose, or honestly undecided — with what actually belongs on each pile, so "undecided" stays a real answer rather than a way of avoiding one.
- Carries the two rules that prevent most of the family arguments: group generously ("books, shelves 1 to 4" is one line), and ask in writing with a collection date on it.
- Prints and works with no spreadsheet at all — nothing to sign up for, nothing saved anywhere but your own copy.
Own it, don't rent it
Will what you're keeping actually fit?
This sheet does the part you can do on paper. The full binder answers the part you cannot: whether what you are keeping will actually fit. Every item resolves to cubic feet through a built-in guide of 41 household size classes, so you never measure a sofa; everything you keep is totaled against the capacity of the room it is going to, reading Fits, Tight, or Over; and the move is priced off that same volume, including what every 100 cubic feet you release saves. Plus a 42-task timeline counted back from your move date, 38 organizations that need the new address, and quote, contact, and document trackers — 12 tabs across Excel, Google Sheets & LibreOffice, and three PDF guides.
A one-time purchase you keep and own — your family's file about your family's move, sitting between a free printable and a rented app.
A planning aid you keep, not legal, tax, financial, real-estate, or medical advice, and not an appraisal. The worked example is fictional. Once it is filled in, a sort list is a record of what an older adult owns and roughly what it is worth — keep your copy where you keep other private household papers. Free to use; please don't resell or redistribute.