A downsize is the one clearing job where you already know exactly where everything is going. That changes the method entirely: start from the floor plan of the new home and work backwards, and an open-ended sort becomes a bounded fitting problem with an answer.
Quarter truck $325 · half $580 · full $985 — we'd rather come twice
Upload Photos & Get Quote →Most clearing jobs are open-ended. An estate has no destination — things simply have to go somewhere, and every decision is made against an unbounded question. That is a different job, and it works differently.
A downsize has a destination, and the destination has dimensions. A specific number of rooms, specific wall lengths, a known amount of storage. That is a genuine constraint, and constraints make decisions easier rather than harder.
Yet almost everyone starts at the wrong end — in the current house, holding an object, asking whether to keep it. That question has no natural stopping point, which is exactly why it is exhausting.
Start from the new place instead, and the question changes to what fits. That is answerable, and it is not a judgement about anything.
The practical first step, and it is worth doing carefully.
You need room dimensions, wall lengths, doorway widths, and whatever storage exists — cupboards, closets, any allocated space outside the home itself. If a floor plan is available, that is the starting point; if not, measure the rooms on a visit.
Doorway and hallway widths matter more than people expect, because they determine what can physically arrive. A piece that fits the room but not the route is a problem discovered on moving day, which is the worst possible moment.
Then measure the furniture you are hoping to take. Not estimated — measured. Large case pieces in particular are routinely bigger than remembered.
Work in order of size, because the large items decide everything downstream.
Beds, sofas, dining tables, wardrobes and large case furniture first. These are the pieces that either fit or do not, and once they are placed on the plan the remaining space is what you actually have.
Do this on paper, not in your head. A rough scale drawing with the big pieces marked takes twenty minutes and settles arguments that would otherwise run for weeks — including the ones you have with yourself.
What this produces is a list, not a feeling: these pieces come, these do not. And "does not fit" is a much easier thing to accept than "is not worth keeping", because it says nothing at all about the object. Furniture removal.
After the furniture, the flexible things — and here the honest observation is that most of them shrink to fit whatever space remains.
Books, kitchenware, linens, tools, decorations, papers. These do not have a right amount; they have whatever amount the storage allows.
Which makes the shelf or cupboard the unit of decision, not the item. One bookcase means one bookcase of books, and choosing which books is a far more tractable exercise than deciding about each one in isolation.
Full sets are the hard case. Dishes, glassware, tools — sets resist being reduced because breaking a set feels like a loss in itself. It is worth naming that in advance, because it is the category where the sorting usually stalls.
The part that matters most, and it has nothing to do with logistics.
These are somebody's belongings, and that somebody makes the decisions — at whatever pace they need. That holds even when a family member can see a faster route, and even when the faster route is genuinely faster.
A downsize driven by an adult child's timeline produces resentment that outlasts the move, usually about objects that were not individually important. The efficiency is not worth what it costs.
Where family help is genuinely useful: doing the measuring, making the scale drawing, handling the logistics, and being present without steering. That is a real contribution and it is not the same as deciding.
If the pace is constrained by a fixed move-in date, narrow what has to be decided now rather than accelerating everything. Start with categories nobody is attached to.
The assumption that quietly causes the most trouble, and it is worth testing early.
Frequently they do not — not out of indifference, but because their own homes have no room either, or their taste is different, or they are in a phase of life where large furniture is a burden.
The pieces most often politely declined: dining sets, china cabinets, formal living-room furniture, full sets of dishes, and large case pieces.
Ask directly, well in advance, and make it easy to say no. A specific offer with a photograph and a date beats a general "would you like anything" — and an early honest no is far kinder than a piece being transported, stored for a year, and then let go anyway.
This is also the conversation that prevents a second move. Furniture that goes to a child's garage "for now" is a downsize that did not finish.
The single most useful scheduling decision available.
Decisions made at hour seven are worse than decisions made at hour one, and a full house is more than one day of decisions however energetic anyone is feeling at the start.
Clear the settled categories first. There is always a substantial volume that nobody is uncertain about — the garage, the basement accumulation, broken things, obvious duplicates. Removing that early is a real improvement and it costs nothing emotionally.
Then the sorting has room to breathe, because what remains is only the things that need thought.
Each visit prices as its own job. There is no surcharge for coming twice, and we would rather do that than have a decision made under time pressure that cannot be undone. How volume pricing works.
A boundary worth stating plainly on a page like this.
We do not appraise, we do not buy, and we will not offer views on what anything is worth. A hauling company doing any of that is operating outside its competence, and on a downsize the temptation runs in an unhelpful direction.
If something might be worth money, have it looked at first by someone whose actual business that is — before anything moves. That is true whether or not you use us afterwards.
And nothing on this page is advice about finances, care, health or estate planning. Those belong with the relevant professionals, and we are not among them.
A few items sit outside the ordinary sort and are worth identifying early, because they take longer to arrange.
A piano. Upright $390, grand $590. If it plays, it is worth trying to place it somewhere first — that takes lead time.
Large case furniture — china cabinet $215, curio cabinet $128, wardrobe $192. These are the pieces most likely to be declined by family and hardest to sell, and they occupy a great deal of the current house.
A safe. Large safe $273 — heavy, and worth mentioning when booking.
Papers and documents. Not a hauling matter, but the category most worth going through personally rather than delegating. The same applies to anything holding data.
A downsize is one of the better clearing jobs for this, because so much of what leaves is in genuinely good condition.
Solid furniture that has been well kept has real donation and resale prospects — considerably better than the worn contents of a rental. That is worth acting on rather than defaulting to disposal.
But it needs lead time. Donation collection schedules fill, and selling is a week-long process at minimum. Two weeks out these are live options; two days out they are not. What charities actually accept · the free routes and their limits.
Which is another argument for starting from the floor plan early. The sooner you know what is not coming, the more of it has somewhere better to go than a truck.
| Scope or item | Flat price |
|---|---|
| Minimum | $75 |
| A room's worth — quarter truck | $325 |
| Three-eighths truck | $455 |
| Half truck | $580 |
| Three-quarter truck | $790 |
| Full 16-cu-yd truck | $985 |
| Each additional truck | Same flat rate |
| Staged second visit | Priced as its own job |
| Sofa / loveseat / recliner | $170 / $160 / $132 |
| Dining table / china cabinet | $220 / $215 |
| Dresser / bookcase / wardrobe | $169 / $97 / $192 |
| Mattress and box spring set | $192 |
| Piano — upright / grand | $390 / $590 |
| Stairs, long carry, no lift | No charge |
No sales tax on the service in Colorado; quoted from photographs before anyone travels. Full price list · downsizing service.
A family home reducing to an apartment — the common shape.
What does not fit: a dining table and china cabinet, a spare bedroom set, a sofa, two bookcases and a large loose pile from the basement. Itemised: $220 + $215 + $192 + $170 + two bookcases at $97 + $280 = $1,271.
By volume that runs past a full truck, so it prices as a full load at $985 plus a partial second at $325 — $1,310. Close enough that we would run both and quote the lower, which here is the itemised figure.
The useful thing is not the total. It is that this list was produced by a floor plan rather than by a fortnight of deliberation, and every item on it is there because it did not fit — not because anybody decided it was not worth keeping.
The new floor plan. Room dimensions, wall lengths, doorway widths.
Measure, then place on paper. Fits or does not — no judgement needed.
Decide by shelf, not by item. Storage sets the amount.
Ask family early. Most likely to be declined. $220 / $215.
Needs its own plan. $390 / $590, and try to place a working one.
Get it looked at first. Not by us.
Go through these personally. Not a delegating category.
Two weeks' notice keeps donation live. How to ask.
Clear this first. Nobody is uncertain about it. Garage method.
Slow down. Narrow what must be decided now instead.
More than one load. Full truck $985 plus.
Then it's too early to book. That's a real answer.
Let the new home do the deciding. The hardest thing about downsizing is not the lifting or the cost — it is that "should I keep this?" is a question with no edges, asked hundreds of times, about objects that carry more than their function. Starting from the floor plan replaces it with a different question entirely: does this fit? That one has an answer, the answer is not a verdict on anything, and it can be worked out with a tape measure and twenty minutes of paper. Everything else follows from there — the list of what is not coming appears early enough for the good pieces to find people who want them, the settled categories can go first, and the difficult decisions get the weeks they deserve rather than the last afternoon. And the pace belongs to whoever owns the belongings, which is the one part of this that is not negotiable.
Photographs in, fixed price back — staged visits, no surcharge for two
Upload Photos & Get Quote →