Downsizing your home can be a great idea that's truly hard to put into practice. While most Americans long to live a simpler life, getting there when you have a full house and a full life can be difficult. If this hesitation describes your situation, here are 3 ways to make it happen.

Do It Quickly. The law of inertia means that things tend to resist changes in their motion. An object at rest, for example, tends to stay at rest. This can be true with a person's lifestyle and living situation. The longer you stay in your home, the longer you plan, the longer you put off making a big change, the less likely you may be to actually do it. To downsize successfully, you may need to set a short time-frame and work fast. For example, set a deadline to put your home on the market within a year, then work to make that stick. Having a deadline, formulating a written plan, and acting early on your plan will all help you overcome inertia.

Use Storage. It may seem counterintuitive, but using self-storage may actually benefit the downsizing process several different ways. How so? If you have difficulty figuring out what to part with, having the option to store some of it can help you decide to move forward. In addition, if the right downsizing alternative comes along before you're fully ready to launch, storage options mean you can take the leap when the opportunity arises. Finally, it can be a good compromise between having a large home and moving into a tiny one because you can comfortably keep overflow items that you may need to keep "just in case." Contact a company like Father & Son Moving & Storage to learn more. 

Do the Math. Downsizing can save a lot of money, but if you are attached to your items, that idea may not be as motivating as you think. To help get you and your family on board emotionally, it may help to translate the nebulous idea of "money savings" into real numbers. Take the time to prepare a potential budget based on estimates of the costs of a smaller home (or renting) in terms of mortgage, insurance, property tax, utility costs, yard maintenance, and commutes. If you have a lot of stuff that you're not prepared to let go of, contact a storage company to help estimate the costs of moving some things into storage instead of paying for a large home to keep them. Then, allocate those savings to things that will benefit the family, such as vacation, retirement accounts, bank savings, education, or other (better) things.

Rather than focusing on the physical obstacles of downsizing, focusing on these three tips can help you make the transition and start a new, simpler chapter in your family's life.