Good luck with your downsizing! This has been an ongoing struggle for us, but when we decided to rent out our antique house as an AirBnB one summer, I packed everything I needed to stay with a friend of ours - and learned that everything I cared about fit into a Honda Civic sedan!
I've also thought of borrowing the "Packing Party" technique described by the guys behind The Minimalists documentary on Netflix. You pack up everything you own as if you're moving, and throw sheets over large pieces of furniture. Label the boxes so you know where to find things. Then, for the next 30 days, unpack stuff when you want to use it. If you haven't unpacked something by the end of the month, it gets sold, donated, or thrown away.
What a great idea! My 87 year old mother moved like a pro. She was unpacked in 3 weeks and her apartment looks like something out of a magazine.
Of course, she has started to complain she doesn't have this or that since she moved too. She went way over board on her purging throwing her pots & pans, knives, bakeware etc.
Needless to say I was mortified.
I will have to watch that doc. Thanks for sharing your thoughts!
It's a decent documentary. I really enjoyed the book they wrote as well. I think it's called Everything that Remains.