Yesterday, after a cross country move and two years of renting, we finally bought our West Coast house. I strongly suspect it will be the house I get carried out of, toes up, because I don’t think I have another move left in me. But the selection took awhile, both because of Northeast and Northwest differences and because we were “downsizing”. This is our third downsizing move.
There is absolutely no valid rule about how much space anyone needs. However, once you retire, it can often make sense to reduce the amount of “stuff” you have to care for and maintain. Although “downsizing” typically refers to moving into a smaller home, you can also downsize at the home you’ve been in for years. The key words are “simplifying” and “reducing”.
Let me present the approach we used for downsizing.
1. First, pretend you are moving across the county. (Our first move just went from CT to RI; the next was RI to WA) With that thought in mind, attack the basement, attic, closets and storage lockers. That “treasure” may have been useful once, but if it would not be worth moving it across the country, you probably don’t need it.
- Create a staging area space where you can collect such items. You can do this in phases. If you’re not actually moving, you don’t have to do it all at once.
- Offer these treasures first to the children or relatives. For items of value, you may want to use the silent auction approach with real or monopoly money.
- Consider eBay. Items of special interest may fetch a surprising amount. Get out your digital camera or use a service.
- Run a springtime garage/yard sale to remove more. If you can entice neighbors to join you on a specific weekend, it will draw more traffic.
- Call a local charity that might accept some items for donation. Some have pickup services and can handle heavy items.
2. Look at your living needs through “new eyes” and make an assessment of how much space you actually use. A home that housed a growing family might have a fair amount of excess space that you no longer need.
- If you decide to stay at your current home and it has two floors, try to think of a way to move the master bedroom into a room on the main floor. Removing the need to climb stairs from your daily routine can become more important over time.
- Evaluate if there are any barriers or obstacles that a carpenter could remove. It is smarter to make such changes sooner, while you have time to adapt, rather than later.
3. Talk to friends who have gone through the experience and discover what they have learned through the experience.
4. If you do decide to sell the homestead and move across town or across country, consider renting a smaller place for a year to find out how a smaller space feels to you.
We move in 17 days . . .from a rental and two storage lockers into our toes up house. Not much time for blogs, but I’ll try.
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