Downsize Today

Inspiration, motivation and guidance to ensure a smooth move to a smaller home.

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Be Kind To Your Kids

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My mother-in-law recently passed away, and the stuff she left behind was so hard to deal with …. so many precious memories, but what were we supposed to do with ALL THIS STUFF?

I don’t mean to be mean, but Claire’s house was grossly overstuffed with stuff. Every drawer, every closet and every cabinet was chock full of never-used sets of dishes; heavily-used dishes; never-opened gifts; never-used sets of stemware; decorative knick-knacks; tons of linens and aprons and napkins and on and on. It was sad to see so much lovely stuff and not know what to do with it.

It would have been so much better to have helped Claire go through all this stuff little by little over the last few years, distributing it to family members who could use it or donating it to charities. She could have helped us decide where she wanted things to go, she could have told us stories about its provenance, and we would not feel so bad now about having to get rid of it all at once.

You see, the house needs to be listed for sale soon. But there’s still a monstrous amount of work to do to get rid of all those items. There are treasures among the trash, but we are all busy and cannot do what she would have liked and parse out the goodies one by one to deserving souls. Instead, we hired an estate sale professional who will open up the house to hundreds of strangers.

Do your children a favor. Save them from the painful process of having to empty your house of all the goodies and all the junk. Help them by going through the process sooner rather than later. Declutter, organize, downsize. You’ll feel better about life if you do it while you’re young (ish), and they’ll feel better knowing they don’t have the two-week (or two-month) headache of disposing of your houseful of items once you’re gone.

Have You Considered Downsizing?

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Contact us for guidance, motivation and inspiration. We’ll help you start the process!

downsize and reinvent by moving to a new home
Lock-and-leave living is perfect for people who downsize and want to live simpler lives.

As people who’ve downsized describe to me the process they went through, many say they either considered or actually experienced the “rent for a while” option. The real estate market may be entering its typical end-of-year lull, but it’s expected to slide into high gear in early 2018. It will likely be a sellers’ market, which means that if you’re considering downsizing but don’t know where to move, and your house sells quickly, you may put undue pressure on yourself to find the perfect (or perfectly suitable) smaller new home.
Of course, some people know exactly where they want to move after downsizing and they find the perfect place near their kids and grand kids, to their favorite vacation spot, or to the mountains. But others are indecisive, emotionally attached to their “old way of life” (even if they hate yard work and worry about keeping the big place maintained), or overwhelmed with the idea of downsizing.
When the idea of downsizing sinks in and you’re committed to it, rest assured that it’s safe to put the big house on the market and start the process. There are Professional Organizers to help you, charities ready to take your items and haulers to deliver it, estate sale professionals to empty the house after you’ve moved into the rental (or stored what won’t fit but which you can’t separate yourself!), and apartment and condo rental managers happy to help you find a temporary — or permanent — home.

Condo or apartment rental can be a good option during downsizing process
Duplexes in suburban areas and cottage communities on the beach are often available for 6- or 12-month leases. It’s a hassle to move, but it can be a good “resting place” in between selling the big house and finding the next one.

The number of baby boomers who are choosing to rent more permanently has increased significantly; between 2009 and 2015, the number of renters in the 55+ age group increased by 28% compared to 3 percent growth in the number of renters in the under-35 group (according to census data analyzed by RENTCafe, the apartment search engine). The trend is expected to intensify as boomers seek fun, hip, urban lifestyles near where they raised their children, or near where their children have moved. Other boomers look for laid-back college towns or resort-style communities near the beach.
“A lot of people like the convenience and ease of renting,” according to Phillip Salem, an agent at Triplemint in New York. When they’re not competing for the same properties, millennials and boomers in many communities (my own included) are mixing and mingling. This is true especially with “younger” boomers (55-65) and “older” Millennials (early 30s).
The downsizing process is a big headache, sure, but it’s also a huge relief to know that once you make the decision to downsize from the big house in the suburbs where you raised your children (or if you’re forced to downsize because of divorce or a career change), there are many options for next steps.

Sentimental Crystal

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Sentimental finds while preparing for an estate sale: mother's and grandmother's crystal
Cleaning out my mother’s house and preparing for an estate sale, it broke my heart to let go of all of her mother’s crystal. Three sets of 12 glasses each, from the 1920s, same pattern. Lovely, but these days no one wants this type of stuff.

When it was time to sell my mother’s house and pretty much everything in it, it was heartbreaking to know how little of what was in the house was going to find a new home with me or any of my siblings. Her beloved bow-front china cabinet, about which she had told so many stories, was sold at auction and brought more than anything in the house. It just wasn’t something that would suit any one of her four children. I kept her sterling and a few lovely little things and each of my siblings has a few sentimental items. But when we needed to sell her place and the furnishings in the home in which we grew up, with homes of our own full of our own special stuff, we just had to turn our backs on Mom’s and Grandma’s stuff and hope new owners would appreciate that it was deeply meaningful to my mother.

Finds during estate sale
The orange cow pitcher was purchased by my mother as a birthday gift for her mom when she was seven years old (in 1931) and the horse-head bookends were a wedding gift to my parents in 1948. It’s essential to hold onto a few things, but crystal and big old armoires there just isn’t much of a market for. So prepare yourself for this fact: some of your stuff wlll be hard to part with, especially when you have to give it away because no one wants to buy it.

If you’re considering downsizing, start early and start with a plan. Read books on decluttering, such Marie Condo’s book, The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up; it’s a little tedious — some say silly — but if you dive in and get it done,  you’ll be more lighthearted than you’ve been in a while. Or read an oldie but a goodie, Keep, Sell or Toss by Harry L. Rinker. He’s been around a while and has great advice. Or look at “Downsizing the Family Home” by Marni Jameson. And if you’ve resisted getting rid of sentimental items, give this blog post from The Spruce some thought, then commit to making the hard choices about parting with beloved items which have no place in your new space.

If you’re facing an elective downsizing, consider starting immediately selling your best and most precious items. If your new space will be half as large as your current home, you WILL NOT have room for most of your sentimental items. Start putting a green dot on the ones that you want to sell and consider listing them on eBay or download one of the many apps that will help you sell items.

Hire a professional organizer. National Association of Productivity and Organizing Professionals has about 4,000 members from across the country. The idea is to get started before you think you need to, because once you KNOW you need to, it’s so much harder: you’re older and more exhausted and usually in a bigger hurry.

Even if  you start small, start getting rid of STUFF now that you don’t need, don’t want, and don’t think your children will want. Check out this Houzz story on decluttering tips and techniques.