THE DOWNSIZING DILEMMA

You know your house is bigger than you need, but the idea of cleaning it out, selling and moving

is so daunting  that you shudder at the thought. “Something to leave for the kids to do someday. It’s a lot of their stuff anyway.”

Two years ago the question of “What do you plan on doing with your home when either of you are left alone? was posed to us by our financial advisor. By that evening, my husband and I had both agreed that neither of us would want to live in it alone. The house and garden were just too big. Rather than leave the situation for the other to deal with, we decided to tackle the project together while we were still (relatively) young and could still get excited about setting up a new home. And so the adventure began.

Since all of our children and grandchildren live in the same town as we do, staying in that location was a given. We knew we wanted 2 bedrooms, 2 baths, garage,  indoor and outdoor living space, all on the ground floor. With this in mind we chose a qualified real estate broker to help us find the perfect space. We were very lucky to find it a 55+ community only 3 miles from our current home. Using money I borrowed from a Home Equity loan on our larger, higher priced home, we were able to purchase the smaller one outright, and begin a total renovation before we even put our big house on the market. We would have the new place ready to move into before the other was sold. That sale would allow us to pay off the Home Equity loan and have no mortgage.

Our real estate agent helped us prepare our current home to put it on the market.

We had always kept our home up to date and in good condition, so by removing some personal items and rearranging a few pieces of furniture, the house looked fresh and bigger. We had some issues in the yard with a shed and a hot tub, so one was moved and the other removed completely. Its a good idea to check all codes before you try to sell a house. That’s another reason why a real estate agent is so important in a major transaction such as this. 

Save It, Sell It, Donate It, Dump It

After 28 years at this location, you can imagine that every room, closet and shelf was full of “treasures”. If you’ve never seen George Carlin’s video on “Stuff”, I highly recommend it. It will

embarrass you into de-cluttering like nothing else will!  But everything has a place where you can start, and so we did. 

Whenever I begin a major new project, I start with a new notebook. I’m a great fan of list making. Now that I’ve entered the digital world, my notebook is on my iPad. Otherwise, a spiral notebook in your pocket or purse will do the trick.

Save It:

Make a list by category of what you ABSOLUTELY need to take with you to your new home.

This is the hardest part, but the most important. Besides eleven rooms of furniture, I had an extensive collection of original art work, photography, quilts, fabric, books and general decor items. Not to mention all that holiday stuff in the basement and the tools in the garage and gardening shed.  At one time, each piece was important, but we didn’t need or want ALL of it anymore. 

Some Category suggestions:

Paintings  (10)

Quilts (10)

Holiday Decorations (a few special ones for each holiday)

Hand Tools (only what would fit in one satchel)

Kitchen Tools, Pots and Bowls (we had way too much of everything!)

Garden Tools (no lawn mower needed now!)

Books (very few, it’s all on my Kindle)

Since we had three unused bedrooms, I cleared out one and made It the Packing Room. The most important items listed above were wrapped, packed and labeled right away. Did I cheat and choose 12 quilts instead of 10? Yes. But I did not pack 32.

As we had already chosen our new home, I knew exactly what furniture and art work would fit and what I wouldn’t mind leaving behind. I tagged the pieces we would move and then called the children and grandchildren to “shop at Grandma’s” and take what they wanted. Two grandsons chose recliners for their Man Cave, a granddaughter happily snagged a queen size bed, and another, a little dresser her grandpa had made for her mother. 

Don’t be surprised if they don’t want much of what you thought “you would leave them”.

Sell It:

Redecorating  our new home was going to be exciting and probably expensive, so getting more cash was high on my list. I opened a separate savings account at my local bank and put every dollar I earned selling things from my old home into setting up my new one. 

First, I called in three second-hand store owners/antique dealers recommended by my real estate agent. They looked over everything and made offers on what they wanted. I was amazed at what they wanted, and which of my treasures didn’t interest them at all. All made offers to sell the contents of my home for a commission, but I was still interested in seeing what I could do myself.

Then, we had two major yard sales. It was a LOT of work and I couldn’t have done it without

a very good support team of five friends. I washed, cleaned, tagged, dragged, arranged and advertised the day. They showed up at 6am, shared a buffet breakfast I laid out and manned their posts. My real estate agent came for the day to answer any questions people had and to show them around the house if they were interested. Two weeks later I had another yard sale and sold most of my furniture, more tools, and the “second layer” of what I had sorted out to sell. I must tell you right now, a woman who came to my first yard sale went to contract on my house 30 days later!

Donate It

Being able to GIVE is a powerful, positive feeling.  After the selling, I sorted the good things I could donate to various sources. Clothing and household items went to Savers (fund raising retail store to benefit Big Brothers and Sisters), china, quilts and knick-knacks went to my church for their Annual Church Fair, some furniture and tools went to the Amvets, extra bottles of liquor went into Baskets of Cheer for our Rotary Club fundraiser. I had so many blessings and I was able to make so many more people feel blessed too.

Dump It:

  

Be merciless with throwing out! Start each day with a big, black garbage bag. A friend told me she read that we should throw out 27 things a day to de-clutter and stay that way. Sounds like a lot? Ha. I could do that in a kitchen drawer alone: a dented ring from a mason jar, ugly souvenir bottle opener, broken plastic fork - you get the idea. Think of it as “Dumpster Opportunity Days” and remember to show your trash pick-up men how grateful you are for their services!

By now my once-filled home was down to two rooms of packed items ready to move, the pieces of furniture we were taking and the clothing remaining in our closets. 

A note about closets:  I measured the closets in our new place and then found similar sized closets at home. I set up a coat closet with exactly the amount of coats, jackets and empty hangers that I would have room for in our new location. I couldn’t believe how many jackets we had stuffed in the back of each of our closets. I gave most to a coat drive when winter came. We’ve never missed one!  Actually, we have never missed anything we left behind.

The Happy Ending

Four months after we made the decision to downsize and re-locate, we moved into our new home. Other than waiting for the kitchen countertops, it was completely new and finished.

Had my husband still been able to carry me over the threshold, I’d have felt like a new bride!

One month later, we closed on the sale of the too-big house and paid off the Home Equity loan. My new house savings account paid for most of the new furniture. Yes, there were days and weeks during the whole process when I stressed over problems that arose with the sale of our other house, but again, thanks to my calm, experienced, encouraging real estate agent, we got through it all.  We have adjusted well to the smaller space, met wonderful new neighbors and never, ever have to mow, rake or shovel the snow again. Life is good!