Published:

05/15/2013 08:37pm

Are You Ready to Downsize?

Are you really ready to downsize?

One Woman's Story;


The other side of downsizing is ...the reality.

Be careful when you downsize if you are married to a keeper. How much space do 2 people need?
How it was for us:

My husband is a keeper. A keeper of everything. Old clothes, shoes....stuff.

Guess who got rid if all nearly all HER stuff?............, I will admit, I just wasn't ready to part with my bell collection, and guess who couldn't part with anything else?............

Not one shirt or pair of pants, even if they were 3 sizes too small.

"You never know", he said, "I might get back there again".......... yeah maybe when he's 90. But will he want to wear those same clothes? Unfortunately, probably.

Besides wanting to keep everything he ever owned, he also likes to keep food------- and a lot of it.

Of course we got a smaller refrigerator Now we have a smaller refrigerator stuffed to capacity.

I wanted to get new, smaller furniture for our new modest condo but, oh no, we seem to still need that huge china cabinet filled with things we never use except an occasional vase.( Also, I admit, my Bell collection.)

And, we seem to still need that table that expands to seat 12 with 2 leaves that we now have to find a place to store. We have actually only used this "expanded" table twice in the last nine years and even when not expanded, takes up so much room you can hardly maneuver around it to our even smaller kitchen.

Then there is the part about the freedom. Well, I'll take credit ----or blame, for that one.

I decided I needed a puppy. My friends said " I didn't know you were a dog lover" and I said " I'm not, just my own." Although we always had dogs and cats, I never had my very own.

Because of this--- my--- contribution to our dilemma of downsizing, when we want to leave town we now have to now think about what to do with the dogs, yes plural, ok, now 2 dogs.

I could drop them off at my daughter's house .......because, well, she owes me. But we mostly take them with us, on the RV, because they would be lonely and miss me.

Back at home, the reality of downsizing for us, is......the..........

Clutter.

With no extra room for my husband's stuff............ I haven't seen the counter top between the kitchen and the dining room since he retired.

The computer area is stacked with magazines to read, mail to open, recipes, and little pieces of paper with notes and numbers - ( that if misplaced, I get accused of throwing something away if he can't find something.)

I guess being married to a keeper can be a good thing. He will probably keep me too.

All that said, even with our silly struggles, it was a relief to downsize. Much less maintenance, financial drain, and most important, more time together to do everything on our Bucket List.


When you are thinking about downsizing, you need to think long and hard about what it would mean to you, to have that feeling of getting rid of the pressure of maintaining a home that no longer
serves your needs.


I can't tell you how or where to start...........but I can tell you, starting is the best place. It's a good thing, and I can help.