Downsize and Declutter - Retirement is a Great Time to Reassess Our Needs
Many boomers have discovered they don't want or need a large house. Creative Commons License photo credit: mikecogh
Downsizing for Retirement - Is this an opportunity to declutter and live a simpler life or do we throw up our
hands in horror, wondering how we’ll ever weed through the accumulation of “stuff” we’ve stockpiled over the years. Maybe some boomers even see downsizing as a step backwards or a sad letting go of an old way of life.
Many baby boomers, whether from necessity or desire, are downsizing to downsizing as a way to save money in retirement. I think too that over the years, many of us bought into the hype that we needed a large house to spread out in and now we’ve seen that small and cozy might better fit our needs.
There are many reasons to downsize. The kids all leave home and you have too much extra room with no real need for it. You’re tired of taking care of a big house and yard, with all the maintenance and expense. A small house or condo is less expensive to maintain, plus the taxes and insurance are lower. You might want to travel, which is easier without all that stuff weighing you down. Everybody
has their own reasons to consider downsizing.
In the current economy, when many have lost a good portion of their retirement investments and pensions and benefits keep shrinking, downsizing can be a necessity.
With us, it’s a combination of many reasons. I’m tired of cleaning and caring for a large house and it seems wasteful to be paying for space we aren’t using and don’t need. When my husband retires, we’d like to cut living expenses and use some of our money to travel. Downsizing seems like a good way to reach those goals.
Our house is definitely about 900 square feet too big for us now that all but one daughter is living nearby and they all have their own homes. Over the years, they’ve all come to stay with us for weeks or months sometimes but hopefully, now they are all settled and won’t need to live with us again.
I’ve readied many homes to sell in the past. My husband was in the military so we moved a few times in our married life and I know the drill. Pack up or get rid of all non-essentials, spruce up the house and yard and make everything look inviting and attractive. To accomplish this, we still need to address the closets with too many extra and unneeded clothes, all the books, magazines and papers we were saving (for what?), and other things we just stuck away through the years, thinking we might need it later or that is has sentimental value.
One thing I’ve discovered in my decluttering process - if you have extra space, you will indeed find things to fill it. My goal in having a smaller house is to be more organized with the space I do have.
Some things are hard to part with but it’s time now to really assess what is necessary in our lives. Will I ever really need that book on “how to sell antiques for fun and profit? or the dress I wore 10 years ago to one daughter’s wedding? (A dress I have worn just that one time anyway?) As far as the sentimental things, maybe it’s time the kids became the keepers of their own memorabilia. I have a boxes of schoolwork for each child. Even they say they don’t want it now (They’re getting it anyway!) Even some family heirlooms can go to them now for safe keeping.
Over the years I’ve also come to feel that if we want to make room for the new and wonderful in our lives, we need to have an outflow of “stuff” which can be given to others who might need it. By giving things away, we create a vacuum which the Universe can fill with good things.
Retirement is a time of change and an opportunity to start a new stage of life. Downsizing and decluttering can help us start that new life lighter and freer.
Have you considered downsizing for retirement? Perhaps you’ve already done so. How did it work out for you?
Right now we are at the decluttering stage, next comes the staging of the house and getting it on the market and, hopefully, a steady stream of buyers will flood our door with offers-lol.
I’ll keep you posted on that one!
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I hear you!
Our kids are both in the military- after years of camp following their dad! We are the keepers of the stuff. I have seriously considered selling the house and creating a living space in the barn. Once that is accomplished we can purchase a small space in the DC area where our kids tend to circle.
Splitting the time between the two places might be an interesting way of downsizing.
I know what you mean, Jannette, about being the “keeper of stuff.” We have boxes of things from all the kids but now is the time when they have to come and get it!
We’ve thought about selling and just traveling in an RV for a year or so, then we’d have one mobile place to live and one small house. Your idea sounds interesting!
Maybe my situation is unusual, but I have a 2 story w/a downstairs bedroom and I am not planning to downsize. The reason is because my 4 grandchildren and daughter come and stay w/me for 2-1/2 months every summer, and the son-in-law for 3 weeks. I occupy the downstairs bedroom, and they have the entire upstairs. They love it and look forward to it, and me too, and my daughter tells me often, “mom, don’t ever sell your house.” I’m in a nice neighborhood that has a pool and walking distance to everything. For the past 7 years, I’ve paid only $30 a month to have the front and backyard mowed, and edged, which includes service every other week. As far as decluttering though — yes I have gladly and recently done that, clearing out my garage and all the closets/drawers too. I read a book that pointed out that good clutter was still clutter, so everything “good” that I had been storing in my garage, any anywhere else, I let go. Once it was all gone, I heard something in the garage I had never heard before: an echo! Love that. I live in CA and home maintenance isn’t such an issue since we don’t get inclement weather here. So while I get downsizing, if you happen to have 4 grandchildren like me, where can they afford to go for the whole summer? No where except for Nana’s house! I have bikes, etc. for them here, plus there are other kids in the neighborhood that they met at the playground and are friends with.
What a great story, Sandy! yes, I can see why you wouldn’t want to sell. When we moved to North Texas, only our youngest daughter lived here, going to college. The others would come and visit with their kids quite often and the one in college moved in and out so a large house made sense. Since then, two of our daughters have moved here too with their families so even when the daughter from CA visits, she stays with one of them as they all have little ones and it’s easier that way. We don’t get much other company. If I were in your situation, I’d keep my house too.
As Sandy’s story demonstrates each of our needs in this area is unique. She has a definite need for the space but not the clutter. Others, like you, Joan, and me are able to downsize and declutter because of our particular situations.
Isn’t that the key? Match your simplesizing with your specific needs. We are under a full house organizational assault that will give us a sense of accomplishment and simplify our maintenance and chores.
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