Downsizing

Downsizing

Prepare to downsize

Downsizing has been a common process for seniors. Many seniors found it difficult to maintain their house and garden or struggled getting upstairs. Moving into a retirement home, often only consisting of one room, or a smaller apartment were often the answer. In recent years, more and more younger folks are also downsizing – voluntarily.

After long discussions, we’ll be downsizing this summer, too. Over the last few months, we’ve started the process and are letting go of even more items.

The regular decluttering

Lynda Shrager shares her 5 tips for staying organised. : 1) Don’t allow clutter, 2) limited number of newspapers, 3) create a reading folder, 4) donate clothes and 5) call professional junk removers.

The special downsizing efforts

Diane Schmidt encourages you to ask questions as you walk from room to room. One question we find very useful is: “Can I get by without it?”

Measure your new space downsizing

Do you think you could cut your belongings in half? Nadine Rebecca did so. While we often focus on the obvious things like clothes, chipped mugs and paper, we love how she also pointed at bigger items: Furniture. Some folks keep it to save on money and are facing cramped rooms. Others see downsizing as a new start with furniture that fits into the new home.

Tackle your most challenging organising areas. You may have heard the advice to take it with you and sort it in your new home. When downsizing, you may not have this luxury (though is it really a luxury or just a postponed decision?). Paper is for many the toughest area to stay organised. Set a timer and start scanning your paper work. If you have a lot and it’s not confidential, you can give it to a copy centre. Make sure you’re not shredding your important documents.

Scan your important documents downsizing

Ditch also all these duplicates and just in case. All they do is take up space and energy. They are the painful reminder that we actually don’t want them but who knows. Maybe potentially theoretically perhaps we’ll need them. Let them go.

Downsizing by 15%

We’ve been recently asked to contribute to an article about downsizing by 15%. That doesn’t sound like much, right? Ask any woman to cut her shoes by 15% and you’ll probably see an anxious expression in her face. Still, it’s a great (and doable!) challenge that we’ll pursue during our downsizing this summer.

Take it one step further like Margaret Manning did. She’s living with 200 items! For us, and she admits it, it’s an extreme of minimalism that isn’t for everyone. For Manning, it’s given her also absolute freedom. We suggest you decide what your priority is!

As we’re going through our own decluttering (it’s lent so why not repeat the 40 bags in 40 days challenge at the same time), we’ll keep you updated with our issues. Trust us! We do have our own pitfalls, too.

If you’ve gone through a downsizing process, what did you experience? We’d love to hear what surprised you and how your life has changed since. We’re so looking forward to reading your comments!

Until next time,
Agni

One thought on “Downsizing

  1. Downsizing might be the hardest thing to do because it is emotionally difficult for people to release their past. When downsizing, nothing should be off limits. Either use it, love it, or leave it.

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