Our weekly blog post this week is a little off topic from design and decor inspired by nature but I think it is useful as a way to define and implement lifestyle changes that do the same thing-connect us to nature or at least help us prioritize what is most important to us. This article will help you navigate downsizing your home with tips and insights designed to get you where you need to go. Downsizing your home can bring with it a lot of conflicting emotions. For some, it is tied to a lifetime of memories and it can be difficult to let go even if it is the right move. I down sized to a smaller home about 7 years ago. This article will focus on what I learned throughout the process. There are steps you can take to assess whether downsizing is right for you, how to sort through the process, and end up on the other end in a happy place.
The first question you should ask yourself is this
Why Are You Considering A Downsize?
There are many reasons why people make this decision and they are the result of different needs and desires. Some are retiring and their needs are changing but others just need a lifestyle change. Here are some of the major reasons people choose to downsize.
- For many it is a way to preserve their nest egg with reduced expenses that come with owning and managing a larger home. If you have equity and/or own your home outright that money can be invested. Utilities go down. Maintenance costs are reduced and property taxes go down.
- For others, it is the value of simplifying their life. They are retiring or just no longer want the responsibility or time spent requiring upkeep such as landscaping and regular home maintenance that comes with a larger home. Time is the most precious commodity you have and especially as you grow older you become more acutely aware of this.
- Do you want to spend time in a warmer climate away from brutal winters? Downsizing can provide a way to have a smaller home in two places with the same amount of resources. A summer home and a winter home.
- You no longer need the space. The kids are grown and out of the house. You don’t entertain as much and maybe just think it doesn’t make sense anymore to live in a larger home.
Is It Worth It to Downsize Your Home?
This is a cautionary note. It is important to think about how much you will really gain by downsizing. By the time you pay the costs associated with selling your home and buying a smaller one make sure that the exchange nets you enough to make it worthwhile. Many times the amenities we get used to can cost more than we expect even in a smaller home, particularly if you are looking at purchasing a newly constructed home or planning to remodel as construction costs have escalated.
It can also be real eye opener to find out that you will only get a fraction of the cost when you go to sell furniture and personal belongings that you no longer have space to keep. If you are looking for a windfall from this tactic- look elsewhere.
If, however, you have made peace parting with a substantial amount of your personal stuff, downsizing can be liberating. You might actually find things you forgot you had and make special use of once the rest is gone.
Edit carefully though. One of the best pieces of advice I got was from a lady that came to one of my 3 garage sales prior to my downsize.
She said that she and her husband sold all of their belongings when they downsized and then spent the next couple of years buying them all back when they realized they missed and needed them!
Taking her advice I did try to really think before I discarded. Even so, I made a few mistakes but one tactic helped me minimize that.
I rented a storage unit and placed some of my things in it temporarily for a year or two. It was a great decision. Once I settled into my new smaller home and had a chance to live in it for a while it was easy to see what I could let go of and what I was relieved to still own. I emptied the storage unit and was very much at peace with the items that I let go.
A Checklist For Downsizing Your Home
Once you have determined that downsizing is right for you here is a checklist of things that you will need to take care of in order as you progress toward your new lifestyle.
1. Repair And Update Your Existing Home Prepare To Sell
One of the things I learned from this process is to update your home as you go. We took care of the basics but beyond that nothing had been done to our home since we built it. It needed a total update.
Do not underestimate the cost of this either. We spent a lot to get the house ready to sell. The kitchen got a new update to replace the blue and white harlequin tile on the backsplash and the countertops with a neutral warm gray for the backsplash and quartz for the countertops. Here is a picture of the before and after.
The drop in cooktop, sink, disposal, faucet, pot filler were all new too. You get the idea. It adds up fast.
We had a pretty massive garden that required a lot of upkeep as well. After discussing with our realtor we decided to remove all of the plants in the herb garden for fear of scaring away potential buyers. It’s kind of like a pool….you eliminate a good chunk of buyers. Here is the herb garden in full bloom and the after photo with the plants removed and mulched.
These were two of the larger projects that we did to get the house ready but there were many many more such as painting the entire house interior a neutral color, replacing carpet for the stairs, the family room, and several of the bedrooms. We replaced windows that were either suffering from minor wood rot or were cloudy due to the seal breaking, replaced stucco from a burn mark left from a lighting strike and along the exterior by the fireplace from water damage, replaced the roof (ugghh this one hurt), and a long list of small repairs that I didn’t even notice until we started getting feedback once the house was on the market.
Because I was a realtor myself I knew a thing or two about selling a home and actually resisted the kitchen remodel at first, thinking that an allowance for the buyer would allow them to remodel according to their own taste. It became apparent that this was a mistake so we did the remodel and the house sold to the first buyer after it was completed. The housing market climate has changed over the years and today’s buyer mostly wants the home to be move in ready so it is important to consider that in your budget.
2. Sort Personal Belongings and Furniture
This is where it gets tough. Even if you know that you won’t have room for all of the furniture in your home, personal belongings, and clothing it can be difficult to part with them. This is especially true if you have personal memories attached to them.
To help you in the process experts recommend that you sort into 3 piles. Those you will keep, those you will discard, and those you are not sure about. This is where the storage unit helps. You will be able to look at it much more objectively once you are settled in your home and have some distance.
3. Sell Your Stuff at Auction
In my case, I not only had my personal stuff but I also had a pretty extensive supply of accessories and furniture from a business to sell. I hired an auction company for that part and filled a container with all of the business assets and sent them to auction. It was basically a tax write off.
4. Sell Your Stuff On Consignment
The next step was to decide which items would be best sold as consignment, Ebay, or garage sale. Consignment is a great choice for high end furniture and accessories. I had a few really nice pieces that I knew would be best sold this way. Some consignment shops will come and pick the items up if they feel it is worthwhile. Others require you to get them to the store so if you don’t have a pickup and manpower you are hiring someone to do that.
5. Sell Your Stuff On Ebay
Ebay is great for unique items that have a specified group of people that might be searching for your items. You have a better chance of selling for what they are worth if you can reach people that have a specific interest. Old vinyl albums, vintage furniture and dishes, tools, and hobby items are good examples of things that can fetch more this way.
6. Have A Garage Sale…Or Two….Or Three
The rest can be discarded in garage sales. I actually had 3 garage sales. The first one was held about a year ahead of our move for the things I knew I would not need. As we got closer to finding our new home I had a better idea of what would fit and what would not. The second sale was for those items. I had a final garage sale just before the move as we had already taken possession of our new home and I had the opportunity to measure and determine how everything would be used and a few furniture items were too oversized for the new space so those went too.
After each garage sale I took all remaining items to be donated to charity. It helped that I knew I was going to have to pay to move them if I didn’t. That kept me from dragging them back into the house.
Ask for help if you can’t tackle all of this yourself. It is a big job and I know that toward the end of the process I was really just ready for everything to go. This is where I made a few bad decisions and gave away some things I could have used in the new home.
7. New Home Updates
If you are lucky enough to be able to take possession of your new home ahead of the move it is a great time to do updates before all of the furniture and appliances are in place. In our case we wanted to stay in our neighborhood. There were new homes being built in our new smaller square footage requirements but they were out of our price range. So we narrowed our focus to older resale homes in the area. I will be doing a series of blog posts showing each of the projects we remodeled. Some were done before the move and others after. There is no question that the updates that were done ahead of the move were easier and less complicated.
We removed the dreaded popcorn ceiling, tore up the tile and carpet from the main floor and replaced with new hardwood flooring, painted walls and cabinets, removed a wall, and replaced all light fixtures before the move . These projects would have been really messy with all of the furniture in place. It was great to be able to do that.
8. Prepare For Moving Day
Sort through paint and any other toxic items to determine if they will be left for the new homeowners or discarded. Most cities have guidance for disposal of toxic chemicals.
Just as with any other move you will need to contact the utility companies and coordinate changes with services such as lawn mowing, etc.
Ahead of the moving day I boxed up all non furniture items and labeled them with the room so that the movers could place them. This freed me up to direct the moving heavier furniture to the right location while the other movers were transporting boxes to the right rooms.
The Unexpected Benefits Of Downsizing Your Home and Lifestyle
If you are retiring, clothing is one area that will change dramatically. Although I still work I have a very different lifestyle. Working from my home office I now spend most of my time in jeans and a t shirt. I do like to change it up when I go out to dinner or other events but the need is soooooo much less now that it has allowed me to spend money on and make room for only the things I really love.
I no longer stress about cleaning. Working long hours all week just to come home and clean or work in the yard was a never ending cycle and exhausting. Don’t get me wrong. I loved my home and my yard and enjoyed it and I still do-just on a smaller scale.
With a smaller home I find that I have more time for other things I enjoy. I also had many remnants of hobbies stashed away with tools and books related to them. I thought I would get to each of them “some day”. Downsizing forced me to take a hard look at the reality that I would never have enough time to do all of these things so I needed to choose the most important ones. This one act relieved me of so much stress.
Now I feel much more purpose. I am able to pursue the things I have chosen to learn. I am becoming better at the things I love to do.
That is such a gift.
Sage Garden Style is a lifestyle blog about living well surrounded by homes and gardens that connect us to the beautiful natural environment around us.
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