Downsizing is a necessary step on the way to full-timing.\u00a0 We will be living in a home of just 400 square feet – one sixth the size of our current 2400 sf home.\u00a0 Making this major lifestyle change is not easy and involves some pain.\u00a0 And it requires time.\u00a0 We are well on our way to our goal, but still have much work to do over the next four months before we make that leap from house to RV.\u00a0 But I have learned a few things about the process and want to take a moment to reflect on it.<\/p>\n
Everyone downsizes eventually.\u00a0 Some wait until they are dead and let others do it for them.\u00a0 Most do it while still living, either voluntarily or of necessity.\u00a0 My mother is typical.\u00a0 She lived for 50 years in a house that was smaller than my current home and, like any long-term resident, accumulated a lot of “stuff” (as George Carlin so eloquently labeled it).\u00a0 When she made the move to a one-bedroom senior housing apartment a decade back she was rather traumatized by the necessity of discarding things that, though unused, had been familiar companions for so long.\u00a0 The second set of china.\u00a0 The desk that served as storage for papers no longer needed.\u00a0 The children’s books read to children long gone.\u00a0 He new apartment had no room for any of this.\u00a0 And, truth be told, she had no use for any of it either.\u00a0 So why the trauma?<\/p>\n
I think every possession has its own gravitational field.\u00a0 It doesn’t have to be important to tug at us.\u00a0 Every item has some small, intangible but real connection to our life history.\u00a0 Different people respond differently to this gravitational tug.\u00a0 Some, like me, barely feel it for most of our possessions (except for a small number of items that are truly significant) – we are like meteors whose trajectory is altered when passing a celestial object, but we continue on our way.\u00a0 Others, like Jett, feel the tug of a larger number of things –\u00a0 she has moved a dozen boxes from home to home over the years, never opening the boxes, but still feeling connected to the hidden contents.\u00a0 She is a planet that is captivated by the gravity of her possessions but keeps her distance. \u00a0Hoarders, at the extreme, are completely captivated by the gravitational pull and are inescapably drawn inward in a death spiral.\u00a0 To hoarders. possessions form a black hole from which there is no escape.<\/p>\n
Downsizing is an exercise in evaluating what is important to us.\u00a0 It is a triage process: take, store or discard.\u00a0 In my mother’s case – and I think this is typical – she kept less than a third, stored less than a third and discarded (via donation or trash) the rest.\u00a0 She is about to undergo a second downsizing.\u00a0 This will be less severe as she will be moving from a senior housing apartment to a slightly smaller assisted living apartment.\u00a0 But the new apartment will have no kitchen, so all those cooking items will be either donated or discarded. And she is resisting strongly, so the trauma is still there.<\/p>\n
Our downsizing seems to be pretty typical, too, though with a smaller portion going into the “keep” pile – we have a limit of 2,500 lbs that we can put into the RV, plus a few things that will go in the truck – golf clubs, dog food and gear, tools and perhaps a bicycle.\u00a0 We will store memorabilia and a few pieces of furniture in our house’s attic.\u00a0 Some items may be left in the house for use by the renter and may be still in our possession if and when we return.\u00a0 But a truly awesome pile of stuff will be donated (or sold) and a shocking amount will be discarded.<\/p>\n
We just had the first of what we expect will be two yard sales.\u00a0 It was a lot of work with little gain.\u00a0 Jett worked her butt off preparing and organizing it all and it ended up netting only about $500.\u00a0 That is probably less than minimum wage for Jett’s efforts.\u00a0 But the result didn’t disappoint me as I had low expectations for the monetary gain.\u00a0 I think the true value of a yard sale is the satisfaction of seeing some of your good stuff be valued (or undervalued) by some other person.\u00a0 There is little satisfaction in tossing something in the trash (except for items like that 1910 Fruit Gum Company LP that you bought before your brain was fully formed), but there is an inexplicable glow in having someone pay a quarter for it.<\/p>\n
Of course there are a few items that are unexpectedly rejected.\u00a0 A table with a built-in lamp that graced my office for years has sat on our sidewalk for three days now with a “free” sign on it.\u00a0 It is somewhat dismaying that an item that we liked enough to pay good money for is of no interest to others at any price.<\/p>\n
I was surprised by the number of yard sale items that I didn’t recognize.\u00a0 That set of fine lead crystal glasses, for example.\u00a0 Apparently Jett valued them so highly that they never appeared on our dining room table – too good to be used for Thanksgiving or Christmas dinners with family.\u00a0 Maybe if Reba McIntyre had come to visit she would have brought them out.\u00a0 I will never know.<\/p>\n
And all the clothes that I never saw her wear.\u00a0 Why do women keep clothes they don’t wear?\u00a0 I will never understand that.<\/p>\n
Jett’s relatives have taken a bunch of stuff.\u00a0 Some of the furniture is going to Jett’s sister’s summer cottage in NH.\u00a0 A truckload of other stuff has gone to her nieces.\u00a0 A huge truckload of stuff was taken yesterday by the Salvation Army.<\/p>\n
Why does the house still look full?<\/p>\n
I have to finish the cleanup of the basement tomorrow.\u00a0 This includes going through my very messy work area.\u00a0 I have to decide which of those expensive tools I want to store.\u00a0 And I have to organize that pile of hardware. Ugh.<\/p>\n
There is no question that downsizing is a LOT of work.\u00a0 It can be traumatizing and emotional.\u00a0 But it can also be liberating.\u00a0 I feel lighter now that so much stuff has gone.<\/p>\n
I guess I am feeling less of that gravitational pull.<\/p>\n
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Downsizing is a necessary step on the way to full-timing.\u00a0 We will be living in a home of just 400 square feet – one sixth the size of our current 2400 sf home.\u00a0 Making this major lifestyle change is not easy and involves some pain.\u00a0 And it requires time.\u00a0 We are well on our way … Continue reading