Flying the Empty Nest

Strategies for Downsizing

You've accomplished one dream. Time to move on to the next. Your children are off to college, married, or living on their own. You've decided to replace your home with a smaller abode. Perhaps you just don't want to spend energy maintaining a large home anymore. You want to focus on other priorities, or maybe build that sweet cottage on the seashore you've always dreamed of. Whatever your reasons for simplifying, consider these strategies:

Decide where you're going

Start by thinking and mapping out what you want to do next.

• Recall daydreams of the type of home and lifestyle you always wanted to have when the kids were grown. Was it an artist's studio or a carpentry workshop?
• If schools have always dictated where you lived, now you have one less constraint. Think about other criteria important to you, such as rural living or proximity to recreational pursuits.
• Consider laying the groundwork for a future retirement lifestyle. Maybe your new home will also be the one you retire in.
• With fewer living expenses, you might have more expendable income and find that you can increase the luxury or convenience of your lifestyle. Adopt the motto: "Less, but better."
• See how much space you actually need. Look at your current home, and subtract the square footage of rooms you won't need anymore. Add in the measurements of the new spaces you might want, such as a creative workspace or a solarium.

Sorting Through Your Stuff

If you're like many families, your current home is crammed from basement to attic with a generation's worth of accumulation. Where do you begin?

• Start with your kids' stuff. Next time they're home, have them sort their things into four piles: what they'll take right now, what they need you to hold for them, what they want to give away, and what can be tossed. Give them a deadline and consequence for not meeting it, or it may never get done!
• Go through the rest. Some possessions might be family-sized. Perhaps you all went camping together, but now you foresee tropical resort vacations for two. Other things might be house-oriented. If you're moving to a townhouse, you can sell the riding mower and weed whacker.
• How can you keep memorabilia and other emotion-laden items in the family while getting them off your hands? Give the kindergarten drawings, clay ashtrays, and swimming trophies to the kids. Your children will appreciate having holiday decorations from childhood as they start creating their own holiday traditions.
• Be sure to keep your best stuff. Maybe you've always lived with two or three sets of dishes: plastic, stoneware, and china. Consider giving the plastic, and maybe even the stoneware, to your child setting up his or her own household. Make the china your everyday dishes. You deserve it!

When in doubt, throw it out

No one said this would be easy. Many possessions are heavy with sentimental baggage. Or maybe you're just plagued by the "maybe we'll need it someday" syndrome. Keep these suggestions in mind while sorting through your stuff:

• If you haven't used something in a couple of years, it's probably a good candidate for the out pile. Imagine packing, moving, and unpacking the item... will it be worth the effort?
• Consider the space of your new home. Where will you put the stuff you're keeping?
• If you can't bear to lose the sweet memory associated with an item, take a picture of it, and then separate.
• Put any items you just can't decide on into a separate box. Revisit the box after you've thrown out some things. The decisions will get easier. The more you toss, the stronger your "tossing muscles" become.
• If it's still too difficult, put questionable items into a sealed and dated box. But don't list the contents. If you don't open the box in one year, give the box to charity without opening it.

Enjoy the flight to your new home

You've decided what you want to do, where you want to go, and cleared out the old stuff you won't need in your new nest. Now create your newly independent life and make it all happen. Work with real estate agents and research the Web to find the home, location, and lifestyle you've planned.

After you buy your new home, whether it's a luxury condo in the city, a horse farm in the country, or a chalet on a lake, sit back and congratulate yourself on a job well done. Not only have you raised your children and sent them well on their way, but you have successfully downsized your life to allow time and energy for new pursuits!

source: http://houseandhome.msn.com/Move/FlyingtheEmptyNest0.aspx

Back to Sellers Page