Wow, intparent. That is a lot of stuff. I am trying to convince Mr. that our house is too big for us!
Speaking of Weed Wrench… I had to look it up. Oh my, what a character:
@BunsenBurner, that post was dated 2013… just imagine what Weed Wrench dude thinks of politics today!
A little over a year ago we moved/downsized to a partially furnished 3 bedroom apartment. We got rid of a ton of stuff, but we still have too much. Our time here is temporary, and we don’t know where we’ll move next, so we are paying for stuff to be in storage. We only had 3 weeks from when my H was offered the job (which came with the 3 bedroom apartment) until we moved half way across the country, so we ran out of time to get rid of stuff.
I like living here. We have beautiful grounds that somebody else maintains.
I down sized from 5000 sq home to a two bedroom apartment. My apartment is very quiet. D2 could play piano in our apartment and no one would complain (or hear her). I had to throw away and sell a lot of stuff. I couldn’t believe the stuff I kept over the years. It was painful, but I just feel so much lighter now. I bought new beddings, home decors that were more reflective of who I am now, not 30 years ago.
Living in an apartment, I no longer worry when there is a storm. When I go away I don’t worry about someone may break into my apartment. I can get almost anything delivered to my apartment - food, medication, dry cleaning…I can walk to almost any where I want to go.
@intparent I feel like I could have written almost the same post as you! Two years ago, I moved from our family home, just a little smaller than yours and with a two car garage and huge unfinished walk out basement (that was chockfull), large deck, porch, and on 5 1/2 acres of land to a two bedroom city apartment and like you, also am renting a 10 by 10 storage unit! Getting rid of the accumulated stuff of four people, over a 36 year time period was a tremendous undertaking. Unlike you, I did not start getting rid of stuff 2 years before I moved. In fact, the house sold quicker than I thought it would. I had three months to accomplish this. I sold stuff via craigslist and on a community online forum. I gave away tons of stuff as well. I had to hire some people to haul things away as donations and to the dump. I did all this on my own. Older D flew 3000 miles home for one weekend to go through her stuff. My adult children’s bedrooms still looked like they did in high school and as if they still lived there. They hadn’t lived there, even for a summer, since graduating high school and I made the mistake to not have them go through things after high school. While so much stuff was sold or hauled away or given away, I did still have stuff to have to get a 10 by 10 storage unit. I kept some furniture for my new apartment as I could not start from scratch decorating it. But I also got some new pieces. I like my place and it is 1000 square feet. I have a small balcony.
There are plusses and minuses of both types of living situations. This is simpler and all I need truly. Everything is nice and nothing needs work. The city rents are expensive and there is no equity in it. I don’t miss any “stuff.” I really loved our house and I miss it sometimes (we had it designed and we had a fantastic view of the mountains and ski trails). I miss having a larger deck and being able to barbecue and also miss having flower gardens. But I have lots of flowers on my balcony and for Mother’s Day, D1 and fiancé got me a little bistro table and chairs to eat out there (I had two patio chairs on it before this but not enough room for a table). I miss having a garage and also unloading groceries directly into the house. But it also was fun to decorate and set up a new place. Besides downsizing, it is a HUGE change to go from rural living on a dirt road in a ski resort town in the mountains to living in a big city.
In their 80’s, my parents moved from their 4500 square foot home of 47 years. When I tell you they never through anything away, I am not kidding. We spent months going through their belongings and convincing my mother the gourmet cook, that there was no need for 5 spring form pans, or 10 chafing dishes, or more 9x13 pyrex dishes that I could count in her 1400 sq foot apartment. My aunt and I had to take some of the cookware as we were told we would need all of this for the holidays!
My biggest worry was that my mother would hate her new kitchen with a drop in stove and only one oven; she had a 5 burner cooktop, indoor gas grill and oversized double ovens. Guess what, she has been happy as a clam, other than I have to keep bringing over some of her cookware as she doesn’t have room to store it.
My dad was the one that when through his home office one piece of paper at a time to see what needed shredding, trashing or keeping. I have two file cabinets here in my basement of his stuff as well as a few boxes; he was still going through his desk as the movers were loading the truck 
It was a lot of work getting them to part with things to go to the estate sale or give away; my mother really had trouble not taking things. How many flower vases do you really need in an apartment, or decorative items to sit on tables and shelves.
When my husband and I downsize, we plan to start well in advance and get rid of most everything except personal items; everything else is just stuff cluttering the house, but we are too lazy to start now. My kids said we better get to it, as they refuse to go through what we did with my parents!!
I already started downsizing 2 years ago. Soon I need to get more serious , not planning on moving though. I would think 3 bedrooms is a good size.
We have yo-yo’ed in home size many times.
Our most extreme change was when we (family of 4, plus big dog) went from a 4000+ sqft house in the US to a 1400 sqft house in Europe. It wasn’t living in the smaller space that was difficult. It was having too much stuff.
Before the move, we put a lot of stuff in storage in the US. After 5 years, my company changed its policy and wouldn’t pay for storage, and by then we didn’t miss (or even remember) what was in there. So we donated and disposed of it all. Don’t miss any of it for a second.
You’d be surprised how much less stuff you can live with.
Now we’re in a different country in a ~4000 sqft apartment and micro-dog. We came here in a fully crammed 40 ft container and, unfortunately, have been “regressing” and accumulating stuff again. When S2 leaves the nest for college, I expect our next big move will be to a smaller home and we’ll shed stuff again.
For the next move, I vote for another apt/condo arrangement. And we’ll stick w a down-sized dog. No worries about home/yard maintainance and no worries about home security when we are away. And take the micro-dog with us when we travel.
I am secretly downsizing… Shhhh… The garbage can is always full, every week there is a box or two to be dropped at the Goodwill site, and most of the papers I kept form my early biotech days have been recycled.
I am also doing container gardens. As long as my apartment/condo has space for kiddos to visit and is sound proof, it would be easy to transition, IMO. I like my garden and the birdies with their cheerful chirping, but I will not miss the weeds, the voracious bunnies, and the moss and slime that cover the back deck every winter!
I am trying to prep for downsizing now – but that has been what I have been saying for years! We have been in our suburban house for over three decades. When we moved in the previous owners had left stuff in the basement and the garage, and we did not insist on it being removed – thought perhaps we could use some of it. BIG mistake!
Now D has been married for almost three years and S is getting married in less than a month. My goal is to go through things bit by bit and “make believe” we are preparing to move to a condo. Because of other life factors we are not really ready to make a decision on a move now though.
A few weeks ago we had a community shredding/recycling, etc. event. It was great – I got rid of decades of tax returns and old health insurance claim records, and felt like my house had lost a significant amount of weight. But it was a mere dent in what needs to be done.
We told the “kids” each to take whatever they wanted on moving out, and what was left we would be free to get rid of. But it is hard to actually do, and is going very, very, slowly – imperceptible progress at this point.
@soozievt, I give you a LOT of credit for what you accomplished so speedily! Give yourself a big pat on the back! Your current situation sounds very appealing to me.
I grew up in an apartment in Manhattan, now live in the suburbs of Philly on an acre of land and no sidewalks, and miss being able to walk to all. Think I would really enjoy being in a condo with access to grocery shopping, library, etc. on foot.
I am ready to downsize but hubby is not and for now the house is convenient to work. I still have arts and crafts projects and boxes of school papers that will be hard to discard though. Also stuff my mother gave me when she downsized. How do you deal with the sentimental factor?
How did you know it was finally time to make the move?
This is similar to knowing when it is time to get married. There is a pregnancy. 
When we downsized, my son visited us. I asked my son what he wanted to keep. There were several boxes of his stuff in his old bedroom.
He said, “I don’t want anything”.
“What about this? What about that?”
“I don’t want anything”.
Then he left his old bedroom.
I started thinking. He doesn’t want anything. Why do I want his stuff?
So, I got rid of almost everything. We have some kids’ stuff in one box…in the garage…which we don’t look at.
We wanted to downsize. We are happy. We have friends who never want to downsize. They are happy.
But their kids won’t be happy when it doesn’t happen until the parents are quite elderly and can’t help/decide easily. Or they can be like my dad, and just leave most of it for after he passes away eventually. 
I knew I was ready to downsize when youngest had been in college for a couple of years (didn’t want to sell the house freshman year, that seemed like too big of a change the same year as starting college for her) and when I got really, really tired of the upkeep and hassles of home ownership. Plus, the housing market had started to bounce back, so the timing was pretty good. Even if I hadn’t moved to a new city, I probably would have purchased a condo in my old city if I’d wanted to stay there. I was ready for something smaller.
I will say that 3 bedrooms can be hard to find, and really expensive in major cities.
We’re planning on downsizing. Now that I’m retired, I’ve been spending a lot of my time, working on the house so that we can unload it and move into something smaller. We’re thinking about another house, but now I’m wondering about a condo or perhaps renting an apartment. My wife is also wondering about an apartment. What are the advantages of an apartment?
In some ways we have the best of both world, as our house is 1900 square feet so already fairly downsized. I would enjoy living in 900 sq feet w/DH and smallish dog, but when the kids and their significant others visit, it is worth it to have enough room for all to sleep. The other issue is that this has been family home for 18 years and we have a lot of sweat equity and soul in it; I still miss my childhood home, and I don’t want to deprive my grown children of the opportunity to come home again.
Biggest advantage to an apartment…if you decide you want to move again…you don’t have to sell it.
I have to ask since you had that other thread about your husband was thinking of leaving you. Are you still together and you both are moving to the new apartment?
In an apartment, maintenance belongs to someone else. My AC unit started leaking a few days ago. I put in an emergency work order, and the maintenance guy got it to stop, dealt with getting the repair person, and I did not have to pay.
I’m there with @intparent. For over a year I’ve been in the process of downsizing from a large 4 bed/4 1/2 bath, 3 car garage with finished basement house to a small 3/2 that we are remodeling. Between wading through all the stuff in this house and trying to get it market ready, and making decisions/selections for the “new” house (plus crazy hours at work), I’m completely overwhelmed. I’m also sentimental and find it difficult to part with the kids’ things. I’ve been avoiding it all lately by spending too much time on CC! Fortunately, I have lots of company visiting this summer which usually motivates me to do house things.
I finally got D to go through her room, but now there’s stuff spread out everywhere.
I’m ambivalent about the move which is likely contributing to my procrastination. I’m looking forward to less space to maintain, fewer possessions and less expense, but I’m going to miss my neighborhood and being on the water. And I’m not gaining apartment freedoms. The house we’re moving into has a large yard that requires constant maintenance.
I can see that if the maintenance guy doesn’t come around that would be a problem. Many landlords etc are negligent in taking care of tenant issues.